Turned the corner - 4 months in

The map above is hard to see probably, but it shows what we've done since about August 10th. We were in Montana, having spent about 3 weeks in that state, getting ready to head south and west. After visits to Salt Lake we spend 10 wonderful days on the National Parks in Utah, Bryce Canyon and Zion. The we headed to Nevada where we turned the corner with a visit to Death Valley in California. Since then, which was Labor Day weekend, we've spent time at Grand Canyon, Tucson and Denver. Now we are headed to Owasso, Oklahoma to see my new grandson Nolan and his parents, Michael and Nan!

Having turned the corner, we are headed back to Maine. We learned that we missed Maine and actually are looking forward to skiing all winter. So after we leave Oklahoma, we will visit friends in Mississippi, visit Jack Daniels in Tennessee, and spend a day visiting my former manufacturing plant in Wytheville Virginia, where I look forward to seeing many of my 400 former co-workers.

We expect to visit Wytheville on October 15th. Then I think we are both ready to book it for home. We want to get there before too much snow starts to fall and while we have time to get the house opened back up after 5 months away.

Kansas .... and no sign of Dorothy

We are in Kansas tonight, staying in the Gunsmoke RV Park in Dodge City. Everything here is themed for the days of the cowboys. But no signs yet for Dorothy.

Kansas is kind of flat, lots of grasslands and grain fields. All sort of feed lots for cattle, most containing thousands of head each. Across the fields all you see are the distant grain elevators, looking like highrise buildings on the horizon.

Actually the above picture is in Colorado on the way to Kansas!

Dodge City, definitely cowboy country.

Trish hanging with Doc Holiday

Visiting in Colorado

Haven't posted in a few days. We've been in the Denver area, camping at Chatfield State Park. Very nice campground! More importantly we've been visiting our good friends John and Carol. We even had a chance to visit with Johns daughter Ellie for a bit.

Fun hiking in Colorado

Today we took two hikes, the first with Jack was on a level abandoned railroad bed. It led to an interesting series of tunnels dug for the railroad a long time ago. Naturally Jack enjoyed a swim in the river and covered the 3 mile hike well. But he is paying the price tonight with soreness in his hips and knees. Poor guy is showing his age more and more these days.

After lunch Trish and I drove to a trailhead and climbed a local peak, reaching just over 9000 feet elevation at the top. The drive to the trailhead was over an interesting road. And the views from the hike were wonderful!

Buena Vista, Colorado

Todays campground view during a brief shower

The town of Buena Vista Colorado is quite interesting. Today we saw them setting up for their annual town dinner, where all the residents sit down together for a dinner, right in the middle of Main Street! Now that means somewhere over 4,000 people having dinner together!

Tables and chairs the length of the street!

 Tables up but not the chairs yet at the far end of Main Street

Would cares where we are today!

Today is the birthday of my first grandchild!  Nolan Taoran Keane was born today!

Congratulations to my son Michael and his beautiful wife Nan!

Alamosa Colorado

Tonight in Alamosa Colorado. It is a high plain environment, about 7500 feet altitude. Mountains all around, some with snow on the tops. Temperature has finally moderated to a point it is actually a bit chilly sitting in the shade. Below is the view from my chair outside the RV.

Earlier today we drove up through Wolf Creek Pass, hitting 10,800 feet at the peak. Beautiful views, with lots of the trees turning a bright yellow.

And tonight, as the sun set in the west, the mountains to our east were outstanding!

Beautiful and entertaining

Pagosa Springs Colorado

Beautiful

And entertaining!

Cliff Palace closer up

Closer up pics of the Cliff Palace

 Trish starting the climb back up and to the top of the Mesa

 OK, that's not Trish on the ladder, but was a very slow lady who probably should have stayed on top!

more Mesa Verde

Some views of various cliff houses in the park.

Mesa Verde National Park

Three views of the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. This is the largest and most well known of the cliff dwellings in the park. We did the guided tour and were able to climb down and check it out close up.

Colorado

After a week in Arizona, including the last 4 days of over 100 degrees, we are now in Colorado. Best of all, it's 73 degrees! Tomorrow we will visit Mess Verde National Park. Picture is from our campsite for the weekend.

Edit: at 10 PM it is 64 degrees, we will sleep well tonight!

Tuscon, the good, the bad and the ugly

Visiting Tuscon this week. Had a wonderful evening last night with cousins Andy and Debbie as well as Andy's daughter, Belle. In fact, Belle played us music on her harp, thereby defining "the good". She is very good!

So then the "bad". In a word, no picture, Freightliner. We dropped the tip of our exhaust pipe on route 17 headed into Phoenix earlier this week. The tip on our coach is a 5 inch diameter chrome pipe that is about 3 feet long. Last seen bouncing down the highway in my rear view mirror. Way too much traffic to stop and recover it. Anyway, bad is spending money on things that are not fun!

Ok, if that is bad, what could be ugly you ask?

That's ugly!

Phoenix

Actually we are in Apache Junction, which must be a suburb of Phoenix. We left Grand Canyon this morning and made the 275 mile drive to where we are now. Happy to get through Phoenix on a Sunday afternoon, because traffic was bad enough, I don't want to think about what Monday might have been like.

View from tonight's campground. Those cactus are huge!

Tomorrow we are off to Tuscon to spend a few days with cousins Andy and Debby, and Andy's daughter Belle.

Today's camping neighbors

Lots of elk, at least 15, a couple deer and one javelino (wild boar). Below are a couple of pictures of the elk, the rest is on my camera cahich is a pain to download for posting compared to my phone.

Grand Canyon morning!

We got up at 430 AM so we could view the GC sunrise. It was beautiful, but pictures from my phone just don't show it well. The we took a hike, about 2 miles down into the canyon and then back up. Somewhere around 1300 vertical feet down. It was a fun hike, back by 10 AM.

Grand Canyon!!

Happily camped on the south rim of the Grand Canyon! Took this pic only a 15 minute walk from the campsite. Tomorrow we plan to be up early and be on the trail down into the canyon to see the sunrise. Hopefully we can get up early enough to walk over and start down from the rim before the sun comes up, at 6:05!

Great times in Pahrump!

Turns out that Pahrump, Nevada is actually a pretty good town. As the last few posts have shown, there are interesting things to see and do there. But for Trish and I, the best part was spending time with newly discovered cousin Fran and her husband Vince.

Even though they told me not to come back if I didn't have Trish with me, I am ok with them. Just because they prefer my wife than me, it doesn't bother me a bit. Besides, I preferred Tess and Lass! (Their two sweet border Collies)

Ok, joking aside, we had a wonderfull time with them and look forward to getting together again. Very interesting people and easy to spend time with.

Top picture, Fran and Vince
Bottom picture Trish, Vince and Fran

Crowbar Saloon