The Mysterious South

Today we drove through the low mountains and mists of West Virginia, with tendrils of fog rising out of the hollers to join with the clouds even through the rain. The scenery was eerily beautiful, and even more evocative as we listened to Ishiguro's The Buried Giant on Audible. In Ishiguro's new novel, the mist carries forgetfulness, and it did seem as though time had stopped still in the landscape surrounding us. However, if anything, the scenery brought back memories rather than obscuring them. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago I spent time in remote West Virginia at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory during two summers, and that quiet and dark (literally) time came back full force. It's so beautiful here, but there's still that mysterious sense that the social landscape of Deliverance is hiding out there in the physical landscape that is so reminiscent. Because of the rain, I didn't get any photos of the drive or of the campsite at Fort Boonesboro State Park in Kentucky, but maybe this one of the camper in the dark is a good representation of my mindset, if nothing else.

 

Because we got here in the midst of a rainstorm, we decided to go out to dinner rather than try to cook out or do a reprise of each course needing to be cooked separately. We took a chance on Hall's Restaurant, which is right on the river. The food was OK, but the setting was very special and the service was outstanding.

I don't really understand how the photo makes it seem sunny, given that it was pouring rain just on the other side of the railing. But they are clearly set up for rain and we were able to eat outside in spite of the weather. Here, the husband is sitting about 25 feet above the water level, and the restaurant has photos inside of 2003 when the water was flooding the restaurant above this level. YIKES! We thought we had it bad in Eldred. There are marks on the wall inside the restaurant showing the height of all the various floods, and the highest (in the 70s) is just a couple of feet below the ceiling! However, since the restaurant was originally opened in 1783 as Holder's Tavern, there is history to uphold and the restaurant has been rebuilt again and again.

In spite of driving through nasty weather for the entire day today, we managed to have an interesting and enjoyable day. Traveling is always a surprise!

Rocky Gap State Park

Wow, this park rivals Maumee Bay State Park in Ohio for fanciest, although the sites here are a bit more rustic -- no paved pads and more woods. When we drove in, it was hard to imagine it was a campground! There is a golf course right at the entrance, and even a casino! We found an aviary inside the campground with rescue birds and several rangers. The bald eagles were beautiful, as were all the different owls. These are birds who were hit by cars and can no longer fly, all except for the horned owl which someone had shot. The birds were getting a health check while we were there, and the ranger talked about how they keep them eating a healthy amount and how having another of their kind to share their enclosure makes them healthier. This was all completely unexpected in a state park campground! There are biking and hiking trails, a swimming beach, kayaks and canoes. This is definitely somewhere to stay for more than a day. There are multiples campsite loops, and not all have electric. But our spot tonight does, and we are very comfortable.

The drive down to Maryland from New Jersey was one of the easiest we've had, although there was a strange spot where everyone just stopped for no apparent reason. There was no road construction and no accident...maybe an animal crossed the road too far ahead for us to see. The views were beautiful as we drove the last 50 miles or so along the top of Maryland.

Poor Chester got his claw caught in a tread on the steps to the trailer and cried out in pain. We will definitely be covering the treads with a towel on this trip and then finding a more permanent solution when we get home. Fortunately, there was no lasting damage. The campground puts all the dog sites in a couple of loops, so we have many, many dogs around us. That makes our crazy cockers even crazier, so they are mostly resting inside where they won't be bothered by outside sounds. Not all of the sites are occupied tonight, but we're pretty sure the place fills up completely on a summer weekend.

Oh, and a follow-up to the trailer tire issue. We were able to get the tire replaced and the new tire mounted at Jefferson Tire in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. They were extremely helpful, and we'd recommend them to anyone staying at Mahlon Dickerson. The husband also enjoyed revisiting his memories at Home Depot, since we don't have any in Steamboat. He got himself a flat jack, and will now be able to change a tire in nothing flat (no pun intended). When we went to our friends' house fro dinner, the husband and our friend welded some plugs onto the hitch that made it fit better in the receptor, so it was a good day for the trailer. The only bad thing is that the dinette seat back is pretty much broken. It's a very shoddy piece of work and will need to be completely rebuilt when we return home.

