Thursday, April 15, 2021

Waking up this morning in Moab, Utah just outside of Arches National Park, we get up and pack up the RV and hit the road. We have decided not to head for the Grand Canyon because of their no camera policy on their glass walkway. So, instead, we head for a route that a friend has suggested and he didn’t steer us wrong!

We leave the major highways behind and head down Route 24 out of Green River, Utah and toward Hanksville. Looking forward we see a very mean looking stormfront that covers everything in front of us. A bit scary looking but beautiful also. Our cameras soak up the glory of recording what we are looking at. Spectacular images! When we finally get to the storm, we are pelted with quarter inch hail. The windshield appears like we are driving through a snowstorm. The ground outside in all directions has turned white with an accumulation of hail. It is simply spectacular to watch. I have slowed the RV to a literal crawl and we trudge on. This only lasts less than 20 minutes and either the storm abates or we finish driving through it.

A half hour later, we arrive in Hanksville, a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere. We stop at a small market to stock up on water and other sundries we are running out of. Then we go to a small restaurant for a bite to eat. Sliderock Cafe is a nice little place where I have a BBQ Brisket Burrito and Elee has a burger. While we are there, the place has WiFi and we actually Close on our purchase of two Condos in South Carolina! Everything is handled through “DocuSign”, an online legal document signing company. Even two years ago, I would have never thought this possible! We are now the proud official owners of these Condos!

We get back in the rig and drive west into Capital Reef National Park and the scenery is fantastic! Our friend certainly did not steer us wrong. We turn on Route 12 and drive south now, still in Capital Reef. The road takes us up to the top ridge and a chain of mountains and we drive along through changing terrain but all of it qualifies as ‘Eye Candy’. At one point, the road sits atop a ridge where both sides of the road drop of into sheer cliffs on both sides. Absolutely awesome!

Eventually, we drop down into Boulder, Utah and then into Escalante where we finally find a campground to set up in. We buy a pizza and take it to our campsite with us and have dinner. I can’t wait to start editing all the photos from this trip but I’ll start that after arriving home.

Good night all and we’ll see you in the morning!

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

We awake in the campground in Moab after trying to see sunset last night but it was too overcast. We have enough doggie bags in the fridge to make a breakfast. Then we head straight back into Arches National Park to start our tour.

We drive The Beast of a RV back up into the park. The good thing is that I am getting much more comfortable driving it. We stop at a couple Arch Viewing sites and shoot some photos, but basically head for the far end of the Park. It was a wise choice as the crowds are building and we barely find room to park our beast. But we do and we head out on a short hike along Devil’s Garden Trail to see Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch & Landscape Arch. The short hike turns a bit longer before we get to Landscape Arch. But it is worth it.

After have a couple sandwiches in the RV, we head back through the Park, stopping at various sites including Fiery Furnace, a place named for the color of the rocks during sunset.

Several stops keep our cameras purring happily and All are happy! Fiery Furnace is named for the color of the place near sunset. We also find what is referred to as “Balanced Rock”. Can you find it?

We also stop at an area called Courthouse Towers and as we are about to take a few photos, we chat pleasantly with a couple that are from Pasadena, CA. We have quite the pleasant chat with apparently like-minded people and we even exchange info! So we may even see them at some upcoming gathering back home!

We photograph the area and get back in the RV. It is late afternoon and we leave the Park and head into Moab, just a few miles down the road. We find Moab Brewery and have an early dinner. Then we head back into Arches to try to catch a sunset. We stop at Window Arches and Double Arch and get some successful sunset shots along with what appears to be a Wedding Shoot!

Our cameras are very happy with us and we head out and back to our campsite. Once set back up with water and electricity, we kick back and wind down from the day. Even though I have become more comfortable with driving the RV, it is still a job!

Good night and see you tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

We wake up in the parking lot of Breckinridge Brewery and the winds have blown strong all night. Luckily, we have managed to sleep through the night. It is so cold that we have kept the generator running all night to keep warm. We wake to a somewhat comfortable space and I arise early and shower in the modest, yet useable shower.

While we get ready for our day, Elee heats up Breakfast Burritos left over from yesterday’s restaurant breakfast. They are almost as tasty as the were fresh and we enjoy them!

We drive away from beautiful Breckenridge and go west long the 70 Highway. The scenery of Colorado’s mountains is breathtaking! After only a couple hours, and many tunnels later, we arrive in Grand Junction, CO. It is time for a break and lunch. So we leave the highway and look up a winery that we spotted. Hermosa Vineyards Winery. We pull up and I turn the RV around which has become easier. We walk up to the winery and all of a sudden the doors slide apart magically. The winemaker meets us personally and we partake of a wine tasting of his 7 featured wines.

