Oct 5, 2011  Driving along the road leading into the Petrified Forest I don’t see any trees, only desert.  Hmmmm!  Good thing we stop at the Museum first and watch the 20 minute movie.  Wow!  I’m loving  all this! A forest of fossil trees! It’s America’s very real Triassic Park.  I’m going to tell the Grands to pay attention in school.  I know I must have learned a lot of this when I went to school, but I must not have paid attention.  The brochure said allow 2 hours for both the Forest and Desert.  We were there all day.  It’s a “wonder” how nature brings out the natural color and beauty of everything here.  It’s Mother Natures grand magic show.   There was one hike that we didn’t do. It was listed as 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  The views and history of the area are amazing.  You can’t just drive through, you have to get out and walk.  National Parks and Historic Places let you get right up and close to so much.

We still have to find a place to stay for the night.  Our plan is to be in Albuquerque, New Mexico early tomorrow for The Hot Hair Balloon Fiesta.

Oct 5 – 8, 2011  At 7:30 p.m. we finally stop in Grants,  New Mexico at The Lavaland RV Park ($19), about an hour outside of Albuquerque.  We have to be up at 4:30 a.m. to make the 5:30 a.m. start.  The Festivities are all day, but the balloons need cool air. Balloon times are 5:30 – 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.   We need to catch the morning activities because we are now heading east and there is some funky weather coming in behind us.  Albuquerque is still high in elevation, 7,000 +.  When we left the North Rim they were preparing to close the campground in anticipation of the first snow fall.  Yellowstone campgrounds were  already closed.

Oct 6, 2011  The early bird catches the worm.  It’s cool, but unfortunately it’s too windy for the balloons to go up. They have to stay tethered.  It was Specialty Balloon Day. There were over 100 balloons. Some balloons were from far away countries, like Brazil and France. David  had never been to a balloon festival. I had been to Balloons over Bristol.  No comparison.  This was over the top!  There was a Darth Vader balloon and the crew were all dressed as Star Wars characters.  Noah’s Ark was pretty cool. There were just all fun. The atmosphere  was VERY festive and upbeat.  Who knew people could look good and have fun that early in the morning!

We had to leave at 8:30 a.m.  The wind was picking up.  The plan was for me to drive some on  I 40  through NM, TX, OK .  Straight, Straight, Straight … it was time to head home and we thought we were pressing our luck with the weather.  We were in a wind storm beyond belief.  I told David to call me Dorothy.  Needless to say, poor David was stuck driving until he was exhausted.   We finally stopped in Texas at a 5 star campground with an indoor heated pool and hot tub.  The Amarillo Ranch RV Park in guess which town?  We rock and rolled in the camper all night . It felt like I was a baby being rocked in a cradle.  Unfortunately, it was not comforting.

Oct 7, 2011 More wind.  We’re on the road early, and see the sunrise  as we cross into Oklahoma.  It’s funny how the Texas pan handle is so barren, but when you cross over to Oklahoma you get color and some trees.  Still you can see for miles.  Today we’re headed for Camping World.  We have a broken toilet seat, shower hose, leaky skylight and we’ve lost our poop hose cover, again.  Mr Fix it’s list never ends even on the road. Maybe Old Bessie is telling us she’s ready to go home.  We didn’t do anything in Oklahoma except drive and stop at an unmemorable campground.  Next Stop Hot Springs, Arkansas.  We will take a break here.

Oct 5, 2011  In route from the North Rim to the Petrified forest on Hwy 89A we are treated AGAIN to a view filled “by way”.  On the side of the road we spot huge balancing stones and an ancient stone house.  Of course we have to stop.  This is not a tourist trap.  There isn’t anyone collecting fees. You just walk through the house and around the balancing stone, take as many photos as you want.  There is a family of Navajo Indians selling a few handmade trinkets.  They have a van and a table. They are wonderful  to talk to and “barter” with. I “negotiate” the purchase of five beautiful handmade dream catchers for the grands.  I was very excited because I had almost purchased “made in Taiwan” dream catchers at a gift shop. These are beautifully crafted and “authentic”.   The price was all the cash I had in my pocket.  I wished I had more to give.  These were such nice people and from some of the poverty ridden areas that we had traveled through I appreciated their friendliness and their skills.