We discovered that Mahlon Dickerson was the Secretary of the Navy in the 1830s when we took a walk on the trails on our full day in NJ. There's a great nature trail at the park (although we didn't have the guide so didn't know what the numbers referred to) that hooks up to miles of hiking and biking trails there. Our friends met us there for a campground brunch and then a walk, and Chester made friends with Vincent.

All in all, our NJ stay was terrific and our trip to Maryland smooth. We're off to Kentucky tomorrow morning!

Remembering the East Coast

The last few days have taken us through and around East Coast locales, and we have to admit to having forgotten what the right coast is all about! A refrain kept playing through my mind..."Give me space, give me space...don't fence me in!" It's kind of amazing that after only four years of living in the West we can be so spoiled by the far reaching views. But spoiled we are!

Heading east from Ohio we traveled to Hills Creek State Park, in Pennsylvania. Making tight turns in the small towns surrounding it, we took a chunk out of a tire, which we have yet to get replaced. Fortunately, the folks who pulled into the spot we ended up in (more about that in a minute) were really helpful. They have been at this trailer camping a lot longer than us and had a flat jack to share with us. We replaced the tire and have been carrying it around in the back of the truck, waiting for  spot to get a new tire. No blow out -- but we don't want to be without a spare.

As we headed into the park, we crossed over a lovely small dam; here's the view of it from inside the park.

Speaking of inside the park, we headed to our reserved spot and HATED it! There was a girl scout group camping right next to us, so lots and lots of active kids, and our spot had virtually no separation from their site. Fortunately, this was not a weekend, so we were able to swap the site for a handcapped site that hadn't been chosen yet. We ended up with a fairly private spot, paved and flat, and we were right next door to the nicest folks who helped with the tire swap. This was one of those times where we thought we might have made friends if we had been staying longer. As it was, we just appreciated how much campers help one another. While we were setting up, some folks who have been coming to same park for 40 years came by on a walk with their adopted grandson. Jason, who was 3, had a lot of fun chasing Bailey around!

 The next morning, we were on our way for the last leg east, to Wells State Park in Sturbridge, MA. Oh my goodness...how can folks drive on these roads every day! The trip that was supposed to be around five hours took almost eight -- and every one of those miles was grueling! The roads were horrible, the drivers even worse, and accidents and road construction delayed us over and over again. I can say with some confidence that we will not travel this far east with the trailer again. A whole bunch of things came loose -- our awning, and even our indoor heater was jarred loose from its moorings. A gravel road in the West is so much smoother than these paved highways. We arrived at Wells State Park much later than expected, and exhausted. We knew we wouldn't have any hook-ups here, so it wasn't a surprise, but we did miss air conditioning as the humidity made sleeping difficult.

 Our site(#2)  was HUGE, and it had a great view of the pond. 

It would have been a great place to have a vacation, since it had the swimming beach and lots of trails. However, we were in Massachusetts for the family reunion, so we didn't do much but sleep (damply) there. Scott and DJ came out to see it as we were leaving, but otherwise it was just a stopping place. Since we arrived so much later than expected, we decided to go out to dinner rather than cooking. We ate at the Center Street Grill, and we'd highly recommend it. The food was amazing, as was the service. You have the choice of tapas style food or main dishes (or both), and everything we had justified the rather high cost.

After the reunion, during which it was fantastic to see family, we headed of on our first leg west. We traveled to Mahlon Dickerson Reservation in NJ, and we'll meet up with friends here tomorrow. The trip was less stressful than we expected, basing our expectations on traveling in Massachusetts two days ago. The site is really quite private, although we did see one of the campers baring his bottom to the entire campground as we drove in. We are at the end of the loop, right next to a hiking trail and relatively distant from other campers. This seems to be a kind of hidden gem. There is lots of mountain biking, and the husband is ready to head out on the trails first thing in the morning. We've got water and electric hookups again, so we can knock some of that humidity out of the air tonight and get a good night's sleep. Looking forward to it!

