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.

Vegas to Utah – Sept. 2010

Before I discovered my missing camera bag, I had taken this one shot of Jonas, with my Droid, snuggled up on my cousin’s couch with her cat. After our sleepless night on the plane it took him less than five minutes to crash.

Then, after I finally uncurled myself off Amy’s couch (three days later) I got on Craigslist to find myself a new car. I was hoping to find a decent conversion van but ended up finding a cute little economical wagon instead. I bought it on the spot, in the dark, and even though they told me I had to go to the DMV in the morning and get my own plates since they were taking theirs, I said screw it and decided to take my chances driving up to Joey in Utah with no plates and nothing but bubble gum holding the Bill of Sale to the rear window.

Just getting back on the road really lightened my spirits and by the time we hit Antelope Canyon along the Arizona, Nevada, and Utah border I was pretty much recovered from my huge loss. I was happy to be back on the road again, and seeing this beautiful country. Plus, I still had the Droid to take pictures with so all was not lost. I also discovered on this trip what it was like to no longer have a gas guzzling Hummer, Dually truck, Bluebird Bus, or Excursion. What a treat! I probably paid less for this car plus the gas than I would I have paid in any one of my previous vehicles, just in gas to get across town!

I was so beat after the 523 mile trip to Roosevelt, UT that when the hotel clerk accidentally charged us for two nights instead of the one I asked for, we didn’t even make her change it. I remember the customer behind us saying, “wow, must be nice to be able to just be, ‘oh well…we’ll take two nights instead’.”

Little did he know that that was as far ahead as we had planned at that point. The next day began the search for a new RV since we were officially back on the road.

Bus on the Road again

Outside Arches National Park.

Outside Moab and the house made in theHole 'N the Rock. We stopped outside the house, thinking we'd take the tour this time, but only got a new caravan shot instead.


This is the dirt lot we parked in while we waited for the final four bus tires.

It's also where the kids played physics.


They started with small rocks but quickly learned they had more of an impact with the larger ones. No children were hurt in the process.

Almost out of Utah, we see an arch off the side of the road that was screaming for us to hike it. Hike it, we did....in flip flops, even.

As usual, they smoked me up the hill.

Walking inside the arch on a windy day, was actually a little scary. The woman that came up after me was grabbing on to my hand for support and constantly kepy chanting how "scaaaared" she was. I couldn't get myself to look up without getting dizzy.

The other side.

Looking down.


We finished the day with a nice storm going through Colorado, and into New Mexico.

It's that time again...movin' on

What's up?! It's been a while, I know, and it seems the longer I go without blogging, the harder it is to blog. The farther I get behind, the harder it is to catch up so I'm just going to go ahead and skip ahead to current times, ie. the first two of the last four days. Capiche? OK


Wednesday we took a trip to Eastern Utah to scope out campgrounds, and then leave Joey's welding rig at our chosen campsite. The weather was rainy, and cloudy, and miserable to some, but I couldn't have asked for better.


After finding the best spot out of the two hundred ninty six of three hundred available sites, we headed back home more excited than ever to begin our next adventure! We hadn't really planned on moving the bus again anytime soon, but it turned out that was exactly what we needed to do. We'd been parked in the same spot for six months, way too long for our comfort. We're not moving far, just a couple hundred miles west into Utah, but it's a whole new scene with a very different atmosphere. Something new, with new things to do and explore.

The next morning after my last visit with Jeannie in the RV park office, we fired up the bus and pulled out. No fan fare, just a lotta smoke.

Blame it on Cheech and Chong.

One last Good Bye to our snow capped mountains.

Farewell to a cold Grand Junction.

Hello to the sunny skies of Mormon Country.


Even though we drove less than two hundred miles, we managed to make four stops. Once to check the bus tires to make sure the dry rot is holding up, another for food and fuel, one rest stop to check tires again, and another just for good luck. The kids don't mind, they love climbing the hills and running in front of cars zooming off the off ramp. They're tough.


