Campground Hopping

Otis snuggling with his dad. We were able to sit outside
before dinner but afterward the horrid smell started and
was there when we left - gross.

NEVER stay at the Provo, Utah KOA.We gave it a 1 for our review and that was being generous. The staff at the front counter acted like they were bored with us; no one was going around to make sure there wasn't garbage all over; something god-awful smelled like it had died there and then been covered with chemicals; and neither the wifi nor my phone's hotspot worked.  Sucks to be us - lol! Luckily it was only for one night.

Last night we stayed at the Pocatello, Idaho KOA and it was a sweet little place. Quiet and lots of trees. They even had soft-serve ice cream which we all enjoyed after dinner.  Met some folks from Florida in an RV bigger than ours! He had just retired and they spend about 5 months out of the year just traveling.  That's what we want to do once Mya graduates. We've seen so many beautiful places and think, "Oh, I could live here" and I guess we can temporarily. Just go back to the places we like the most and keep out of the heat!

Hwy 15 through Montana. Saw some old snow
 up on some of the mountains.  

We drove about 280 miles today and crossed the continental divide twice. We are currently sitting in Deer Lodge, Montana. Deer Lodge is another quaint little town. I think we will go exploring after dinner tonight. We passed an old prison on the way in here that looked like a castle with rounded towers on each end. Not sure how old it is but we'll have a look. Our spot is right along the Clark Fork River and from the looks of it, they've had quite a bit of rain.  It's way up it's banks and really muddy.  I didn't realize the banks dropped off and Otis nearly went on a raft trip -minus the raft. Oops!

Tomorrow we head into Spokane for two days to visit my niece. Looking forward to staying put for 2 days. After that it's into Canada and more campground hopping.
 

Should be called Zoon (pronounced Zoo-on)

We are settled in at the Springville/Provo KOA here in Provo, Utah.  The drive up was uneventful.  We took I-15 North.  A long straight stretch of road through pastureland. We did see one beautiful sight, a lavender farm. It was called the Young Living Lavender Farm and according to the Internet, it’s the largest herb farm in the world at 1400 acres.  Fields of purple just outside of Provo.

Our "mascots" - proof we've been there.

One of the first views along the road into the park.
Waiting to go through tunnel #1.

So tackle Zion we did.  (Jade informed me that ZION in Hebrew means "peace and relaxation". She said they must have named it a long time ago before the crowds!) We headed out about 9:30 a.m. and it wasn’t long before we began to see LOTS of cars.  It area is beautiful – huge orange sandstone mountains with all kinds of designs on the surfaces from the wind and water erosion. The first sign of trouble was at the second tunnel.  The first tunnel was really short but the second one was 1.1 miles long and built in the early 1930s.  Depending on who is in the line of traffic, the tunnel is either one-way or two-way. Those giant tour buses are allowed into the park but they have to stop all the traffic because the tunnel is only 13.1 ft high in the center and only 11.4 ft on either side so the buses have to drive right down the center to fit.  So we could just imagine, between the tour buses and the hundreds of folks like us in cars, how many folks would actually be in the park.   Other sites I’ve seen say it’s the 3^rd most visited. 
I was wrong, it’s only the sixth most visited National Park in the system; Great Smokey Mountains takes first place with over 11 million visitors a year; Grand Canyon is second with 5.9 million; Yosemite, third with 5 million, Rocky Mountains in Colorado is fifth with 4.5 million, and Zion comes in a measly sixth with 4.2 million visits (Based on 2017 article by Lonely Planet).

Lots of towering giants in the park.

ANYWAY . . . it was crowded and if you know me (and Jeff) very well, we don’t do crowds. Every parking place in the park was full and it was only 10 a.m.  Those that weren’t in parking spaces were parked along the sides of the roads leading to the various trails along Hwy 9 that runs east to southwest through the park. There is a little town just outside the south entrance to the park that you can park in (for a fee) and walk back to the park but it was pretty crowded too.  People standing at all the shuttle stops. We managed to snag a 15-minute parking spot right at the visitor’s center. Jeff took care of Otis while the girls and I went in to get our National Park stamps and stickers. I heard one guy say, “We gotta stand here for the shuttle; it’s a 20-minute wait!”.  Yes, you must take a shuttle to see the REAL fancy stuff in the park.

Looks like Neapolitan ice cream.

