Thursday, May 26, 2011

Finally some sunshine

Well hopefully our bad weather is over and spring is finally arriving in Utah.  Beautiful sun and warmer temps make it very pleasant.

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We have been to see some of the fantastic scenery everyday. red canyon bryson canyon 008This is the views in Capitol Reef National Park.

red canyon bryson canyon 042Jerry wanted to buy this beautiful new motorhome, but it was way overpriced!mokqi caveCoral Pink Sand Dunes state park.

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More Bryce Canyon.

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This old gas pump says it all!  Think we will rest a few days.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Winter scenes in the middle of May

We have spent all winter avoiding this kind of weather, but there is something to be said about visiting it at 10,000 ft. and coming back down to 6500 ft. and warm weather. We were going to Cedars Break National Monument, but the road was closed because of several feet of snow still there. This was approximately 40 miles from out campground.

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This was the road to Cedar Break (don’t know the lady she was just in the way) it may be June before it opens.Brian Head Ski area 007


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The most amazing sight was this huge mountain of lava flow from an eruption from a volcano hundreds of years ago. The flow was probably 2-3 miles long.


Brian Head Ski area 013Mama Elk and her 2 kids. A good day.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Bryce Canyon National Park


 
Map picture

We arrived near Bryce Canyon on Wed. May 11 for a week.  We are about 30 miles from the entrance and there certainly a lot to see.  The rock formations are really strange looking and it is amazing what water can do.

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The rocks are called Hoodoos and are usually tall and skinny.

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This is called the Queen’s Garden.  It was a 2 mile hike to it.

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This was the next days hike Called Navajo Loop at Sunset point, also about 2 miles vertically for most of the hike and then through a slot canyon and yes that is people at the very bottom just before the shadow. Going down!

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Some of the sights along the way.

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Bryce Canyon, Utah 099Bryce Canyon, Utah 094Bryce Canyon, Utah 102We came down so we had to go back up, slowly, but we made it. So far this has been our favorite place.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

St George, Utah

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We are now in Utah and the scenery is so different from our winter hangouts.

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bodie and zion park 058Checkerboard Rock

bodie and zion park 069One of the windows inside the tunnel that is 1 mile long through solid rock. 

This is the first stop on our tour of the parks in Utah.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Visiting the Grandbabies

April 19-26

rally and beaumont 015Beep beep, Nana and Papa are here!  We left the motorhome in Las Vegas and flew to Houston for a week to see the grands.  They are as active as we remembered and we had fun trying to catch up on all the fun we had missed.

Of course, Papa pooped out pretty fast as you can see after an active day at the beach along with the kids.

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Cole 21 mos. is a waterbaby if he isn’t in the sprinkler he’s playing in the toliet ,never a dull moment here!!

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We got to play Easter bunny and we colored eggs and hid them.  The kids had a ball and it was so funny to watch them, unfortunately they won’t stay this size long so we will visit as much as possible.  Mom and Dad are always glad to see us and sad when we leave, we keep them out of their hair for a week!   It was a week of chaos, but we loved every minute.

Back to Las Vegas for more of Nana and Papa’s kind of fun…jackpot!!!!!

Back to Pahrump for Rally

April 13-18

We are going back to Pahrump, Nv to attend a rally for people who have motorhomes like ours an Alfa. There were about 120 motorhomes that attended the rally.  We meet lots of new people and learned lots of new things. We stayed at Nevada Treasures RV Resort which was a real nice place.

We did a 4 wheel trip with the group into Death Valley through Titus Canyon on about 23 miles of backroad country and stopping in the canyon for a picnic lunch. The scenery was awesome.

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Springtime in Cottonwood, Az

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Spring has arrived and we are in Cottonwood, Az where the flowers are starting to bloom and trees are budding, temps have been in the high 70’s until yesterday.

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The winds blew and the clouds moved in, temps dropped into the 30’s and the rain changed to snow in the mtns. surrounding us. So we drove up to Jerome an old ghost town and had dinner at the Haunted Hamburger and watched the snow fall. What fun, we drove back down the mountain and the snow was gone that’s the kind of snow I like.

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Coffeepot rock in Sedona

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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Strange housing

On another side trip to the town of Shoshone, Nv which is on the south boundary of Death Valley we came across a historic town by the name of Dublin.

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This little community was made up of different folks seeking a new life in Death Valley.  Some of them had been more well off than others but, they were all in the same boat by the time they had reached Death Valley.  The area had some springs for a water source and mud and rock washes and hills.  Seemed like a pretty good place to start a new town. So they made their homes in the sides of the mud hills and called that home.

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death Valley 027They even had a community outhouse a two-seater by the way.  Most of the cave homes had a fireplace and some had connecting rooms for the larger family.  One family had come here from England and had sold most of their belongings except for a sterling silver teapot, which they used every day to have tea time in front of their cave home.

death Valley 029Trash service wasn’t available so they just pitched everything into a pile in the front yard.  Some of the folks are buried across the road just up out of the wash a bit.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Death Valley, CA

We have moved to Pahrump, Nv for a week so, we took a day trip over to Death Valley. First we had to get out the old ‘35 and gas her up.


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I bet this old girl never ever thought she would see those prices, gulp! Now we are ready to go.


Death Valley is one of those truly awesome sights the first time you see it, it’s sort of other worldly.

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The white stuff is salt. This section is known as Badwater and is almost 300 ft below sea level. Most of the Valley is much the same except for the Furnace Creek area in the center of the park. It is like an oasis in the desert.

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This wonderful spot is the Furnace Creek Inn built back in the 1930’s and has been updated through the years into this oasis of a hotel. It was fun to walk the grounds of the old beautiful hotel, but pretty spendy to stay there so, we drove back to Pahrump