Bullhead City,AZ

Posted by Rich

This is the night view from our campground of Laughlin.

We have been in Bullhead City since Friday afternoon. I tried to send a post but my internet connection kept dropping out. Then for the next couple of days I could not get on at all. Then this morning I tried and here I am. We have had a great time in Laughlin, Last night I was the only non Canadian at a three card poker table, what a good time, they were so much fun. Once again the best part of the trip are the people we meet.

Today is a travel day so we pack up and move to Sam's Town in Vegas. Oops my connection is failing better try to post this before it's gone.

More Later, Rich

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Sunset in Ehrenberg

Posted by Gloria

The sun has set on our time in Ehrenberg (no pun intended), today we move on to Bull Head City, AZ.

While eating dinner last night I took a picture of this beautiful sunset, unfortunetly we think the wind shifted and it is the smoke from the Southern California fires that helped make it so pretty. After dinner we sat outside and enjoyed the warm temperatures, visiting and looking at the stars, oh life is grand. I have started my 7th book and will have to buy more if I'm going to continue to read, we have truly relaxed this trip.

Until next time,

Gloria

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Hanging out on the Colorado River

Posted by Rich

Here I am sitting under our favorite Palm, we keep moving to stay in the shade, tough work.

We are enjoying our stay here at the Colorado River Oasis. Ehrenberg is a very small town, there is a very busy truck stop on the eastbound side of the I-10 freeway, a bar, a post office, and several campgrounds, not much to do or see. So we have spent our time reading and playing dominoes, nice. Blyth, California is on the other side of the river, today we may go there and explore the town (it's not much larger than Ehrenberg). We went for a drive up to Parker the other day and we did see lots of farms, they all seem to be part of what is called CRIT, (Colorado River Indian Tribes). There were huge fields of irrigated land growing mostly cotton, and feed crops such as hay.

We sometimes wonder how often the blog is being looked at, so I added a counter to see, well much to our delight folks are looking at it quite a bit, thanks.

More Later, Rich

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Windy in the Desert

Posted by Rich

This is where we sat and read all day. What a view.

Last night the wind came up and it has been windy all day, like 30 - 45 MPH. So today we drove around for a while, and went through a dust storm, that was an experience we are not used to. We still like this place though, the storm is supposed to blow over this evening, Ha, ha.

This morning we went for a walk through another of the RV parks here, it was as nice or nicer than the one we are in. It turns out that we are one week early, programs and events around here start next weekend, after we are gone, oh well we can make our own good times. Truly this is a wonderful place to stay, there is alot of boating activity on the river, and just sitting around and looking at the river is sure relaxing.

More Later, Rich

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Colorado River Oasis

Posted by Rich

Our site along the Colorado River

We had a great visit with my Dad and Marge in Tucson, but we had to move on. So yesterday we drove from Tucson to Ehrenberg, AZ. We are at the WHR Colorado River Oasis, our site backs up to a grassy area right on the river. We sure got lucky, these are the premium sites, the rest are gravel pull-thrus. The weather here is something else, we have seen that it is raining and chilly at home, the weather here is in the low 90's and of course not a cloud to be seen, we could get used to this.

Today I think we will explore the local area, maybe visit the pool, and do some reading. Sounds tough I know, but someone has to do it.