We came, we saw, we left. (I was starting to develop a twitch – lol!)   He got an earful about the problems with the trash in the park. People act like the place is a dumping ground for all the crap in their cars.  She would like to see a “pack it in, pack it out” rule put in place because they spend thousands of man hours and thousands of dollars trying to keep up with the garbage. She said she was out there because even the administrators all have to take a turn picking up trash and empting trash containers because it’s so bad.  She said she has even found whole cases of bottled water (unused) in the trash cans because folks don’t want to bother taking it out with them. Drives her nuts.  As I said, Jeff got an earful. But then we started paying attention to the folks around us and we did see lots of people who seemed to be cleaning out everything in their cars.  I guess, at least they were putting it in the trash cans, but I could totally see the enormity of the problem. The other thing we thought about is what about all those hikers that go back onto the trails.  Are there bathrooms out there?  We thought about Mt. Everest and how they say it’s so covered with human waste from the hundreds of climbers that attempt the climb each year that they don’t know what to do.  I imagine high traffic areas in the park might be just as vulnerable. So there you go, that was Zion. It was beautiful, again in that rugged, ain’t-no-water deserty way. I will be back but at a better time. I really want to visit the Great Smokey Mts Natl Park but with 11 million visitors, that will definitely be in the off-season.  They say peak season is, of course, Jun-Aug, and the entire month of October (fall leaves).  So maybe April?

I would like to see the entire park but I will put it on my bucket list and go in the off-season. While Jeff was waiting for us, he spoke to a Park Ranger (who was a park administrator) and she was picking up trash.

We are campground hopping for the next few nights until we get to Spokane.  Hoping to see my niece and her husband and their brand new baby girl. What I really want is some cool weather. The mornings and evenings have been pleasant; in fact, this morning was downright cold at 56 degrees and a breeze, but it’s up in the 90s during the day and this area is supposed to get hotter. Jade can’t wait to get to Alaska so she can wear her fuzzy socks and hoodies! Off to Pocatello, Idaho tomorrow.

106 But It's A Dry Heat

Volcanic vent left over from earlier times as this area was
being formed.  It's a geology thing!

Three days in Monument Valley and we crossed between Utah and Arizona at least a half-dozen times.  It's right on the border within the Navajo Reservation.  It's a "national park" put managed by the Navajo tribe, not the National Park Service.  The area is so beautiful - kind of like Moab but the spaces here are more wide open and vast.  We took lots of pictures but none of them do justice to the immensity of the rock formations.  We had fun trying to figure out why the different formations were given there names - East Mitten, West Mitten, the Thumb, etc.  Some of them we just couldn't see like the Bear and the Rabbit.  We could see the Rabbit but the bear was a mystery.  This is the area where they filmed a lot of John Wayne's movies and they actually have a pullout called John Ford's Point.  He was the director for many of films.  The girls and I

West Mitten and East Mitten.  See the thumbs?

also visited the museum in the visitor's center.  They had a fascinating display about the Navajo Code Talkers who served as marines during WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They used their native language to create a code that was unbreakable by the Japanese. It's fascinating how they went about developing the code. I picked of the book titled Code Talkers: the first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII. It explains in greater detail the process they went through as well as telling the story of  the life of Chester Nez, in his own words. It's excellent.

Three Sisters.  The rocks, not us. Or a big W if you like.

Our camping spot was a brand new KOA.  The facilities were lovely and such friendly people but it is in the middle of the desert and there is NO shade.  They've planted trees but they'll need about 10 years before they provide any shade.  Our first day here it only got to around 97 but that second day it actually hit 106 for a bit. With the humidity the "feels like" temperature was only about 96 but standing in the sun was blistering hot.  We made sure to drive through the park early in the day. We saw a bunch of folks in the open air jeeps going on tours.  I don't think I could handle that - the dust and the heat - ugh!  

What is amazing is the night sky. Such little light pollution (after our RV neighbors turned off their 

Jade at John Ford's Point.  Yes, you can have your picture taken
on a horse.  So cool

dang door/porch lights - omg, there might be boogie men out there in the dark!)  Great night sky viewing. We even got to see the Milky Way at 4:30 a.m. because Otis had been having gastrointestinal issues (if you know what I mean) and no one woke up in time before he had an "explosion" at the front door.  So we "made lemonade from the lemons" and went outside to see the stars - after we cleaned up the mess.  Had to air out the joint anyway! All the pets are having bathroom issues because there is no grass anywhere for them to do their business.We are out there with the other owners trying to find a spot that our dogs find acceptable. Silly.

Jeff at Artist's Point in Monument Valley.  It's magical.