 

A Mini Family Reunion

Since my daughter and her husband were not going to be able to make it all the way east this year for the "big" family reunion (they just bought a new house and their priorities need to be elsewhere), we met up with them at Maumee State Park near Toledo, Ohio. It was so great to see them, since I don't get to see her very often.

It was a long drive from Iowa, and she was driving from DeKalb, so amazingly, we arrived at the rest stop at mile marker 55 in Ohio within 10 minutes of one another. We had driven through the storm yet again, and felt that we really deserved and needed a root beer float. They were getting gas. They are bringing a 67 Ford station wagon (my son in law collects old cars), and they actually stay in the car trailer that they have rigged with an air-conditioner. In Ohio, in late July, it is impossible to breath without air conditioning. Thankfully, our trailer has a well-functioning air conditioner.

I was uncertain what to expect from Maumee State Park. The map of the sites made it look huge, and I was nervous that it wouldn't be at all private. As it turns out, it IS huge, but each of the sites is well separated from the others by hedges and trees, and we felt as though we were in our own little oasis, albeit only two sites away from the daughter.

With all the humidity and the occasional rain shower, the bugs were pretty miserable, though. We were glad to have our screened tent! The Park itself includes a golf course, a lodge, rentable cabins, well over 100 paved campsites, a beach on Lake Erie, and a beach on a pond, miles and miles of hiking, nature, and biking trails...the list goes on and on. Everything is incredibly well maintained. This is a gem of a park!

We did a little biking, and we went out to lunch at the New York Deli, which was really great. Dinners consisted of a Caribbean spiced grilled pork with an apple salsa, and a Wasabi Miso Flank Steak, continuing our efforts to avoid standard camp food but still to use the grill to make some sort of picnic. The sunset on our second night was gorgeous from our campsite!

So let's see -- what did we need to fix on this leg of the trip? We finally needed to add fresh water, on the fifth night of the trip. Not too bad. And we had a problem with the canopy after all the bouncing around on the terrible highway roads -- the husband and son-in-law got that fixed. Also, a little work was needed on the dinette seat to get it back in place and support it.

The dogs had a great time, not least of all because of getting to spend time with their...what...sister, aunt...? Anyway, they seemed as thankful as we were for the air conditioning. Day after day of 90 degree whether and 100% humidity takes its toll on us Colorado folks used to dry (and cooler) weather!

Tomorrow we head out, and it will be hard to say goodbye. But we had a lovely time at this mini-reunion with Becks and Rob.

The Lake With a Deceiving Name

We had low expectations for tonight's campsite, given that it's name was Dam Complex. I mean, who names a place something prosaic like that and expects anyone to stay. If you were staying at a campsite named Dam Complex, would you expect this?

After a long (7 hours) very hard day of driving, we thought we'd be driving into, well, a complex! Instead, it is a great campground with many small semi-private areas of 4 or 5 campsites. After we arrived...

...we took a bike ride around the campground, and saw the many small areas that would be perfect for a family reunion (which is on our minds since we're headed toward one). The circle we are in has something more like 20 campsites; still, we have some nice privacy and are right on the lake. The name of the lake is Coralville Lake, which seems like a much better name for the campgrounds surrounding it than Dam Complex!

Having spent a long time cooking (me) and cleaning up (the husband) last night, we decided to go out for dinner. We'd never been to a Texas Roadhouse before, but it turned out to have great steaks and great sangria with tequila floaters. And we got to come back to the trailer with treats for the pups and no dishes to do. It was a nice break!

However, the drive to this spot outside of Iowa City, Iowa, was a nightmare. We actually had forgotten it can rain this hard. In Colorado, the weather that makes it impossible to see on the road is snow. Somehow that seems more fitting than just plain water falling from the sky. But for several hours, it was raining so hard we could only see a dozen feet in front of us, or so. The husband was driving, so I was very glad I was knitting. I was able to focus on the project and use up some of my nervous energy creating a garment! There was certainly no sleeping to be done! Not for the people, anyway. The dogs slept away and were terrifically well behaved. We would not have been happy to have had to take them out in that downpour.