More Later, Rich

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The Chiricaua's

Posted by Rich


On Wednesday Dad and Marge took us to the Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona. This is a place of awsome scenery and alot of history. Cochise and Geronimo led the Chiricahua Apache indians in a war against the US Army here, they were never defeated. They did surrender in 1886 and were settled in Oklahoma and New Mexico.
This is another sky island that pops up out of the surrounding grass lands, we passed huge cattle ranches on the way there. They are still using windmills to pump water for the cattle on these ranches, and for their homes in many cases.
Once again we traveled up into the mountains where it changes to trees and some of the most spectacular rock formations we have seen so far. This is where the rocks are balanced on top of each other. It is incredible, we were in awe. No wonder the army could never find the Apaches.
On the way home we passed through Douglas (a border town), and Bisbee these are places we definitly want to spend more time in. Bisbee is a small old town with narrow streets full of old houses and buildings that more of less caters to the tourists now that the copper mine has scaled down.
We stopped in St. David and visited the Western Horizon RV resort we belong to, this is the nicest WHR resort we have seen other than the Washington resorts that we love so much.
Arizona has been a big suprise, there is so much more than the desert we always picture in our minds when we think of this state. We want to come back here and spend much more time than we have this trip.

More Later, Rich

Visiting in Tucson

Posted by Rich

Picture from near the top of Mt. Lemmon

We are visiting with my Dad and Marge here in Tucson. It is really good to be able to spend some time with them. Yesterday they took us up to Mt. Lemmon; it is what they call a sky island, a rugged and massive mountain peak in the middle of the flat desert valley. It rises 6000ft. and is quite impressive. The scenery changes from desert and cactus to pines and jagged rocks in just a few miles. You can look out over the whole valley, what a site to see. Just a side note: it will be in the high 80's today and even warmer as we head to the Colorado River area, we are loving the dry hot weather. Dad and Marge laugh at us when we say it is hot, the locals are wearing sweaters and jackets, can you imagine? We are so lucky to be able to do and see all the things we have done on this trip so far.

Sadly the "Big Trip", is half over. Monday was the halfway point and when we leave here on Friday we start heading in a homeward direction, boy it's going fast.

More Later, Rich

Black Canyon City, AZ

Posted by Gloria

We arrived at Black Canyon City Friday and we are staying at Bradshaw RV Resort. This is a low key place that has several permanant rigs and the snow birds are starting to arrive for the winter. The people are very nice, it is quiet, sunny and warm. One of the first things I noticed were trees with fruit on them, the fruit looks like limes. We went for a walk and met a lady who lives here and I asked her what the fruit was. She said there are some limes, oranges, grapefruit and lemons. So, we got back to our space and I picked fruit from two different trees and told Richard I thought they were limes. I took them inside and cut them open and tasted the first one. Much to my surprise it wasn't a lime as I thought, it was a very green orange. I thought Richard was going to fall over laughing. I puckered so bad and it reminded me of the time Kooper dared me to eat a green blackberry, we were on a ladder and he fell off laughing so hard at my puckered face. Not to be discouraged I cut the next one open and it was also a very green orange but a little riper than the first. No more fruit for Gloria!

I have gone for walks the last two mornings and the town of Black Canyon City is a total of maybe 3 blocks long so I walked side streets to get my time in. We went for a ride to explore some of the side streets and our ride was not a long one. We did find another little town maybe a mile away called Rock Springs and it had a general store, saloon and restaurant. It also had a farmers market such as it was and we bought a couple of tomatoes and grapefruit. The lady that waited on us smelled like patouley oil (sp?), had tatoos all over and looked like she had seen a few county fairs. They sold home made pies which were going fast but we decided that we didn't need a whole pie, we would eat it all.

Tomorrow we leave for Tucson where Richard's folks are, it should take us 3-31/2 hours to get there. We are staying about a mile from their house and will be there for four days.

Until next time,

Gloria

Driving in the Wind

Posted by Rich

Us at Lake Powell

The drive yesterday was awful. Up until then we had covered about 1400 miles, all but a few of those miles had been on two lane highways (the streach from home to the I-84 exit at Fairview, And a 30 mile run down I-15 from Cedar City to Harrisburg, UT). It was all pleasant driving at a reasonable 50-55 MPH pace. Well, yesterday we had a 120 mile run down I-17 here in AZ. It was a very WINDY drive at one point coming out from behind some cliffs in a pass the wind pushed the motorhome into the next lane (thank goodness there were no vehicles there). It made for a stressful day. There are not any other roads that wouldn't add lots of miles to our next destination, which is Tucson to visit with my dad.