Traditional Navajo homes called Hogans. They still build
these today.  We saw a lot of them next to regular modern
day homes.

Day two we traveled slightly north to a place called Mexican Hat. A tiny little town just outside the reservation area. The town is named for the rock formation near the town that bears the same name. A little anti-climatic after the towering formations we saw in the valley.  Everyone was asking me, "Is that it, is that it?"  We also visited Gooseneck State Park named for the "entrenched river meander" that was created by the San Juan River running through the area. Apparently, it is "the most striking example" of this type of geologic feature on the North American continent.  It's like

The Thumb.  It's huge.

switchbacks on a road, hence the name Gooseneck.  I was surprised to actually see water in the river. The river eventually flows into Lake Powell in Page, AZ. 

We drove through Page, AZ home to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon dam.  So sad.  Due to drought and water overuse, the lake is down 89.1 feet.  I remember years ago when I was here the lake was huge and a gorgeous blue. Not any more. You can barely see the water from the road except from the bridge over the dam. 

Gooseneck - an entrenched meander.

Mexican Hat - so cute!  I guess you can
 see why I got, "Is that it?"

Made our first stop at a store since leaving home.  We sure love Wal-Mart when we are traveling.  However, it was near the lake and it was a Saturday; the place was a zoo! Two tour buses full of Asian tourists had just descended on the place. Jeff stayed in the RV with Otis. He wanted no part of that mess. So we are in a little town called Glendale in Utah about 20 miles outside the park.  It was the closest spot Jeff could get that looked decent. I've read that Zion is the second most visited National Park in the nation.  They have been having discussions about how to manage the park because of the millions of tourists that descend on the place every year.  

It's lovely here at our RV park.  Trees and green grass; I've got a whole new appreciation for these simple gifts of nature after being in the desert. There are apple, dwarf pear, and cherry trees growing around the campground and they have a little water fountain in the park-like area up front. It's only 96 degrees.  So refreshing - lol! Love to hear the breeze rustling the leaves.  Ahhhhh. Tomorrow we tackle Zion.

You Just Never Know Who You Might Run Into

The challengers' RV.

Jade is watching Helen and one of her RV mates packing
up all the hoses and electrical hookups.

Yesterday morning (Wed) we left Cortez, CO to head southwest to Monument Valley.  As we were packing up, Jeff struck up a conversation with the folks in the RV next door (it was a group of pretty Asian women!)  They are here from China taking part in a reality challenge.  She said they have a youtube channel that they post stuff on. They have two RVs with 4 women in each and they are competing to see who can be the most self-sustaining.  When they began they knew nothing about RVs or how any of the stuff works (think water, sewer, electric hookup) and they have to work together to figure it all out and drive the RV. They are not allowed to get help from anyone. I think they aren’t given the day’s destination until that morning. Jeff asked where they were headed and she said she didn’t know! She (Helen) told us that they get $50 a day for food for the 5 of them.  Her team also has a special needs girl with them who they are raising money for and she gets to be on the adventure with them.  If I had to put my money on one of the teams, I’d bet on Helen.  What a dynamo. She said her group is the outgoing, crazy group and the other ones are all quiet, etc.  She was so funny.  They film crew follows them around.  They were staying in the little KOA cabins right next to the RV spot.  I’ve Googled it and can’t find anything but they seemed legit.  Maybe when we have better wifi I’ll do some more searching.

The camera crew's vehicles and cabin.

View from the window of our RV at Monument Valley KOA.
(I think if you click on the picture, it will enlarge it - shows
what it really looks like a little better.)

Our day of driving was a short one. Only 125 miles or so.  We crossed from Colorado into Utah and then into Arizona.  Didn’t stop at 4 Corners (where these three states and New Mexico meet) because we’ve been there before.  Most of our travels are on the Navajo reservation.  Talk about treating the American Natives like crap.  The place is beautiful in its own arid, stark, ain’t-no-water, I-don’t-have-to-live-here kind of way but it is stinking desert in every direction you look.  We haven’t seen any wildlife to speak of- a single cow or two wandering around in the heat trying to eat the spiky grasses that dot the area.  Every time we come to this part of the world I feel embarrassed and sad.  Embarrassed to be a white person and sad at what our ancestors did to the original inhabitants of the US.  Casinos are juxtaposed with the ramshackle homes that folks live in. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

So tomorrow we go exploring Monument Valley.  Just the view from our RV spot is spectacular.  I can only imagine what lies around the corner.  

Mesa Verde - Cortez, Colorado

This is actually after we've been in the park.  Otis is
recovering from his trauma.