We like his white, one of his reds (a Malbec) and his dessert wine, a Cherry Wine! We don’t normally like sweet dessert wines but this was very good! We end up walking out with a Malbec and his White Blend and a recommendation for a lunch restaurant. We look it up and end up having lunch at Rockslide Brewery where we kibitz with the waiter and have fun. We both order Bison Burgers and I order mine with jalapenos. Wonderful lunch!

Then we gas up the RV ($150) and get sundries in Paradise, Co (near Grand Junction) and shopped for a few incidentals that we need. We then head along and find our way onto the 70 Hwy and head towards Moab, Utah. Have you ever heard of a place with no name? How about a place named, “No Name”? We find route 128 off the 70 and it drives along the Colorado River. It is a very scenic view! Fun ride and the RV handles it very well!

We finally arrive in Arches National Park and we drive into the park and found several Arches to shoot near Sunset. Too bad for us that sunset is much less than great as a lot of cloud cover abounds! But we plan to spend the next 36 hours here and hope to find some fun stuff!

We never tried to book campsites in advance here. Who wants to come to this area in April? Well, we found out the hard way that hundreds of people come here this time of year! All the campsites are full to overflowing! So with several phone calls, we found a campsite a few miles north of Arches for the night. We are settled in and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Monday, April 12, 2021

Waking up in Strasburg, CO this morning, a suburb to the east of Denver. It has been a long cold night. Lucky for us we have somewhat mastered the heater in the RV. The heater blows very dry hot air into the rig much to the dislike of our sinuses. But at least it’s warm inside. Because outside it is at freezing or below.

This morning we have decided we’ll hit the road by 7AM and get up to Estes National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. But we have been receiving messages from an online friend that is part of our GuruShots.com photography game and have known him online for going on a year. He is a top notch photographer and it turns out he is also driving across country after picking up a van of his own from Pennsylvania!

So our friend, we’ll call him “Joe”, because that is his real name, LOL, has been making quite the good travel time across country and has caught up with us in Denver. We have exchanged phone numbers and text each other. Turns out that while we sleep in a KOA Kampground outside of Denver, (we had given him our location and sent a photo of our RV) he finds our Kampground and actually drives in and finds our RV and parks in front of it. I step out of the RV and there he is! The temps are way down in the 30’s and Joe is wearing a t-shirt and shorts!

So Joe and his wife Karla are right there in our Kampground. There is a breakfast restaurant right across the street and we treat them to breakfast. Joe insists on chipping in and we make it the tip for the waitress! We visit (I would like to say, ‘catch up’, but we chat online every day or two and seem to know each other well. His company for anyone who is interested in printing their photos on metal sheets, is HotShotExposures on FaceBook or ReecePhotoArt.com ). Joe is a master craftsman!

But it is time to hit the road and Joe agrees. He is headed the same basic direction that we are but has different photo plans. We pull out of the Kampground and go over the checklist at the exit to make sure we are set to go!

We head north to Estes Park and Joe heads west towards Moab, Utah. (We are heading there tomorrow). We arrive in Estes Park around 11AM and tour the small area. Our cameras are thrilled to be challenged again and produce some good results!

We then venture on up into Rocky Mountain National Park and get about 7 miles in and the roads are closed. It is still winter here even though it is almost mid April. But we are satisfied and it is time to head back down to Breckenridge where we plan to spend the night. We will need internet tonight and signals are sparse up here.

We stop for an overview of Horseshoe Park and take a few photos.

We drive the “Peak to Peak” highway and make a couple stops to keep our driving sanity intact. First stop was in the small town of Saratoga to stretch our legs.

Next stop was in Nederland because I feel the need to stretch my legs again as the mountain roads are brutal. Here, Elee opts to stay in the RV because of the temperature outside! 33 degrees! Or for my friends around the globe, that’s 1 degree C!

Cameras satiated, we head south and travel along the “Peak to Peak” Highway. Winds have been very light today which is a welcome relief because the RV is much easier to handle. We pass through Central City and pull into Breckenridge with plenty of time to spare. We check into our Harvest Host which turns out to be ‘Broken Compass Brewery’ and they instruct us where to park.

They don’t seem to offer a food menu so we take a walk along the road and come across the ‘Breckenridge Distillery’. This is a very high end distillery that has a food menu and it seems they are so much in demand that, even on a Monday night, you need reservations. Bummer. So Elee and I turn on the charm (it doesn’t hurt to mention that we write travel blogs) and the Hostess tells us to wait a few minutes. Sure enough, she finds us a couple stools at the bar and seats us. All is good!