I  write about all the beautiful places and sites, but there are some that are not so nice and very sad.  In such a wealthy Country,  it’s hard to believe people and animals have to live in such hardship.

We stop for the night in Holbrook, Arizona just a few miles from the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  We pay too much for the OK RV Park (this is the real name of it) $27.53.  There is nothing here, but it’s close to the Hwy.   The up side is the take out Mexican restaurant across the street.  The building looks like a McDonalds that went out of business.  We’re tired and hungry, so David walked across the street and came back with DELICIOUS homemade Mexican dinners. The two meals were enough for 4.  We’re glad we stayed here. Next Stop Petrified Forest.

Oct 2 – 4, 2011  We’ve been so lucky winging it with first come, first serve and “luck of the draw” campsites,  we weren’t  expecting the CAMPGROUND FULL sign at the Grand Canyon. We were able to get a site for the next night.  The ranger at the front entrance gave us a map and suggested “disperse camping”.  We pick a road in the Kaibab National Forest , very close to the Grand Canyon and pull off to the side of the road.  It was kind of creepy, but cool.  We are parked 3 miles from the East Rim of the Grand Canyon. Never heard of it. David says “You might think I’m crazy (which I know, but never say) but what do you think of we get up before sunrise and drive out to the east rim?”  I’m all for it, very romantic.  Beside I’m going to be staying up most of the night watching for bear and the rest of the night I’m going to be looking for axe murderers. Getting up early works for me!

Oct 3, 2011  ANOTHER treat.  Up this bumpy dirt road in the dark, animals just waking up scattering away along the sides of the road as we pass.  We arrived at a small parking lot with not a soul to be seen. David and I had the Grand Canyon all to ourselves. We watched a magnificent  sunrise.  Then we went back to Old Bessie and made breakfast.  We watched a few hunters in ATV’s drive through the lot. Otherwise it was just us and the Grand Canyon.

Back to the park and our “reservation”.  The North Rim view was not as thrilling for us, only because we had been to the South Rim.  There is nothing comparable to the very first time you see the “Grandness”!   The Angel Point viewing trail and the Rim Trail made the stop well worth going.  It is hard to get around the park in the RV and parking at the trail heads is almost non existent for cars let alone an RV..  It is also not a bicycle friendly park. So we are limited to where we can explore.  I fell in love with The Kaibab squirrel’s.  They have these awesome huge white fluffy tails and fun personalities. They dodge and dart up and down and all around the trees in the park.  As hard as I tried, I couldn’t get a squirrel photo. They are very quick.

Travel Tale … I’m sitting at the kitchen table  writing in my journal and I get the surprise of a lifetime.  It’s dark, quiet, David is already in bed, I’ve only got an over the table light on.  A mouse, I’ve now named Mickey, comes walking out from the over the cab bunk, jumps down onto the  back of the couch takes a few steps toward me. At first I’m in shock. Then he starts running back and forth on the back of the couch. Now this sounds pretty dumb, but I stand up on the bench seat and start screaming.   David comes running “stark naked” out of the bedroom.  I’m yelling “mouse, mouse”. He’s yelling “throw a towel on it, throw a towel on it”.   The mouse disappears.  I’m standing on the seat and David is standing in the isle naked.  did we look silly?  Apparently while we were disperse camping we had picked up a “hitchhiker”.  We know it had been around for awhile. When David went to get his potato chips from the overhead cupboard, the next day, the bag had been opened and quite a few chips were missing.    Too bad I didn’t get a photo of David’s face!  He has a hard time sharing his snacks with anyone let alone a mouse.

