For Better or Worse......We Do!!

After seven years together we finally did it! Joan and I were married June 24th at Free the Monkey in Colorado. Our families are as excited as we are......their only question has been "what took so long".

The last seven years have brought a lot of change into our lives. We look forward to many happy  years together.

Christmas 2007

New Smyrna Beach

Softball Game Winter Haven

Atlanta Braves Game

June 2007

Gaylord Palms Ice Display

Vermont 2008

Utah 2007

May 2006

North Carolina 2006

End of a ride 2011 Gotha

Thanksgiving Mt Dora

Halloween Party

And just so you know it's all Bob's fault!

Stay Tuned. More to Come

Now You See It.....Now You Don't

Yeah, yeah, I know it's been 3 weeks since we last posted. It's not that we don't care....just that we don't want to bore you with repetitive posts that all look and sound the same. Joan reminds me every so often that I haven't posted but I keep reminding her that I'll post as long as it's fun and interesting for our readers....not if it becomes a chore.

Judy in the Sky with Diamonds!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago while we were strolling in downtown Salida Joan and I met Judy. Judy is an independent woman who owns her own business, rides a 2003 Anniversary Harley Davidson and drives a BMW Z3 convertible.

Judy and Joan on Top of Independence Pass

We hit it off immediately and a couple of days later we joined Judy for a ride over Independence Pass into Aspen.






We stopped in Aspen at a place called Woody's Canyon Grill for lunch before returning home. The ride was great as was the company.







A few days later we took the jeep off-road again. The views and vistas we experience while driving through the valleys and across the mountain passes is something that always impresses Joan and I.


I'm in the 3rd week of softball season and starting to get back into shape. I'm playing on 2 teams, one in Salida(6-0) and one in Buena Vista (2-0). I'm the oldest on the BV team by 11 years; and the oldest on the Salida team by 30 years. I keep telling them not to put the fast runners behind me but they just don't listen. I really hate it when those young whipper-snappers keep bumping into me between the bases.

Joan and I have been trying to think of ways to keep our readers interested in the blog so we decided to give our readers a puzzle to figure out. I'm sure most of you have seen the magazines with 2 nearly identical pictures where the readers try to find the differences...well that's what we decided to try. Below are 2 pics with several small differences. Check them out and see if you can pick out the discrepancies.

You can 'Comment' on the blog; email us; or call us directly with your guesses. We'll blog the correct answers later this week.

June 24th....a day to remember.....Happy 81st Birthday to Joan's Dad Tommy.

Stay Tuned. More to Come.

What's Happening!

The last 3 weeks have been fun. We've "Officially" started work and begun to understand the nuances of Chalk Creek. Joan works in the office and general store while I work outside in the campground. Our bosses Lars and Tamara have owned Chalk Creek for 2 years and have been steadily making improvements throughout. As the season ended last year they began remodeling the small office attached to a garage-turned-store and turned it into a single larger room. They replaced the garage doors with glass sliding doors; added upgraded shelving and new paint; built a new 2-station front desk; and begun looking for ways to become more self-sufficient. They have purchased their own ice machine and started bagging their own ice for sale. And they are collecting and aging wood that they will use as firewood for sale next season. The campground has 22 tent sites, 70+ RV sites and 5-6 overflow sites.

Lower Campground - Moon Rising Over Browns Canyon

Last weekend was Memorial Day holiday and the CG was booked full. We already had 10-12 campers prior to the weekend, 8 check-ins scheduled Thursday and 63 check-ins Friday. The 63 equates to 1 check-in every 6 minutes for 5 hours. Needless to say Friday was very busy. We met 2 young men from Europe who were bicycling from New York to San Francisco; and a couple from Australia who had borrowed their parents RV to travel while they were visiting the US; trainers and students from a white water rafting school in New Mexico (where the water levels are so low they had to travel here to find adequate white water); kayakers, bikers, hikers, ATV and 4-wheel off roaders, dirt bikers and 32 family members camping in the group site. Even a couple traveling on motorcycles with their young son riding in a side car. We joined in the Pot Luck dinner Thursday; played Candy Bar Bingo Saturday and helped with the Ducky Races on Sunday. Lots of fun. We've had campers sleeping in their car, 2-person tents and large group tents with separate cooking/eating rooms, small pop-up trailers, pull behind travel trailers from 12' - 30', 5th wheels up to 35', a 43' tag axle MH, even a jeep with a roof mounted tent.