Enough about that, we are spending the weekend at Black Canyon City. This is another nice stop, more friendly people, we like that. There are not too many rigs here yet but they are expecting the snowbirds any time now. Last night we went to a local restaurant (Kid Chilleen's Badass BBQ) and had a very good dinner. The camera forgot to come along so maybe I'll go back today so I can post a picture. Today is laundry and cleanup day (after all it is Saturday). There is an Amish restaurant in town so we thinking about going there for breakfast.

More Later, Rich

Another Rainbow Bridge Photo

Posted by Rich

Another shot of Rainbow Bridge

I just had to get my 2 cents in. Gorgie said it all, except she didn't tell about how she visited with all these people we met. It was like she hadn't had anyone to talk to for the last four weeks. I did my visting with a couple guys about rving and travel in general. It was nice, we have met alot of nice people. But we do miss all of you.

Pam Phipot asked "how are you two doing with your diet and exercise while traveling?"

Good question--we are eating most of our meals in or at the motorhome so we are eating pretty much the same as we do at home. Of course we are eating out a bit more often than when we are home, but we still try to be sensible. All the places we have visited have required walking lots of walking, thats a good thing. Let me tell you that even a short walk at 9115ft. IS EXERCISE. But seriously we have enjoyed every walk we have taken. Plus Gorgie takes her walks alone almost every morning.

More Later, Rich

Rainbow Bridge

Posted by Gloria

Here is a picture of Rainbow Bridge

Yesterday we took a boat ride to a place called Rainbow Bridge which is a natural rock formation formed over many years. It took us 3 hours to get to where we docked and then it was a 3/4 mile hike to the bridge, what a beautiful site! They allowed us 90 minutes for the hike and to take pictures which we took way too many. We got back to the boat where we were served lunch and started our 3 hour ride back. The day was sunny and warm, approximately 75 degrees, which was perfect. We all commented that we were thankful it is October and not July or August. We met some nice people from Montana, France, Germany, Indiana and London.

Today we left Lake Powell a day early to break up our drive to our next destination. We stopped in Flagstaff AZ for the night and I am catching up on e-mails while Richie finishes his book. It is a comfortable 72 degress out. I told Richard I could get used to this warm, dry climate and then he reminded me it is really hot in the summer.

Until next time,

Gloria

Page, Arizona

Posted by Rich

This is our rig at Lake Powell, isn't the view grand?

Today was shopping day. We had a lazy morning around the camp. When we did get going it was to the town of Page. A small town that caters to the boaters on the lake. We asked a clerk in the store about a good place for lunch, she sent us to Fiesta Mexican Restaurant. It was very good indeed, Gorgie had a veggie burrito and I had a chile colorado burrito. She washed hers down with a cadillac margarita and I had a couple beers. We did our shopping and spent the rest of the day sitting around reading. Gorgie has completed four books so far, boy do we work hard or what?
In the morning we have reservations to go on a 7.5 hour boat trip to Rainbow Arch National Monument. The only way to see this is either by boat or several days of hiking (I'll take the boat). I'll have pictures of that trip tomorrow night.

More Later, Rich

Snow & Crazy Jug Point

Posted by Rich

This is a picture from Crazy Jug Point.

Sat. 10/6/07
Snow on the Kaibab. It was cold last night, our thermometer said it got down to 28 degrees, but they told me at the office it got to 22, just a bit on the chilly side. I was up to ask about the weather forecast, and was told that it was going to be cold but the danger of any snow had passed. I guess Mother Nature didn’t get that report. As I sit here it’s snowing on and off, lightly and not sticking but there is snow coming down. When I was in the office they told me about a canyon lookout that is hardly visited by anyone. It is about 35 miles down the gravel road that goes by the campground. Today was going to be laundry, book reading kind of day, well as soon as Gorgie gets the laundry done, I think we’ll have a sandwich and take off to see what we can see.