Today was our first National Park Adventure!  We visited Mesa Verde, ancestral home of the Pueblo people.  Amazing to see how they built houses in the cliffs.  According to the visitor information, they lived in pit houses originally (550 AD) and then gradually developed the cliff dwellings that are built into the sides of the cliffs around 1200 AD.  The pit houses are exactly what they sound like, pits (most of them circular) dug into the ground.  As time progresses they eventually made the walls taller and taller.  They used wood and mud (wattle and daub) to build the upper walls and roofs.  I seem to remember the information saying that they aren't sure why they abandoned those types of houses and moved to the cliff dwellings.  The dwellings are so high up, I can't imagine what it must have taken to build such extensive structures. But they are very protected and allow for them to build up - something they couldn't do with the pit houses.  The newer dwellings are made with rectangular bricks so maybe it was just they figured out how to make the bricks and realized they could stack them and make rooms, etc.  (They are the original Legos?)

This is one of the first cliff dwelling ranchers discovered
 in Mesa Verde back in the 1880s.

At the Cliff Palace they believe that 100-150 people lived there in the surrounding dwellings and the Cliff Palace was a gathering place. One section of it is a ceremonial (religious?) area. The religious/ceremonial structures are called kivas.  (Don't quote me on any of this stuff - I'm trying to remember everything I read - lol!)

Only when we came back to the RV and I read the whole brochure did I realize that where they grew crops was ABOVE their dwellings.  I'm not sure why that didn't occur to me then. They only thing below the dwellings jumbles of rocks and valleys full of shrubs.  They would have to build them up above to make use of the flat areas.  Apparently, they began to grow corn, beans, and squash - and so began the transition to a type of agriculture moving them from a strictly hunter/gatherer people.  They believe that the Puebloan people actually came across the Bering Sea land bridge and made this area their home for about 750 years.  What a journey!  I see all of this and know I wouldn't survive a day if I were transported back in time.

This is Cliff Palace the largest of the dwellings.  

Prior to getting to the dwellings, we stopped at Park Point Overlook, the highest point in the park at 8572ft.  What an amazing view.  They have a watch tower up at the top that serves as a lookout point for wildfires. It used to be staffed year-round.  Now it's just during fire season. I was wondering if they needed volunteers.  Peaceful up there.  I think it said you can see 100 miles away - it's FLAT!  We could see Ship Rock faintly off in the distance.  It would have been clearer but because of pollution and smoke from fires, it was just faintly visible.  It looked like a magical castle in the clouds!

One of the Kivas just to the right of Cliff Palace.

So what added to the remarkable trip is that at the first campground they had a kennel where we could put Otis. So Otis, unbeknownst to use when we got him, has separation anxiety.  SERIOUS separation anxiety. We left him alone in the RV one time last year and he literally ripped out a window screen and tore the covering and screen off the front door. A couple hundred dollars of repair work in a BRAND NEW RV.  The time before that he managed to claw and scratch the heck out of the door separating the main area from the bedroom area. Needless to say, we can't leave him in the RV unless we put him in his kennel and that seems cruel if it's over 3 hours or so. So for $17.00 and a mass of paperwork about him and his shots, we got to leave him in a slightly larger kennel with a bed and water and a bag of snacks. They caretakers took him out periodically to let him run around. He got to listen to non-stop barking from his roommate - another unhappy pooch.  I hope Otis didn't bark the entire time like that guy was doing - ugh! The roads in the park are all windy and turny with switchbacks and I just know he would have barfed had he been with us. We even got to stop in a cafe in the park and have lunch.  I will now look for a kennel in all the parks we visit.  We bought him some calming snacks and spray - we'll have to use some on him so he doesn't freak out as much.  He was SOOOOOO happy to see us when we went to get him.  Now he is exhausted from the stress.  His new name is "superfreak". What a dog!  I so hope Zion has a kennel too.

Our KOA here is pleasant.  We are at about 6000 ft so we are relatively cool.  It was 50-something when we got up this morning but it does heat up quickly.  They also have a 3-acre dog park where Otis can run and play with other dogs as well as a mile long trail around a small lake.  Lots of opportunity to wear him out!

Tomorrow we are off to Utah and Monument Valley which is located on Navajo tribal land. I didn't realize that this area actually crosses the Utah/Arizona border.