On our days off we've taken a couple of off road trails and continued to explore the area. 2 of the roads through high mountain passes opened; Cottonwood and Independence Pass.

Looking west from Continental Divide

Cottonwood Pass - 12,126'

We drove up to Cottonwood Pass last week. The continental divide is at the top at 12,126' and the view is spectacular.








The temps changed from 75 in town to 46 at the top. And the snow had to be plowed to get the pass open.





We had the opportunity to visit the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and watch the Wounded Warrior Olympics. My sister's son-in-law Frank was competing in several events. We watched Archery where he was participating in Compound Bow. On the final flight with 3 arrows left Frank was 1 point behind. He shot a 29 (of a possible 30) to tie and force a 1 arrow shoot off for the Gold Medal. Closest to center X would win. Frank shot a dead center X and took Gold! Something really special about Frank.....he shoots with a older hunting bow while his competition shoots with competition built compound bows costing $5K and up. He also won Bronze in Pistol. Yeah! Go Army!

I've been able to join 2 different softball teams and the season starts next week. Yahoo! Wish me luck....I don't think I've run since the season ended last August in Oregon :-[

Stay Tuned. More to Come.

Out With the Old....In With the New

First 2 Pics Much More Interesting Than Our PC

We're back! We got our PC back from Dell Monday and I've spent the last few days transferring our pics/files back onto the hard drive; re-installing Windows Office, Adobe, AVG; insuring the 132 Windows updates have all been completed as well as getting the laptop setup the way we had it before the hard drive and OS corrupted.

Last week we drove into Colorado Springs to visit with our friends Jean and Larry. Once there we took a tour of the Garden of the Gods CG where they're working this summer. It's just a couple of blocks from Garden of the Gods Park. Then we all went into Manitoba Springs for lunch before driving through Garden of Gods.

On the way home Joan started to feel bad with a headache and upset stomach. Once home she didn't feel any better and we eventually decided that she was suffering from a delayed case of altitude sickness. We're both trying to ensure we're taking care of ourselves and after testing my blood pressure I noticed it was fairly high. Communicating with my doctor back in Florida he was concerned that the altitude could be impacting my BP and suggested I see a local physician. Which I did. Come to find out the BP medication I was taking is not as effective at high altitude. The doctor prescribed a different medication while I'm here. Joan and I are both feeling better and expecting a great summer.

Last Saturday we went on a hike with Sandi and Joe,  fellow workampers and geocaching enthusiasts.







There was a new cache on the trail that had just been placed and had not yet been found. We followed Sandi's GPS and stopped near the coordinates of the cache. We all started searching and within a few minutes Joan was FTF.....First to Find the new cache, a small prescription bottle hidden under a tree within a pile of rocks. We marked the register as FTF, returned it to the bottle and restored the cache to its hiding place.




We continued on and eventually found another 4 caches; 2 were small camouflaged tube containers hanging in trees......

...... and 2 were 'ammo' boxes hidden in rocks and under old tree limbs. The ammo boxes contained numerous items such as whistles, small toys, tokens and play money.











Sunday we took a drive to Canon City (pronounced Canyon).The drive follows the Arkansas river for over 50 miles and is quite scenic. It passes Royal Gorge and one of the highest suspension bridges in the US. Just before we got to Canon City we saw a sign for Skyline Drive. Our friends Jim and Debbie rode Skyline Drive 4 years ago when we were in Colorado on our motorcycle vacation. Skyline is a 3-mile single lane one-way road that was built along the crest of a very narrow mountain ridge. A little research discovered that the road was built by prisoners from one of the several prisons located near Canon City. At the top the road is bordered by severe drop offs on both sides and you are provided a great view of Canon City. Also near the top is a pull-off where you can see dinosaur tracks left in the stone.


When Joan and I first went full-time in the MH we knew we wanted better chairs than what we had. We started off with a small flexsteel recliner that came with the MH when we bought it and a couple of IKEA Poang chairs. We decided now was the time to upgrade so we visited a local store and found 2 matching Lazy Boy reclining chairs. We negotiated price a little and made the deal including a small room rug to help coordinate colors in the MH. What do you think?

Yesterday while catching up on our reading we found out that Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams were staying about 20 minutes away in Salida on their way to Colorado Springs. After following their blog for a couple of years we got the idea to go full-time. We emailed them and set up a lunch date. We met at a brewery called Amica's and got to spend about an hour and a half sharing stories and catching up with them.

We've been in Nathrop just under a month and it's snowed 6 times. Nothing serious, just a blanketing snow on the cars and the ground until the sun shines for a couple of hours and it's all gone.