Oct 4, 2011 We woke up early again, this time for the sunrise at Angel’s Point.  To walk out on the jutpuxation into the  canyon and watch the colors of the canyon come alive was thrilling. You are surrounded on three sides by Canyon.  Much more than a Wow! Wow!   Before we leave I have to go to the gift shop and buy postcards with photos of the Kaibab Squirrels.  The whole time we are here I’ve been trying to take a photo of one. Those little critters dodged my camera the whole time.  I go in and buy a half dozen postcards, David is waiting in the RV to leave.  There is a Kaibab posing for some tourists.  I grab my camera and click, click, click, I get a few very cute photos.  Do you think he knew?   Next stop Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.

Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2011  We are a little concerned about getting a campsite at Bryce, they are all first come, first serve.  Zion was packed.  All of our trip so far has been “winging it” for campgrounds and campsites, with the exception of Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone.  We had called ahead and  ended up disappointed.  One out of how many?  Again, we get lucky.  We have a beautiful wooded site with a gorgeous field then forest. Hey! Where are the Hoo Doos we’ve heard all the hype about??

Oct 1, 2011  Wowza! Wowza! Wowza!  The Hoo Doos are a short hike from our site.  This land is amazing.  You turn one way and see green trees, fields and mountains for miles and miles.  Then you turn the other way and there are Hoo Doos (rock formations) with pastels of red and corals that treat your eyes to such splendor that they twinkle in delight.   Someone we had talked to “along the way”  had recommended taking the Free Rainbow Bus Tour first.  The tour takes you from one end of the park to the most remote (18 miles) edge of the park.  Our guide, Spike, was GREAT.  He entertained us with humor and knowledge. He gave us great hiking tips. Have I said we hiked until our legs fell off before?  We do it again.  The Navajo Loop was the best … No, Wall St … No, the China Wall … No Tower Bridge … No, Fairy Loop … No… you get my drift.  Every hoo doo, bristlecone pine, switchback, you are in a different country, fantasyland, geological wonder!  This is David”s favorite place  … so far.  It was ANOTHER one of my favorites. To late, I found out about it’s astrological location being one of the best for viewing.  I’m coming back for sure!

Oct 2, 2011  We don’t want to leave Bryce. The hiking was not only great, but I have to mention our campsite.   In the field behind it we had a heard of mule deer entertaining us whenever we were there.  When we couldn’t hike anymore and needed to rest, we could just sit and watch.   One more hike in the morning and then on the road again. Destination North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Sep 28 – 30,  2011  We’re back tracking a little, headed more north than east.  Headed to Zion we have to go back near Las Vegas.  To avoid Vegas traffic we detour through Lake Mead and take Hwy 169 again, no complaints here.  It’s on my list of favorites. Views! View! Views!   Lots of hills getting here and Old Bessie is running like a champ.  Going this way takes us over the New Hoover Dam Bridge. I was all excited and ready with my camera.  Poop! No views!  They “jersey barriered” the dickens out of it. All I could see was concrete.

ZION … Can their be anywhere as cool as The Badlands?? YES! ZION! We get lucky with a first come, first serve campsite at the South Campground in the park. We are right there.  Views, shuttles to all the trails and into the town of Springdale. The Pa’rus bike trail and Virgin River are feet from our site.  Heaven! I’m in Heaven! We hike the West Rim trail up, up, up, up literally to heaven!  We are headed to Angels Landing. We chicken out about 3/4 of the way to the top. There’s something about cliff hiking that’s scary.  Even though we chicken out, David says this is his favorite hike yet.  Now he’s kicking himself in the butt and wants to go again and go all the way.  Next Time!  My favorite hike was the Grotto. It was all “pools” beside the rock formations along the edge of the river. It was a hot day and at one of the falls David and I stuck our heads under the cold, cold water to cool off.  It was sooooo refreshing!

