Utah to Colorado – Sept. 2010

We ended up leaving Roosevelt after those two nights, but not before Joey determined I needed new tires for my car. (I sure am glad he thinks to check things like that.) While we waited for my tires Jewel spent her time in Dinosaur Country chasing Dinosaur Grasshoppers, and I got reacquainted with multi colored landscapes. Being in Hawaii all that time I forgot there were colors other than green and blue.

We decided to head to our familiar stomping grounds of Colorado and made our first pit stop before even leaving Utah. Since we were in no hurry we walked around this desolate spot along the small highway for a bit and found all sorts of neat things. One being this huge cave on the other side of a large wash:

Then there was a partially decomposed Elk

And a not so lucky Raccoon’s tail

When we crossed from the prehistoric land of northeastern Utah into Colorado it was like the landscape changed immediately. Along this two lane mountain highway Joey pulled over because he knew I would just love this view. He was right. I loved it so much I ran across the highway to snap a few pictures, only on my way back I wasn’t paying attention at all until I heard him scream at me….RUN!!….. Instead, I froze, but luckily the truck swerved, coming within inches of almost hitting me. As if I wasn’t shook up enough over that, the rest of the drive down this mountain was littered with falling rocks, and not just rocks, but large boulders.  Thank goodness we didn’t have any oncoming traffic during all the times we had to swerve to avoid the boulders.

Soon enough though we were down in familiar, beautiful, Grand Junction, CO. (I still have yet to climb that mountain!)

I just keep following my Man In His Truck toward one of our favorite places in Colorado, Parachute.

We have friends that are like family that live there, so we went to visit with them while we continue our hunt for the new RV.

A House for Winter

On the very day my friend Lara and her kids were coming to visit Joey wanted me to see The House. I didn’t want a house, but I went and looked at The House….. The next day Lara and kids helped us move into The House.

The kids were beyond thrilled, they each got their own room. Joey was happy, he got the space and comfort he was craving. I got 2000 sq. ft. of floors to vacuum and mop, three toilets to clean, and four bathroom sinks to scrub toothpaste out of. Of course, it made me happy to see everyone else so happy so I eventually came to appreciate The House, but what I love more than anything are the views we get from practically every window and door.

This is the front window and where we regularly watch the sunrise…which is something new for me but this House has turned me into a morning person. Even the kids have switched from Up All Night, Sleep All Day to normal people hours.

Most of my days are spent in the kitchen with my views out the back. (This cat hung out on our porch for a couple weeks but then we never saw him again.) Jewel named him Stuffles.

We have a couple small ponds on the property where the kids fish for crawdads.

With homemade poles.

That’s a stick, some pretty yarn and some cheese. Forget the dozen professionally built poles we have, they don’t have purple and pink yarn.

It looks like we’ll be staying put for a little while while we figure out our next move.

With views like these, that are constantly changing with the sun and clouds, I think we can hang like this for……..at least three months.

Colorado Country Roads

Yesterday afternoon at exactly 2:11 PM we decided since Joey didn't have to be back to work until Monday morning that we'd take advantage of the extra days off and go somewhere. First idea I came up with was Yellowstone National Park. Everybody was all excited for it, the kids were even in the car waiting on us for a change! We quickly packed up a couple days worth of clothes, a cooler, the laptop and camera bag, and we were on the I-70 heading East by 3:10 PM. At 3:12 PM Joey asks, "Exactly how far is Yellowstone?" Crap. I totally forgot that is was FIVE HUNDRED miles away, not FIVE HOURS. Ten minutes later we were West bound headed for Strawberry Park and their natural hot springs. Ten more minutes later I felt like we needed something comparable, big and grand, to Yellowstone, so that's when we decide on Rocky Mountain National Park.

We go through Glenwood Canyon Corridor first.


Instead of taking the I-70 up and going through Winterpark we decided to use the smaller county roads, 131 and 134.

What a nice treat they turned out to be. We basically followed the Colorado River all the way up.



We were expecting a Colorado Scenic Byway to be paved, but with the awesome colors we were seeing, we didn't mind the twenty miles of gravel at only thirty miles an hour, at all.

Nope. Not a complaint one.

A storm was brewing in the distance.



Once the sun went down we tried to get a room at Sulphur Hot Springs Resort with its twenty three pools, but they didn't have room for us. We definitely want to go back there again someday, though, it looked like a pretty neat place for the whole family. Kinda reminded me of the resort in Dirty Dancing, the time of the tango and the foxtrot. It was dark though, so who knows, I could be completely off.

We ended up staying in Granby, in a guest room of the restaurant we had just eaten in. After a fabulous authentic German meal I asked the waitress about the hotel across the street and she mentioned they had two guest rooms, would I like to see them? I thought it was odd, so...OF COURSE! They were outdated, but very clean, and we could just roll our overstuffed selves from our booth, right into our beds. Oh yeah.

Granby on Dwellable

San Juan Skyway, Part I

For our trip to Arizona we decided to go against Microsoft's quickest route and opted for our own route, going through Durango and the Four Corners area. Would you like to come along?

We just went through Grand Mesa, again finding ourselves on some typical flat ranching land, but I can hear the San Juan Mountains calling our name already. First I have to say, Let's be thankful Joey's doing the driving.

Not that I don't watch the road, just sometimes it's not my road I'm watching.


The town of Ouray, which is the Gateway to the San Juan's, also claims to be "The Switzerland of America". I'm not exactly seeing Switzerland yet, but I'm lovin' the mustard river. This is definitely a first.

We have to stop.
I have to get a closer look.