The valley we're in, Brown's Canyon is about 35 miles long and is bounded by over 2 dozen 11,000' and 8 14,000' peaks of the Sawatch Range in the Rocky Mountains.







Several of the mountains in the valley are known as the Collegiate Peaks; Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Oxford just to name a few. All of these are still covered with snow and make a very scenic backdrop to see every day.



That's it for now.

Stay Tuned. More to Come.

I Really Hate When That Happens

Our first two weeks here in Nathrop and Chalk Creek CG have been really cool. Joan and I have had a good time so far. Unfortunately you won't see any photos for a couple of weeks from now. For about a month we've been noticing that our PC was very slow to respond when we attempted to access our photos. After running some diagnostics and calling Dell tech support it was determined that we have a problem with the hard drive. I've backed up all our data, including our pics and the PC is being sent back to Dell for repairs. We should have the PC back in 7-10 days. Aaahhhhh....don't you just love technology.

Back to Nathrop.......we've had snow 3 mornings since we've been here, including one morning when the overnight temps got down to 5 (yes, single digit) degrees. Even with snow in the mornings, almost all of it is gone by the end of the day. It's been sunny and comfortable during the day with high temps anywhere from the low 50's to 70. Last week we were enjoying the view with snow on the car and surrounding mountains; had the heaters going inside the RV all snug and warm when we started to hear water dripping. We quickly noticed water starting to leak out from under the refrigerator. We turned off the water to the RV and started to investigate. What we found was not as bad as we thought.....the ice maker water filter (located behind the fridge in the outside access panel) had frozen and split. No problem until later in the day when the ice began to thaw. When that happened the water began to squirt out and run down the rear of the fridge. We were able to replace the filter and dry out the gallon or so of water that had leaked inside.

We've started to explore the area in the jeep and taken a couple of roads up into the mountains until we reach the snow line. Those roads lead to the high passes and we'll have to wait until late June or July before we can explore those fully (including a couple of ghost towns....yippeeee!). And we've seen herds of elk and deer. Joan has her bird feeders out and she's already started to see hummingbirds. And Iv'e been cleaning up some odds and ends maintenance items....replace toilet bowl seals and the drip guard on the shower door....new water filters outside and inside. Still on the list is installation of a Trik-L-Charge for the chassis batteries and trouble shooting the rear view camera. Wish me luck.

Last week we drove into Denver (about 2 1/2 hours away) to see the Rockies - Braves baseball game. We had great seats with 50 degree temps and plenty of sunshine. The Braves took a lead into the 9th but the Rockies tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the inning. FREE BASEBALL! And in the bottom of the 12th the Rockies scored to win 6-5.

I've contacted the recreation departments in both Buena Vista and Salida (the towns on either side of Nathrop) and gotten my name in a pool for playing softball. There's a pick up game this afternoon and I'm hoping to meet some of the team managers and find a team to play on this summer. Wish me luck.

We've begun helping Lars and Tamara here at Chalk Creek. We've gone out a couple of days with Lars and picked up 3 truck loads of firewood. Also the office and general store were remodeled from 2 separate rooms into one large room during the off-season. We've been helping to set up and stock shelves. Joan has begun training in the office and I've been working with Lars in the CG. We are 1 of 4 workamper couples this season and the 1st to move into the CG. A 2nd couple Jack & Joyce moved from nearby Buena Vista into the CG yesterday. The other 2 couples should be here within the next 2 weeks.

On a side note. Please keep our fellow RVers and friends Rudee and Phil in your thoughts.

Well that's it for now.

Stay Tuned. More to Come.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....At Least for Us Floridians

As anxious as we are to spend a few days in Colorado before we report to Chalk Creek, the weather forecast along our route is not the most conducive for a life long Florida driver to tackle with a 40' 16 ton motorhome towing a trailer. Therefore we decided to spend a few more days in Moab. And we had a blast doing so!

John and Pam invited us to hike Tower Arch in Arches NP with them. We met them at the park entrance and drove several miles into the park before taking a gravel road to the trailhead. The hike included some ups and downs with a total 3.4 miles round trip. And the trip was well worth it.






The arch is called Tower Arch because it looks as though there is a tower on top of it. That however is an optical illusion. The tower is actually a 'fin' rock formation immediately behind the arch. John and I explored the tower by climbing a few rocks. Standing at the base of the tower we were afforded a beautiful view of the surrounding area.