Sept 30, 2011 The only reason we were excited to leave Zion was in anticipation of driving up the canyon, zig zagging along the switchbacks (no guardrails here) and through the Mount Carmel Tunnel.  What a thrill!! I am getting to be such a pro, I didn’t even need my “bail out bag” . David and Old Bessie handled the challenge like champs. What an experience. Then for the “Grand Finally” The views at the top,  looking back  at the canyon were “stupendous”! Wow! Wow! Wow! Can this get any better?

Heading to Bryce Canyon we travel Route 12 and get the “road show” of Red Rock Canyon, pretty neat. We drive through a couple of cool rock arches. If Bryce is a let down we might check out Red Rock Park on the return trip.  We are seeing the most unbelievable and  beautiful places.  What a magnificent Country we live in.

Set 27, 2011  Our campground host tells us we don”t want to miss going to Oatman.  It’s an old western town. It’s where Carey Grant and Carol Lombard sent there honeymoon.  He says bring carrots and feed them to the burrows that hang around the town.  We drive 13 miles out Old Route 66 into the desert.  Oatman is a must go to. We laughed so hard.  I got head butted by “Jackie” a very friendly burrow. She chased us into a store. She chased me down the street … all in pursuit of our carrots.  I sent postcards with special burrow cancellations from the “Ole” post office.  We watched a “shoot out” in the street put on by The Shriner’s.  They do it several times a day and pass a hat for donations for the Children’s Hospital. During the “shoot out” a parade of about 20 “Jackie’s” came walking down the middle of the street.  The sound of the guns must be like a calling for them.  They know there will be lots of tourists and lots of carrots. David had hid our bag of carrots and after the shoot out he retrieved them and was swarmed by burrows.  I laughed so hard.  I wasn’t touching those carrots again. … those burrows are carrot crazy!!!  The town takes you back in time to the Old West in such a fun way.  I could have spent the whole day there.  Next stop  Bryce and Zion Canyons.  We stop in Mesquite, Nevada at the Oasis RV Park ($22). It is right at the Arizona border and the base of a huge mountain.  David figures we’ll give Old Bessie a rest and then tackle the mountain in the morning when it’s cool.

Sept 22 – 26,  2011  Headed for Bakersfield, CA to visit my brother, Bill.  We’re almost there and the transmission in Old Bessie starts to act weird. We’re thinking if it had to happen at least we made it to Bill’s and not somewhere in the middle of the desert.  We take Old Bessie to a “Transmission Doctor”.  She needs minor surgery, but  they can’t do it til Monday.  It’s only Friday and Bill doesn’t drive, so we rent a car.  One of the things we wanted to do was “cruise” the Pacific Coast Hwy.  Don and his wife (from the Mojave Campground) had recommended “scenic”  Rt 58.  David’s worst driving nightmare yet. Thank God we’re in a car not Old Bessie. We got lucky again.  Route 58 is scenic, but it would have been a challenge even for Mario Andretti in an RV.  Again, David did extremely well.

Along the coast was wonderful. One of the locals that we met, he was collecting buckets of sand and putting them in his car to take home for his kids sandbox, recommended Moonstone Beach.  It has a long boardwalk that goes for a couple of miles along the ocean. Seals lounge along the beach and rocks. More beautiful ocean views.

A little farther up the road I spot ZEBRAS! David thinks I’m seeing things.  It’s the Hearst Castle grounds. We drive up to the Castle, thinking maybe go for a tour.  It was closing time, but the tours were $25. We enjoyed the grounds and seeing the castle from afar.  We also missed eating at a restaurant that was recommended, Sebastions, across from the Castle. It’s only open until 4:00 p.m. Next time!   We found another restaurant and sat ocean side enjoying the sights, smells and sounds.   We took an alternate route home to Bills, through wine country.  Another nice day.

Sept 24, 2011  Bill has to work so David and I head off to spend the day at Famoso Drag Strip, about 20 miles north of Bakersfield.  It’s a very, very old track with lots of drag racing history.    We have a cook out with Bill and spend a nice evening catching up.

Sept 25, 2011  Hang out in Bakersfield shopping and running errands with Bill.  He works the afternoon and then we go out for authentic Mexican, delicious.