Following the bus towards the canyonlands that will serve as our new view for the following months, weeks, days....some amount of time.

There's a field right behind us, designated as the deer viewing area.

With an empty campground as our front yard with views of the "Maze".

The only downfall: The closest real grocery store is 62 miles away.
The bonus: I just may lose that extra twenty now.

Arches National Park

We woke up yesterday morning still not ready for the long drive to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We're thinking we may not even go, so we're thinking up alternate plans. Rocky Mountain National Park came up, Aspen was mentioned, as well as Durango, but those are all cold places right now so I check out the weather and notice it's seventy degrees in Moab, UT. We decided immediately to go to Arches National Park for the day and were out the door in twenty minutes, and on red soil in three hours.


Did I say soil? I'm not actually sure if the boys' soles actually touched soil, there were too many rocks and other cool structures to walk on to waste their time on mere dirt.






The boys ran this whole trail out to the arch, while Jewel would stop every hundred yards or so and build a small mound out of the soft sand and poke a stick through the top. On the way back the boys would trample down the mounds, and Jewel would do quick rebuilds.



Arches may have their balancing rocks.

But we've got a balancing Jake.



This view shows the many different terrains in the park. There's the labyrinth of caverns to the left, petrified dunes straight ahead, along with some green dirt, more pinnacles and the LaSal Mountains in the background. So much more than just arches.

This was named Park Avenue because it resembled the high rises in NYC.

Then that must be Central Park the boys are running through.


The setting sun produces the prettiest glow.




We spent a fabulous day in the park and I couldn't convince Joey to go on one more hike so it was time to say goodnight to Arches.


We were hungry and tired so we went into Moab for supper and also ended up getting a room. A nice, BIG, hot bath was the perfect ending to another well exhausted, yet exhilarated, day.

We planned on either going back to the park the next day or driving some 4x4 trails but when we woke up we felt ready to head to Arizona so we came back to a messy bus and loads of laundry in order to pack. Laundry done, buss kinda cleaned, we're leaving for Arizona in the morning.

Making Lemonade in Flaming Gorge

After filling up with one hundred and fifty gallons of gas we steered both gas hogs West and made our first rest stop at Steinaker Dam & Reservoir, a little lake that Joey used to stop at ocassionally on his way to work.



I was surprised with how pretty and blue it is, and especially liked the way the islands appeared to be sinking. While Jewel was helping Joey walk the bus (check tires and such) a big rig had a tire blow out that threw a huge piece of shredded tire, nearly hitting them. Also while we were there Joey called to confirm the job and they told him the client had postponed...and no idea until when. A simple phone call would have been nice! So now we don't want to drive all over the place, wasting gas with no end in sight so we pull out the trusty old road map. Since we're within miles of Dinosaur National Monument we decide to go ahead and check it out. We weren't going to because it's hot and all, but the surrounding landscapes are so beautiful and What the Heck? we have nothing better to do.



After stopping at the Visitor's Center, and then driving all the way up to the gate, we find out that the main attraction, the Dinosuar Quarry, is closed, and has been since July 2006. There are no hookups inside, plus no fossils, so we turn around after a little pow wow and decide to go to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (N.R.A.). N.R.A.'s are usually best enjoyed with a boat but oh well, let's check it out.

I don't think we're going to be disappointed by the looks of it.



We stop at the Visitor's Center and go straight for the water.



That was a long walk, I needed a break.

Can you see the face?


After we're done playing we finally head to the visitor's center, only to get there two minutes after closing. So typical.

Over the bridge we go.


Up, Up, and Up some more, at a whopping speed of about 20mph.....but plenty of time to enjoy the views.


We found camping, at the Mustang Ranch. Get your head out of the gutter. Our Mustang Ranch is a large campground with many secluded sites overlooking the lake, ours wasn't one of them, but it was a nice, sometimes shady spot with lots of trees and trails and no hookups. So we just park and look for a way to the lake. After a short hike we found Sunny Cove, and things are certainly looking sunnier. Let's play today, we'll think work tomorrow.

Jewel's orders.