The next day we decided to go off road again and check out Long Valley. Somewhere near the end of Tower Arch hike I twisted my ankle, so Joan and I thought this would be a good chance for her to 'earn her wings' and drive her 1st off road trail. Long Valley was one of 2 trails recommended to us when we first arrived. And the recommendation was spot on. The trail pulls off Potash Road and parallels the Potash Road/Shafer Basin trail we took earlier in the week (see the previous blog entry) eventually coming out on the entrance road to Dead Horse SP. The views of needle and fin rock formations, Arches NP and the LaSal Mountains were fantastic.







No real obstacles except for a huge rock that had fallen from a cliff face and came to rest leaning on the cliff face. The trail forces vehicles to drive under the rock.











When we finished Long Valley we continued on to explore Canyonlands NP. Two great rivers converge here, the Colorado and Green Rivers merge among over 500 square miles of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires.



On the way out of Canyonlands Joan was feeling confident and decided she would like to drive the switchbacks we had driven a couple days earlier in Shafer Basin. This time the road was dry and I enjoyed being able to relax and view the scenery as Joan drove down. We turned around at the bottom and headed back up. Everything was going well until we started to slide towards the cliff face. Joan was paying attention to the drop off and got a little too close to the waist-deep ditch along the cliff face.

The Ditch
We forgot to take a pic until we were
out of trouble

Too late....we slid until the car grounded on the frame. No serious damage, but with the chassis on the ground and both right side tires spinning freely off the ground we weren't going anywhere soon even with 4-wheel drive. Fortunately we carry a small folding shovel and I started to work building a ramp out of nearby large rocks and the dirt I dug out from under the car. 2 large blisters and 45 minutes later we were free and on our way home...with Joan driving. Joan did great and intends to continue practicing her off road driving.




The weather forecast for Friday and Saturday was for sunshine and dry roads so we headed towards Colorado. We stayed overnight in Montrose and then left early Saturday for Nathrop via Gunnison and 11,300' Monarch Pass.

Monarch Pass

The weather forecast was accurate and other than the 'pucker factor' that most motorhome drivers experience the first time they encounter high mountain passes the drive was fine. We arrived in Nathrop at Chalk Creek CG Saturday afternoon and set up in our home for the summer.



We drove into nearby Buena Vista to explore and decided to stop at a local pub for dinner. Joan has really enjoyed sampling the local beers while we were in Oregon and Nevada. The pub EddyLine brews several different beers and offered a beer paddle to allow sampling.
Joan really liked 5 of the 6 she sampled. We returned home and went to bed with another winter storm forecast for overnight.

We awoke Sunday morning with 1" of snow covering everything. Our 1st ever snowfall (other than a small snow flurry while driving through Cuba, NM last year) since we've been full-timing. Cool!

We've been doing a little more exploring of the area and I've been doing some odds and ends around the MH the last few days. Our internet access has been spotty at several of our stops so I ordered and installed the WiFiRanger Go. The install was easy and I had all 4 of our WiFi devices up and running with a 4 of 4 bar signal strength private wireless LAN within 30 minutes.



We're hoping the weather clears up so that we can take a drive to Denver and take in a Rockies game next week. Other than that we're just enjoying experiencing the mountain weather and exploring the area.

Stay Tuned. More to Come.

I Hope You're Not Afraid of Heights

We left Lake Mead on the 2nd headed towards Williams, AZ where we had a reservation at Grand Canyon Railway RV Park (Passport America and a real nice CG). We parked next to our friends Larry and Jean. Wednesday moring we all headed up to Grand Canyon NP. I'm sure you've seen pictures, probably taken by professionals so there's not any I could add other than to introduce you to Larry and Jean.


On Thursday we left Williams headed to Cortez, CO and Mesa Verde NP. Along the way we stopped off at Four Corners. Four Corners is the intersection of 4 states: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. A very nice facility has been built there and it includes booths where native Americans can show there arts and crafts. Jean, Joan and I all did our part to contribute to the local economy. Several of our readers will benefit from our purchases later this year (see Christmas, birthdays, etc)

Cliff Palace - Mesa Verde NP

The 4 of us spent all day Friday checking out Mesa Verde. We were still too early in the season to take advantage of some of the ranger led tours of the cliff dwellings, so we're really thinking we may stop back in September as we drive from Nathrop back to Lake Mead. We did however hike the 1/4 mile path down to Spruce House. Spruce House is not the largest of the cliff dwellings but it is the most preserved. We stopped at several of the pull offs in the park to see pit houses, pueblos and other cliff dwellings.