We look at the menu and it ranges from $31 for a chicken dinner to $180 for a Wagyu Beef Tomahawk Steak. Wow! We are not on a high budget this trip (one day I’d really like to taste Wagyu Beef) so we stayed on the low end and had a chicken cassoulet and a beef tips wrap that was to die for delicious! We also ordered a couple of custom drinks that they make from their own distilled spirits. I had a smoked Whiskey drink smoked with apple wood in a Rum Cask! It was called, “May The Orchard Be With You! Elee had a Genever Juice! The meals and drinks were top notch and delicious! The bartenders that served us, Eric and Griffon, were personable and knowledgeable and a delight to chat with! Turns our they were also originally from the northeast and we all had things in common!

We bid our adieus to the staff and walk back to our RV, about a mile. Here starts our highlight of our evening, the Orange County Wine Society’s (OCWS.org) Monday Night Varietal Happy Hour! Tonight Elee and I are Hosting! And we Host it from a parking lot in Breckenridge, Co! Thus the reason for needing internet! So the Happy Hour starts up and we have around 14-15 people. The Varietal this week is Pinot Grigio (or Pinot Gris). The Happy Hour is a grand success and a good time is had by all attendees!

Here’s my plug for our Wine Society! Please feel free to look up Orange County Wine Society at OCWS.org and enjoy all they have to offer! https://ocws.org/

It is time to call it a night as tomorrow we will get up and head towards Moab, Utah and attempt to visit Arches National Park where I hope to photograph Sunset, The Milky Way (middle of the night) and Sunrise. A tall order!

Goodnight and see you tomorrow!

Sunday, April 11, 2021

We wake up in Wakeeney, Kansas today in a KOA Kampground (correct spelling). We had full Hook Ups last night so we are able to refill our water tank and dump our black and grey tanks. We pack up and find a good breakfast restaurant down the street at “Jack & Chet’s” and we get our morning meal. We stop at the Dollar Store on the way to the Highway onramp and pick up a couple sundries. Like a corkscrew. LOL

It’s a windy morning. VERY windy! We fill up the gas tank to the tune of $100, seems to be the days rations. Then we hit the road and I cut my speed to 55 for the first hour to adjust to the wind. Driving The Beast today is a job. We can’t believe how many Semi’s are passing us at 75mph, the Speed Limit. After an hour, I feel comfortable kicking the speed up to 60. Semi’s keep passing us at 75. I fight the wheel and it fights back. We manage to trudge along at 60. I see a sign for “Goodland, KS”. I pull off for a break and we find the world’s largest Van Gogh Painting on the world’s largest easel. The easel is easily 60 feet tall and the painting is about 25 feet tall!

Okay, so I was able to relieve my driving concentration for 10-15 minutes. A welcome break. Back on the highway and there is about an hour and a half to our Kampground (correct spelling) and I hang onto the wheel and weather the traffic. I feel driving fatigue coming on again and I pull off the highway in Stanton, KS and tell Elee I need to stop. We are in a very tiny town and I pull off into a “Claremont Winery” parking lot. I guess I’m attracted to wineries? Who knew? The winery is closed for tasting but open for purchases! Elee finds a bottle of Pinot Grigio that we want for our Wine Varietal Happy Hour tomorrow night to happen online! I eat a sandwich (Elee makes great on the road sandwiches!) and take a catnap for a half hour. Then we get going again and make it easily to our Strasburg KOA (just east of Denver, CO) and set up the Hook Ups.

There is a BBQ Restaurant next door but Elee is tired of BBQ (Really??? I could never tire of BBQ) So we walk across the street to what appears to be a diner of sorts, named ‘Rookies’, and they offer Strip Steak and Rib Eye. Elee opts for chicken and reports it is very good. My Rib Eye is more like a very tough and flavorless strip steak and we mention it to the waitress. She tells the cook and the word comes back that the cook says it’s a Rib Eye. It seems we have insulted him. Oh well, Say La Vie!

It is approaching sunset and we spotted some fun photo subjects including “Covered wagons” that you can stay in at our little park along with some old abandoned railroad cars on abandoned sidings next to our campground and we get out the cameras that have been sorely neglected all day for the most part and we put them to work. They smile at us and purr and click. But it is quite cold. I have donned the hoodie to my sweatshirt. Our hands are in our pockets to stay warm. We walk back to the Kampgrounds and get in the RV for the evening.

I get my Blog notes together for the day and it is time to turn in. Our plan is to get up early in the morning and head up towards Estes National Park.

See you tomorrow!