Time to start dinner. I never stop thinking how lucky we are to be able to travel like this. Most of the people we see are old/elderly.  Kids Jade and Mya's age are relatively rare.  We see a lot of grandkids with grandparents or young families. Probably no one wants to lock themselves in a vehicle with two teenagers!  But because we've been doing this since they were little, they are actually quite agreeable as long as we do "stuff".  Sitting around and enjoying the view is not their thing. Keeps us young.

Santa Fe

Ahhhhh.  Just finished my morning cup of tea sitting outside under crystal clear blue skies and temps in the mid-fifties.  But the sun soon starts to warm things up.  We had a good day of travel yesterday with a little wind to fight.  The worst part was US 84 from Lubbock to here - not a lot of money put into that road.  Jade said she kept waiting for the tires on the car to pop!

Had a drenching thunderstorm in Lubbock overnight that turned the campground into a swimming pool but is sure made for some fresh air.  I saw a robin too which is so weird. It's only a little less than 400 miles or so north of San Antonio and we don't get any robins.  There must be some magical longitude that they don't go below.

View surrounding Roadrunner RV Park just outside
(north) of Santa Fe.

The night before the girls and I had a rousing game of UNO!  I haven't played that in a long time and forgot how crazy making it is when you don't draw the right card and end of with a boatload in your hand!  Mya and I were laughing so hard I was crying.  Haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  Fun!

We are in a low-key RV part just outside of Santa Fe.  This high desert is lovely and cool. And very little humidity. Got to sleep with the windows open - such a treat these days.

It's 5 o'clock and time to relax.  Thunderstorms skirted past us
but we stayed dry.  

Today is another travel day.  We are headed to Cortez, Colorado (I thought we were still in NM - oops!) Just sitting here with Jeff trying to decide our route.  Probably ought to find out what's up with the fire in Durango since we go right by there on the shortest route.  I'm looking forward to staying in one spot for a few days.  We plan to visit Mesa Verde and Zion National Parks while we are there.

Time to pack 'em up and move' em out.  Nine a.m. seems to be the standard leaving time.  Have about 280+ miles to go today.  Hope the roads are a little smoother.  Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom!  See you soon!!!

And were off . . .

(So excited!  Limitless data and can use my phone as a hotspot!  I can blog to my heart's content!)

Getting the monster out of storage.  I've missed our "baby".
Haven't used it since Thanksgiving.

Pulled out of the neighborhood at 8:53 a.m. today.  There was a community garage sale going on so it was tricky squeezing between all the vehicles parked on the sides of the roads.  We seem to always miss the garage sale which is fine because I can't stand garage sales.  What we should have done is put all the junk we don't want at the end of the driveway and just put a FREE sign on everything.

It's been a pretty uneventful day which, of

We loathe this part of the process.  Loading everything.
Otis is making sure we have his toys and food.

course, is good when you are traveling long distances.  We did 377 miles and landed here in Lubbock around 4 pm.  The wind is howling and there is dust everywhere.  I looked on the drought map and I think we are in the area with extreme drought.  The fields are all bare and the dust is incredible.  Saw a number of dust devils swirling out on the horizon.  They make good use of the wind power in this area though.  Hundreds of wind turbines as far as you can see.

We are staying at a KOA and it just happens to be the one mom and the girls and I stayed at when we moved down here from Alaska almost 10 years ago.  Nothings changed - lol!  The KOAs are pretty much all the same but that is kind of nice - you know what to expect.  Some other RV spots KOAs always have a little store and I'm glad because I forgot to pack a toothbrush so I bought one here.  I told Jade I was going to use hers and she freaked (you'd have to know Jade to understand!)

Dust devils over the barren fields.  You can just about
see the wind turbines through the fog of dust. 

are not all they are advertised to be.  They say they can accommodate this monster RV and then we end up trying to navigate through tight corners and low hanging branches.  Not pretty.  Jeff's road rage (RV park rage?) comes out when that happens. 

Tomorrow we are headed into Santa Fe, NM.  We didn't get to go there first time we drove up to Alaska 5 years ago.  We had to detour because there was a fire near by so ended up going through Albuquerque.  This year is going to be a challenge with all the fires in Colorado and Utah.  We are supposed to go through Cortez, NM and stay at Mesa Verde National Park which is near Durango, Co and there is a huge fire just north of there in the San Juan Forest.  I looked at the fire map and I think it will be a zigzag trip up to Spokane.

Well, "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" and HERE so it's time for a beverage.  Got to wash away the dust in my throat.  We're supposed to have thunderstorms here tonight which would be awesome.  They desperately need rain and I desperately need a a Bud Light.  Cheers!