Our campsites in the past have been mainly state parks, so this was the first federal campsite. As such, we were able to use the husband's senior pass for a half price reservation. So tonight was an incredible bargain! During this cross-country trip, we'll see both state and federal campgrounds, and even a county one in New Jersey, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

Johnson Lake State Recreation Area

Today we left Ogallala and headed to Johnson Lake. Although it was supposed to be a short drive, just over 3 hours, it took us much longer. Before we left Ogallala, we drove down to the flume created by the release valve of the dam. WOW! The dam produces 50 megawatts of power, and the flume is created by a valve that allows a release of water without sending the water through the turbines It is run all summer long just to provide a higher dissolve oxygen level for the fish. Pretty cool...and just pretty.

 

 

We didn't have to leave too early because the drive wasn't so far, so we set out for a drive around the lake. Lake Ogallala is the largest lake in Nebraska -- 22 miles long. We ended up deciding not to drive all the way around, since it was kind of an unattractive drive. The homes around the lake are mostly manufactured, which was quite different than Johnson Lake turned out to be.

 

On our trip to Johnson Lake , we decided to take a back road (route 30) rather than the faster but more boring route 80. We drove through some very cute little towns, and some really desolate ones, and then headed south from North Platte. Stopped at an ice cream place that reminded the husband of his high school job at a dairy bar -- backroads Nebraska retains some of that old-fashioned charm. It's not the most direct route, but we were hoping it was more fun. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else with a trailer, though. Route 83 south from North Platte was a roller coaster, and everything that could be tossed around in the trailer was.

 

Nonetheless, it was a pretty drive and we made it! We had a great spot at the Johnson Lake Recreation Area -- the inlet campground -- right on the water.

We sat outside and enjoyed the dusk, and even had a firework show from a town in the distance. Right after dark, however, a storm blew in and we were unable to cook on the grill. So I did everything inside, which took a lot longer to cook serial dishes rather than being able to cook some while the husband grilled. We ended up with a great grilled (oh...actually pan fried) tarragon cod with smashed golden potatoes and a tarragon tomato sauce.

The storm was very exciting, with lots of lightening and thunder, and heavy wave action, for a few hours. The dogs were not phased, however; they know how to be comfortable in the camper!



Ogallala State Recreaction Area

Today was the first day of travels on our first long trip. We're heading from the mountains of Colorado to western Massachusetts, and then back, over the course of two and half weeks. On this first day, we traveled for about six hours. Not too bad, considering some days we have planned for over eight. We started by heading up to Wyoming, and then took a sharp right on 80 to get us into Nebraska. The weather was gorgeous, and the views were amazing, even in Nebraska (about which I don't have great memories or expectations). As all first days of vacations, it was hard to believe we were actually on vacation as we both thought about (and talked about) work. Hopefully, we'll be able to lose this habit as we continue our travels.

Preparations for this trip started six months ago, when we were able to start reserving camping spots. We searched using reserveamerica.com, and then we used Google Earth to help us pick spots. Of course, we also were able to read reviews of the campgrounds online. Nothing could have prepared us for how beautiful it is at Lake Ogallala State Recreation Area, though. We have a great campsite on a sort of mini-peninsula, slightly separate from other campsites and surrounded on three sides by water.

We were delighted when we turned into the campground and found our spot (#8). It was a sunny beautiful day, but pretty hot (in the 90s). There's electricity at this campground, so we fired up the air conditioner, and found it worked very well. This was our first time testing it, and we got the camper cool in a matter of 10 minutes or so. Since there are electric hookups, we thankfully don't have to worry about nighttime quiet times and the generator.

Although we had reserved and paid for the spot ahead of time, we still needed to go back a ways and get a park pass ($5.35). We made it back to our site in time for a quick bike ride out to one of the dams to see the sunset. What a beautiful ride -- the lake to one side, cows and a beautiful pasture to the other. It's just a mile and half bike ride (or walk) but well worth taking. At dusk, though, the bugs were out in full force. We wouldn't have wanted to be walking...biking at full speed, we just needed to be sure to keep our mouths closed!