The Road to Moab - La Sal Mountains just east of town

Saturday found us headed to Moab and Larry and Jean headed towards Colorado Springs where they will be working at Garden of the Gods CG. We checked out several of the campgrounds in Moab and found one that that had space for our rig. The week before Easter is Jeep Jamboree in Moab and the week after is spring break in many surrounding areas. As such many of the CG's did not have space until 2 weeks after Easter.

That's HWY 191 below our vantage point on Gemini Trail

We got set up and immediately headed out for a jeep ride. Someone had suggested we try the Gemini Trail. The trail is just north of town and climbs the face of the mountain along the side of Hwy 191.

Look Behind the Arch to see the washout

About 8 miles into the trail we came to a pull off and parked to walk down and see the twin arches. I thought these to be unusual as they don't stand above ground level; rather they were formed by a large washout on the edge of a mesa. The top of these arches are level with the edge of the mesa rim.

Joan on top of the Arch

Sunday we drove out to Dead Horse Point State Park taking a few short excursions along the way whenever we saw an interesting looking dirt trail. Once we arrived we visited the Visitor Center before taking a short hike along the canyon rim. We found a good place to stop and have lunch.




After lunch Joan was feeling adventurous so she went out on a ledge......6' wide and 1000' above the valley floor. It offered a great overlook on the Colorado River.

Colorado River - Goose Neck
Check out the road. You'll read about it later

Then we drove out to Dead Horse Point. The point overlooks Canyonlands NP. You may recognize this area as it is one of the most photographed areas in Moab and rumor has it scenes from the movie Thelma and Louise were shot here.



Sunday afternoon we met up with John and Pam of Oh, the Places They Go!  They have been in Moab for a few days already and have been out on some great hikes. We went out for supper and had a great evening spending a couple of hours just talking and getting to know them.

Monday's weather forecast was for scattered showers so we decided not to hike, but to just drive around checking out the area. Next thing you know we're on Potash Road. We stopped at Poison Spider Trail pull off to see dinosaur tracks. We saw a couple higher up on the rocks so we climbed a little further and found several petroglyphs. Unfortunately too many previous visitors have defaced or destroyed several of the petroglyphs by adding their own graffiti.

We returned to Potash Road and continued further out to discover a mining operation. Between Moab and Dead Horse SP is a large underground deposit of potassium salt that is actively mined. Potash Road connects to Shafer Basin and crosses the mining property. We drove past the storage warehouse and the pavement ended. We drove another couple of miles and were stopped by one of the mine employees. They had been prepping an area for blasting and were just about to set off the dynamite. A few minutes later there was a big BOOM and a huge cloud of dust. We continued on and drove alongside several evaporation ponds. The salt is mined by pumping water into the underground salt deposit where the salt is absorbed into the water before being pumped to the evaporation ponds. Once the water evaporates large earthmovers are used to scrape up the salt.



During our wait at the mining site we asked about the road we were on and discovered it travesed Shafer Basin and exited in Canyonland NP. That sounded like an adventure so we continued on.

There were several locations where we were driving within 10'-15' of the cliffs overlooking the Colorado.






As we got closer to the basin wall the road became rockier and rockier and we noticed a series of switchbacks that appeared to climb a huge sheer wall out of the basin to the top of the mesa.



When we arrived at the switchbacks the adventure really began. It had been raining off and on, so we had been careful to watch for any signs of flowing water in the numerous washes we had crossed. And because it was currently raining I was concerned about the road conditions on the switchbacks.

The switchbacks climb over 1000' and were single lane. About halfway up we started to see fresh clay on the road (which was turning into mud in the rain) and the switchbacks turned into hairpin turns. I locked into 4-wheel low and tried to keep up our momentum without sliding on the slick clay.

It was a little hairy but we made it without incident. Just as we got to the top we came across the road crew that had been spreading the clay. We stopped to ask a question and found out that once it started raining they had closed the road down the switchbacks because they knew it would become almost impassable. We had passed a couple of vehicles along our way and weren't sure that they would be getting out without turning around and driving the 32 miles back across the basin to Potash Road. The clouds closed in just as we exited the switchbacks onto the paved road so we called it a day and headed back towards Moab. All in all it was a great day and we enjoyed the adventure.

We had planned to leave today, but the weather forecast is for snow along our route into Colorado for the next few days; so we think we'll stay here a little longer and wait for better road conditions before taking on the mountains.

Stay Tuned. More to Come.