It's not so yellow on the bank, but check it out under the melting snow.


Maybe these are the cause of the yellow river?


Ahhh, it's an old iron mine, that makes sense. Now it's under a massive water restoration process, beautiful, no?

A closer look reveals old mining buildings.


Say good-bye to this part of the San Juan Skyway Loop.


We'll be revisiting the other side of the loop on the way home, but for now it's time to call it a night and get a room. We even managed to top off a beautiful day with a two room suite in Cortez for only $59. Two rooms! (Those living in an RV with kids will understand my excitement.)

Durango on Dwellable

Road Trippin'

It doesn't look like we're going anywhere, anytime soon. The guys keep stopping by with job leads, and each one wants Joey to work with him. There are only a few places to work pipeline, and I doubt any others are as beautiful as where we are right now, so work is luring him back in, but he swears he needs a new truck first. We saw one at the dealer that he went ga-ga for so yesterday we went back down to Grand Junction to test drive it and see if we can work a trade. Luckily it was a gorgeous day and I brought my camera along for the ride.

While this may not be a great picture, it's our view while pumping gas.

I almost didn't mind spending $97.00 to fill up my gas tank.

Te sun was working against me in the photo, but in person this is a spectacular view of the Colorado River. Up the hill on the left is where our RV park is, we have to cross the river in order to leave our little "haven".


The Interstate is lined with views like this that follow the river downstream.


It seems each time we head out, the trees get more golden, the brush gets redder, the water is a different shade of red or green, and the canyon walls have new cracks.

I cannot get enough.

Colorado National Monument

Have I mentioned before how much I love Colorado? I didn't know I could enjoy one place so much, in so many ways. Mostly I just love looking at it. I can look out my window and see damn near every color. We couldn't stay here long enough to see and do everything I'd like, but I sure will try!

Last week Joey took the whole week off to have repair work done on his truck, so he got us a rental car for a couple of days, and it just so happened to be a convertible. Lately getting the kids excited to leave the bus has been trying, but once they saw the PT Cruiser they were the first ones out the door, personal style and all.

We drove to Powderhorn Ski Area to check it out, and see how far it will be to go skiing this winter. It's only about a thirty minute drive, so now we can't wait for some snow! Did I just say that?

Next we finally drove the Rim Rock Hwy that is the Colorado National Monument. I'd been wanting to do it since we were here in the Spring, but I'm so glad we waited and had the pleasure of seeing it in the convertible, we wouldn't have had the full breathtaking views otherwise.

We stopped often to hike out to various viewing areas and to just play and have fun. This massive slab of rock was a fun spot to run up and down on, and to use broken pieces of sandstone to draw on. They looked like rocks but worked like chalk, gotta love nature.


Look an ancient petroglyph!

The kids enjoyed it alot as well. They climbed on top of


and under, everything they could find.

A great day was had by all.

The Monument is just a few mile detour off I-70 outside Fruita, that exits into Grand Junction, CO, making it a must see for RV travelers heading into the I-70 corridor. Happy travels!

Colorado Springs on Dwellable

Gone, but not far

We moved again.

Gone is our beautiful lake. Gone are the days of children being forced to carry their own weight.


Gone with once a week sewer pump outs, or having to scrounge quarters to take a shower at the campground.

Gone with six mile bike rides to get a Pepsi.

Gone with late night laundrymats and grocery store runs.

Gone with the isolation.

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I thought I could handle it, but there's only so much a girl can do in the middle of nowhere. As usual we couldn't get our Internet up and running, and after swimming in the lake and biking, there wasn't much else to pass the days besides TV. A lot of TV. I was to the point that I was wishing Big Brother was back to six days a week. I was on the verge of running away when the other RV park called and said they had a spot for us. I didn't care that Joey was working a twelve hour shift I loaded up everything I could and made him move us immediately. I hadn't checked out the park before hand but I knew it had full hookups and it was closer to Joey's work, and a grocery store. It turned out to be way better than that.

I now also have onsite laundry, paved roads (nice to keep the mud out) and a membership to the Community Activity Center. The whole development we're in is completely new, and resembles Country Club living. The Activity Center is a full on Health Club with a huge indoor swimming pool, weights, game room, Yoga, tennis, raquetball, basketball court and even an indoor running track. Plus the older ladies that work there are super nice..such a bonus.

It's mostly retired seniors but there are a TON, and I mean a ton, of workers out here, with their families! It's still shocking for me to see other families because when we started I swear it felt like we were the only ones. Everywhere I look I see tween boys, although ours haven't ventured out to meet any of them yet.

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There's a Pepsi machine only yards away.

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I hired a professional installer to set up our Internet dish today, only to find out the problem has been theirs all along! And even though I'm on right now, it's constantly losing signal. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate HughesNet? Yah, if you're considering them, come talk to me first.

Trapper's Lake

A few days ago we took a drive into the White River National Forest, via a state observed Scenic Byway. It followed the White River, which we're camped on

Past Meeker

Past Sleepy Cat fishing lake


We saw mountains, streams, trees and wildlife.




When we finally got towards the top we hiked a short distance on a dirt path, expecting to see the typical lakes we've already seen here in Colorado. But Trapper's Lake seemed to have appeared out of a movie.


The Sound of Music, perhaps?


After this I did something really amazing. So astonishing, yet so appreciated by everyone....I put down the camera. I wanted to be a part of this, not the outsider annoying everyone by shoving a camera in their face. It was different, it was good...I was more present.

Jewel rewarded me later.

Trappeur's Lodge on Dwellable