And speaking of bugs, we haven't heard the cicadas like this for years. They are just not active in the Colorado mountains. It brings back such memories of summer nights in the east. And fireflies -- there's another memory revisited tonight.

We were wondering what a sociologist/culinary expert might have to say about camp food. There is a family reunion being held in the campsite -- what are they eating. And what's on the grill at all those other campsites? At our campsite, we had Indian lamb kabobs with zucchini and red peppers (marinated in a yogurt curry sauce), a yogurt raita, and naan cooked on the grill. I actually really enjoy preparing food in the camper, where everything is at arms' reach. And there's something about taking my time and not feeling rushed that is just so delicious...as was the food.

Tomorrow's a short 3 hour drive, so we'll see what we come up with to do with all those other hours!

Cochiti Recreation Area

It was raining cats and dogs in Steamboat, and had been for what seemed like forever, so we took off on a trip south to the Santa Fe area. We had reservations at the Cochiti Recreation Area, but had planned to stop part way there since it's about a 9-10 hour drive. However, it rained most of the way, so we just kept going. We got to Cochiti close to midnight, so we didn't see much of the area. But we didn't have any trouble finding our camping spot, and the gate (thankfully) was not locked!

When we awoke in the morning, we found that we had a lovely view.

The spots are nicely laid out at the Juniper Loop of the campground, so there is some privacy. We had water and electric, making our three night stay there pretty luxurious. One night, a Native American family camped close by and came over with some freshly roasted corn to share. New Mexican hospitality!

On our first day, we visited the Coronado State Park, which is right along the Rio Grande. It's the site of (maybe) a takeover of a Pueblo village by Coronado. Our docent was knowledgeable, and the boys enjoyed going down into the kiva. Being afraid of heights and not liking enclosed spaces much, I stayed outside.

We followed that with a trip to Petroglyph National Monument, but were fairly disappointed. It is comprised of a set of separate trails, all of which are closed and locked at 5:00 p.m., even though there are several hours of daylight left. There is no driving access to the park, other than just to a very small ranger station. The trail we tried to take was littered with broken glass, making it less than desirable for walking on with the dogs.

We drove into Albuquerque to see Old Town, which is very similar to Santa Fe. We weren't in the shopping mood and had already planned dinner back at the trailer, so we went back to Cochiti for a lovely steak dinner the husband cooked on the grill. Since the small gas tanks that our camping stove is supposed to use are not refillable, we've got a hookup to a standard gas tank that we take along as backup for our trailer, so it all works out well without making us feel terrible about adding additional metal tanks to landfills!

A trip to Tent Rocks and some geocaching rounded out the weekend, with a less gourmet hot dog dinner the next night. On the way back, we detoured through Taos and stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge. The weather was attempting to spit some rain at us, and our exchange student wasn't keen on walking the 1/4 mile from the parking area to the bridge, so we just viewed it from the side and headed back to Steamboat.

Things we realized we didn't have but needed on this trip: (1) towel rack(s) in the bathroom; (2) tongs for grilling; and (3) RV toilet paper. We'll have all three by the next trip out!

Post-apocalyptic Wyoming

We took Seba up to Douglas, Wyoming for a weekend Rotary exchange student convocation, and we planned to stay in town at a city park that allows campers: https://www.wyomingtourism.org/things-to-do/detail/River-Side-Park/8542. It's free and when we stopped by, there was no one there. It's right on the river, so it seemed as though it wouldn't be a bad place to stay.

However, on the way up, we passed two state parks and we just had to check them out. Glendo State Park and Guernsey State Park are both between Laramie and Douglas. We high tailed it out of Douglas after dropping off the exchange student, and made it back to Glendo in time to find a spot before it became totally dark. Since it was before the May 15th start of the official season, and because there was a prediction of heavy rain, we had one of the many campgrounds completely to ourselves. And what a beautiful spot it was -- out on a peninsula with water on three sides and no neighbors. Who could ask for more!