Sun. 10/7/07
This morning we woke up to 18 degrees, outside. Inside it was 41 in our bedroom but a balmy 54 in the living room where I left the electric heater on all night. That made for some great sleeping. I also left the water dripping in the sink so that didn’t freeze, and we have running water. The drain hose is probably full of ice though. I’m watching the sun come up and it sure is lovely here.
Speaking of great sights, we took a back road trip that was recommended to us by the camp staff, they had printed a copy of the forest service map for us and we were off. It was a long and bumpy ride (gravel road), the Zuki was in her element though; we traveled between 20 and 30 MPH all the way there. What scenery, the drive was through mostly forest, with some meadows thrown in. There is a mix of pines with those colorful aspens mixed in. We saw several deer and cows grazing, what a great drive.
We were not prepared for what we found when we got to “Crazy Jug Point”. The vistas from here were different than those from the North Rim; they looked out on wooded mesas and cliffs that looked as though they were carpeted with an indoor/outdoor carpet, making it a softer and lusher, while contrasted with the ruggedness of the canyons. We were the only people there, the silence was awesome, there were crows all around us and we could actually hear their wings beating the air over our heads, and that’s all there was to hear. We also witnessed a hawk flying in front of us with a squirrel in its talons-dinner. What an experience!!
On the return trip we continued down the forest road to where it met the main paved road and came home that way. I don’t think the temperature ever got past 40 yesterday so when we got back I didn’t want to spend any more time outside barbequing, I was chilled to the bone. So we went up to the Jacob Lake Lodge and had a wonderful dinner of Jaeger schnitzel for me and chicken portabella mushroom with a cranberry orange sauce for Gorgie. What a good meal and such nice people.
We don’t have any plans for today but if something comes up we’ll tell you about it.
Tomorrow we travel to Lake Powell for a few a few days. The drive there is going to be interesting. We drive down into the canyon through some very scenic country and cross the Colorado River on the Navajo Bridge. Along the way are some lookouts we’ll have to check out. While at Lake Powell we want to take a boat trip to a rock formation called “Rainbow Arch” it’s an all day excursion and we are looking forward to it.

Well that brings you up to date with our Jacob Lake adventures. We have lots of pictures to share we just can't put them all on the blog. Google has a web album feature that I may look into. Today we need to go grocery shopping so we thought we would explore the town of Page, Arizona. On the next post I'll put up a picture of what we see from our campsite, this is by far the most scenic site of the trip. Wait til you see picture.

More Later, Rich

Wind on the North Rim

Posted by Rich

Gorgie took this picture of an aspen grove on one of our drives. Don't they look striking?

More of our Jacob Lake adventures.


Fri. 10/5/07
This is Friday morning and there are not a lot of clouds in the windy sky so today may be the day we return to the canyon. There is a road that goes to some of the more remote vistas that we thought we might explore.

We drove to the north rim again today, when we started out it looked like it was going to be a sunny day. Well it was WINDY, the closer we got to the rim the cloudier it got. Good thing the main reason we went was to check to see how Bob’s procedure went. Thank goodness everything went very well. The road we wanted to go on to see sights we hadn’t seen was closed because of high winds and downed trees.
We returned to our camp and more or less vegged and read for the rest of the afternoon. When we visited Costco in St. George we bought some frozen scallops, this was our choice for dinner. Not having a cookbook it was create on the go. It was a great dinner. Along with the scallops we had mushroom and herb risotto, and sweet corn. This had to be the best dinner we fixed so far on this trip. If anyone wants the recipe (Jacob Lake Scallops) just send me an email and I’ll send it to you. Life is good. By the way we recommend serving this with a glass of your favorite wine, we like Sweet Valley Double Barrel Red.

More Later, Rich

Posted by Rich

Another episode from Jacob Lake.