Sept 26, 2011  We are up at 6:00 a.m. and take Old Bessie to the transmission shop.  Thinking positive, we head back to Bill’s and say our goodby’s.  It’s sad leaving Bill, but we are ready to continue our adventure.  Old Bessie needed an electronic shift selector module $335. “Phew!”  She’s running good as new.  We head down I 40 and spend an uneventful night in Needles, California at The Desert View RV Resort, right on the Arizona border.  We’re headed north east now.

Sept 20 – 21, 2011 Headed to California. I thought it was going to be a boring driving day. I 15 in Arizona turned out to be a treat. Gorgeous scenery. Then we decided to camp for the night at Lake Mead in Nevada. It took us off I 15 to Hwy 169. Whoa Nellie!!! Absolutely amazing views!!! Zig Zaggy, but a treat around every curve. Good Choice!

The Lake Mead Campground had lakeside sites.  Today was one visual treat after another. Oh! a bonus, we got to swim in Lake Mead.

Sept 21, 2011  We are stopping in Las Vegas. David has been watching Barrett Jackson Car Auctions for years.  This weekend they are having a big one at the Mandalay Bay.  We travel I 15 all the way.  David does an amazing job of driving Old Bessie from the North end of the strip all the way to the south end in horrible traffic. Then he parks her in the Mandalay Bay CAR parking.  I had to get out of the RV and move some barrels, but he made it!  Disappointment … the show doesn’t  start  until Thursday.  We can”t stay.  We have plans with my brother, Bill in Bakersfield, California.

Next stop the Sierra Trails RV park in Mojave, California.  It’s a pretty neat campground in the Mojave Desert with views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The campground is just outside Edwards Air Force Base and close by China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center.  Lots of “Top Secret” restricted areas. The owners of the campground are retired military and real “talkers”.  I can only imagine how lonely it must be living out in the desert.  My “BIG” experience was lifting a garbage can to move it for a photo opportunity of the Sierra Nevada’s and having a scorpion coming running out from under it.  Fortunately, it ran toward a bush not my foot.  Don, the campground owner, said “there’s rattlers, scorpions and bob cats out here.  There’s a bob cat passes by every couple of nights but usually just keeps on going”.  Very interesting.  Time to go now!  On to Bakersfield.

Sept 17 – 20, 2011   Park City, Utah is a “Resort” ski area and town.  Park City was originally a silver mining town. I was able to find Megan (her birthday is Sept 22) a silver Indian necklace with a silver feather and aqua beads.  It matched the shirt I bought her in Jackson Hole perfect, Cowboy and Indian.  The town was neat, but very upscale.

Our next stop was camping in front of Gail and Nancy’s (Ski friends of David’s) house in Salt Lake City.  they have two awesome dogs, Callie and Sophie. I went to the dog park everyday with Nancy, Had my first fly fishing lesson with Gail.

They lent us one of their cars and David and I spent the day at one of David’s favorite places in the whole world, Snowbird. We took the (ski) chair lift  up and down the mountain. Then the tram to the top, 11,000 ft elevation.  Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!  It was very nostalgic for David.  We walked down the mountain, following many of the trails he had skied for years.  It took us over 2 1/2 hours. Rough on the knees and legs, but we loved every minute. We had a scrumptious  dinner at the infamous Steak Pit.  For avid meat eaters,  it’s the creme da la creme to order a “baseball” at the Steak Pit.

We had a  glinch with the heater in the RV and made an appointment to have it fixed while we were at Gail and Nancy’s.  We were lucky the  repairman came to their house.   It was a minor repair.  Even luckier the repairman told us there had been a recall on our 20 year old fridge, a fire hazard. The repairman fixed it on the spot with no cost to us.  That was very, very lucky.

We all went to the neatest restaurant , The Black Bear Diner. They had fresh from the oven biscuits as big as Zach”s foot and bear claws for dessert!   It was a wonderful fun filled three days.  Next Stop California.