There were no hookups at this site, although there are hookups at another campground in the park. So this was our first dry camping experience. The heater worked fine, the lights worked great off the battery, and all seemed wonderful. Until dinner. I discovered I didn't have the pans I needed, and the one frying pan I had was too big to allow another pan on the stove. And the microwave wouldn't work off the battery. Note to self -- change out pans! We still had a great dinner and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

In the morning, we discovered the real reason we need a generator. No coffee! It didn't occur to us that even if the lights worked off the battery, the plugs wouldn't. So plugging in the coffee pot did no good. Fortunately, there's a great little local restaurant in the town of Glendo (pop. 230), and the coffee was quite good.

We spent the day exploring Guernsey State Park, which has a beautiful building constructed by the CCC workers...

...and drop dead scenery!

This is where the post-apocalyptic part comes in. We spent an entire day in a beautiful state park, and we saw NO ONE! It was a very eerie feeling, and it truly made us wonder if something had happened out in the real world that we didn't know about. Our cell phones weren't working, so we couldn't even check. We felt as though we had two gigantic state parks entirely to ourselves.

We also visited Fort Laramie,

and saw the ruts formed by the carriages traveling the Oregon Trail.

It was a very special day, and when we got back to Glendo, we sat outside at the picnic table with wine, cheese, and an amazing view. We watched the wind pick up and blow across the lake, so we had warning before the driving rain began to fall.

This first dry camping experience made it clear that we needed a few things for the trailer. #1 -- a generator! After research when we returned home, we purchased a Yamaha EF2400iSHC Portable Generator.  It started up immediately (once we added gas and oil, of course), and when tested with the air conditioner and the microwave in the trailer, it performed beautifully. We are looking forward to being able to have the luxuries of coffee, comfort, and cooking when we boondock in the future!

Another thing that we very clearly needed was a better spice storage arrangement. I was surprised at how few wall mounted spice racks there are that would work in a trailer. I definitely don't want to take up cabinet space, and a box under the seat was incredibly inconvenient. I like to cook, and I use a lot of spices, so this is a necessity. We finally found something that would work in our small space. It's a wall mounted cabinet with chicken wire that holds the items in. We rigged up a loop to keep it closed during travel.

Since our appliances are black, it blends in quite nicely. Boxes of tea in front of the spices fit perfectly and will keep the spices from moving around while we are in transit. Now that I've got this and have also got the right pans moved out to the trailer, I'm looking forward to being able to cook a nice meal. I'd say this is a much better use of the space meant for a wall mounted TV. I mean, really, we're camping -- bring a book!

Colorado National Monument

We saw some beautiful sights in Moab, so we weren't sure how Colorado National Monument would stand up. It was glorious, though, and we saw very few people. We were deterred by the sign at the gate about the acceptable height for vehicles, but it turns out that as long as you are willing to go through the tunnels in the center, a trailer is no problem. The guard let us know it would be OK, and indeed it was. I was concerned about pulling the trailer up the steep grades and narrow roads, but it was no problem with the F150. I'm glad we made the side-trip.

Here's Seba causing much more of a heart attack than any of the roads did!

Canyonlands National Park

The first time we tried to go to Canyonlands, it was just before the heavy rain and there was fog (or was it the clouds) obscuring everything. We turned around and tried the next day. It was a glorious day with the air well cleaned after the rainstorms. Seba took a photo of the husband and me, which is a rare happening, right at the very end of the road (at the Green River Overlook).

What a beautiful park! Some of the pull outs even allowed the dogs, so we did some glamour shots of them.

The park was absolutely beautiful!

Our first night in the trailer

We started our trip in Moab in a house, and after three days moved into the trailer at the Moab KOA. This was our first experience in the trailer away from home, the first with another person (Seba, our exchange student, and the first in a commercial campground. The first night, we had an amazing sunset that just lit up the mountains in our view.

And then Mother Nature decided to get nasty! It rained harder that night than we had ever experienced, or maybe it only felt that way because we were enclosed in the trailer! But thankfully, we were enclosed in the trailer -- behind us there was a family in a tent. If we could have figured out how to get more people inside our 220 square feet, we would have invited them. As it was, with us in the queen and Seba in the bed made from the dinette, there wasn't any room except the bathroom!