This is a picture of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on a windy, rainy day.

Thurs. 10/4/07
On Thursday the 4th we woke up to a cloudy, windy, chilly day. We wondered if we should bother trying to see the north rim or wait for a clear day. We decided to give it a try, and are we glad. The day was a mix of sun, clouds, rain, wind, and good sights. The drive from here is about 45 miles so the Zuki was huffing and puffing another day (good girl). Along the way we were treated to the fall colors of the aspen trees. They are mostly yellows from dark and rich to light and airy. They make a soft rustling sound in the wind, and in the sunlight they just seem to glow. They are mixed with the ponderosa’s. There are some high mountain meadows along the road that are fringed with these trees. We saw deer in these meadows, along with some wild turkeys. Also there is a squirrel that is only found on the plateau here, it is called the Kaibab squirrel, it is grey with a bushy white tail and large ears, it lives solely on the ponderosa’s, a very distinctive animal. One of them lives next to us in the campground.

We think that the north rim is more beautiful than the south rim. It’s been many years since we have been there but the views are of distant cliffs and the Colorado River way down in bottom. From the north rim there are cliffs right there and many of them. You can’t see the river but the cliffs make up for that, even on a mostly cloudy day. We plan to return on a clear day if we have one before we leave.

There is a group of 9 Holiday Ramblers staying here; they all belong to the same club in Michigan. They are on a tour together, and headed to the balloon festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That sounds like a lot of fun; we want to do that some day. Anyway they are very nice and seem to be having a good time together
.Sleeping here is very restful, the nights are cool and breezy, and the air is so fresh and clean. The only complaint is the street light outside by bedroom window. I tried turning it off and someone kept turning it back on so I gave up.

More Later, Rich

We're Back

Posted by Rich

This is a photo of some rocks on the way to Bryce.

Today finds us at Lake Powell, Arizona. It was an eazy drive here, down some mountains, up some mountains, through some canyons and over a couple of bridges with impressive views. More about that and Lake Powell later. While we were off line we continued to write about what we were doing, and what we saw. I'm going publish those first, I hope. I need to see if I can cut and paste from MS word or if I'll need to get Gorgie to retype it. It's going to be in a couple of postes so it may take a while to get it all. So here goes...

We arrived at Kaibab Camper Village shortly after noon on Wed 10/3/07. Our first impression was that this is a lovely place, it is set in a National Forest, we are surrounded by ponderosa pines, and the smell is wonderful. The altitude here is 8650ft. so you have to take more deep breaths, too bad. Jacob Lake itself is tiny; it is in fact a sink caused by limestone eroding away under ground, the soil sinking and if the water table is close enough to the surface there is water in it.

More Later, Rich

Bryce Canyon National Park

Posted by Rich

This is for you Nici



The poor cell service gives me the blues. It has taken me two days to get this posted, and I don't know about a picture yet.Monday we went to Bryce what a grand place the scale of everything makes you seem so small. I know I could see tomorrow we could see so far. At one point we were at 9115 ft. in elevation. I found myself taking extra deep breaths. The drive from here took 3 hours the Suzuki each way so it was a long day. The old girl was huffing and puffing almost flat out all day. But we made it, just another part of the adventure. Back to Bryce, the scenery there is majestic with it's canyons, hoodoo's, and vistas. The trees are turning up there so we got to see some fall color. On the way back we drove through a driving rain storm, so bad we though about stopping and waiting it out, but we made it through ok.
Today we leave Hurricane ( they pronounce it hurriken), and travel to Jacob Lake,AZ. We plan to see the north rim of the Grand Canyon, we've been to the south rim before but this will be our first visit to the north. The altitude there is about 7400 ft. it will make cooking a new challenge. I don't think we will have any sort of connection there so I We won't be able to post until we get to Lake Powell on the 8th of October.
I got up early to post this but have too poor of a connection to get a picture up, sorry.



More Later, Rich