The KOA was well taken care of, and there was a clean washroom. The picnic table probably needed replacing, but given the weather, we couldn't use it anyway. We played poker into the night, and then hit the sack. It was a good thing we'd gotten the steaks cooked on the grill before the downpour. In the morning, we discovered why no one else had their canopy out. Ours had filled with rain and it's just lucky it didn't tear. We won't be leaving it up in the rain any more!

Arches National Park

Today was all about Arches. After thinking that the boys might go biking in the morning, they had a later than expected start, so we headed up to Arches National Park and spent the whole afternoon there. It was quite chilly -- only about 45 and really windy -- so the park was not too crowded. We made it to every stop on the paved road, and got out multiple times for quarter- to half-mile walks.

Seba and the husband enjoyed Skyline Arch the most, because they could climb the rocks in front of the arch. Since I'm afraid of heights, I took photos from down below. It was the first up close and personal arch we saw, though.

The other arch we were able to get close to was Pine Tree Arch. Here, we were pretty much right under it. We talked about how being under it when it decided to give way would be a very historical way to go. It's at the very end of the drivable roads in Arches. Seeing it and Tunnel Arch made for about a mile round trip walk -- not much work for so much amazing landscape!

 

We're in the house we bought at an auction for one more night, and then we'll be moving into the KOA in our trailer. There are so many commercial RV campgrounds in town. It will be interesting to see what the KOA is like. I have no idea how we would pick a commercial campground if it didn't have the KOA name, and I'm not even sure we WOULD pick a commercial campground again after having seen how beautiful the BLM sites are. We shall see.

On the way to Moab

We had a great trip down to Moab today, even if it meant battling high cross winds much of the day. Thank heavens for the husband who drove through all of it. At one point, we got out to take photos, and the wind actually blew me down the hill. Yes...it did! I couldn't even get the door open trying to get back into the car, since I couldn't get to the top of the hill to take the photo I wanted!

We geocached along the way, and we enjoyed sharing our hobby with Seba, our exchange student from Argentina. There's a photo here of him with his first cache. Another photo of him shows a building from a ghost town, Cisco, where we also found a geocache. And the third photo is the husband and the rig as we pulled out of Steamboat.

If you are heading to Moab from the east, we highly recommend that you take 128 rather than the more traditional and direct 191. Every single foot of the 45 mile drive is absolutely breathtaking! There is nothing commercial along the way and, at least today, very few cars! It was an amazing drive (if incredibly windy). There are many recreational areas along the way with trailer camping obviously allowed. No hookups, and we don't know if there are reservations required (or accepted). But when we come down this way again, we will check them out. http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/ut/moab_fo/campgrounds/recreation.Par.91896.File.dat/CampgroundListFeb2013.pdf
Hittle Bottom is in an absolutely beautiful 360 degree views area. We'll look into that in the future. And Granstaff is at the end of a great bike trail out of Moab, but while it seemed we saw trailers there, the literature says "no trailers."

I can already tell, we're going to love it here!

Un-Winterizing

It seems we've been getting ready, at least in our minds, for months. Over the last few days, we've (and I mean mostly the husband) have been un-winterizing the trailer and fixing and attaching useful items. My main job has been to decorate and stock it, and I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things. Fortunately, this first trip out will be well-supported. We're headed to Moab in two days, and we'll be staying at a KOA. We don't think KOA will be our style, but we figure it will be good to be close to folks who know something about trailers before we are off in the woods by ourselves!

At first, we thought we'd have to be incredibly careful about weight since we were pulling the trailer with a Ford Explorer. However, in March the husband decided that the Explorer as a tow vehicle was making him too nervous, so he traded it in on a new Ford F150 pickup with a tow package. Now we have weight to spare. It means we'll be able to take several bikes, kayaks, and lots of other toys along.

Husband has quote to add:  "So far, it's just been a lot of f***ing work!" That's after he was fixing a leak in the shower and had the hot water valve explode out toward him. Water shut down, trip to Ace, and back in business. Second quote, "Have I ever told you how much I hate plumbing?" We're very close to the end of prep work, though, so the fun quotient should be increasing rapidly.