September 6, 2022 The long road home

 

September 6, 2022  Going Home

My humans let me walk around a lot.  I am bored.

I heard Sunny and Crew leave for work at 4am.  When the sun started coming up, I did my walk, before the heat set in.  We readied Hannah for the ride home.

Lots of rural roads before we hit hwy 99.  Whether you take I5 or 99, the ride home sucks.  Lots of trucks and it is hot.  Going through Bakersfield it was 117…  and I had to stop to use Hannah’s bathroom…  oh my that was treacherous!

There had been a fire in Castaic.  The southland 5 lanes were open, but not all the northbound lanes.  As we soared by, we agonized for those gazillions of cars and trucks that were trying to make their way north.  Miles and miles and miles… even the side streets were jammed.  Oh my…

As usual, when we pull up to the house, Rudy starts bobbing his head with excitement.  MEOWT.  Ok baby… go have fun…

Now comes the real work…

At this point Spouse’s son-in-law John wants Hannah as a hunting retreat.  This would be such a fitting retirement for her…  Will keep you posted…  Until then… c u next time!

September 5, 2022 Crew and Sunny

 

September 5, 2022 Visiting in Crew and Sunny

My humans let me walk some, but it is hot.  I must rest.

My walk took me on a loop on the roads around Crew’s house.  It is very rural.  Although it is dry and yellow like most of California, it is a beautiful walk among homes on large properties.  There are rolling hills and pretty views.  The loop is about 1 ½ miles so I walked it back and forth.  It is amazing what you see walking in the opposite direction.  In all that time, only one car passed me.

California is having a heat wave, and it is about 105 here.  So far, our air conditioner is holding on as long as we have the fridge using gas instead of electricity.  Since Crew and Sunny have no dining room table yet, we have been playing Skipbo in Hannah so we NEED that air conditioner!

We went with Crew to the grocery store in Ione.  Turn left here for a few miles of rolling hills, then turn right for some more, then left, then right and finally, about 20 minutes later, we are in the tiny town.  Needless to say, this is not a trip you make often!

Sunny is Hmong. The Hmong people are essentially people without a country.  They are mountain people of southeast Asia, most closely related to Vietnam or maybe Thailand.  She is first generation American, but she has been raised with a lot of the Hmong culture.  She speaks fluent Hmong but is definitely a cute American girl!

She prepared a batch of pho that was delicious. Mmmmm…. She is definitely a keeper!

September 4, 2022 Hello goodbye hello goodbye

 

September 4, 2022  Moving on to Crew and Sunny

My feline friend came over to play with me.  I am not sure about him.  I showed him my paws, but just a little bit.  I let him sniff me and I sniffed him.  I am not sure about him, but I think he is ok, maybe.

I loved my morning walk around the Thoroughbred Loop.  I think I ate all the ripe berries that could be eaten without risking life and limb.  It was quite cool overnight, but by the end of my walk, it was warming up.

We readied Hannah.  One of the little kitties came over to play with Rudy.  They want to play so much, but Rudy isn’t sure.  He gave the tiniest of swats, not aggressive at all and they were able to sniff each other.  They go under Hannah so we can’t see exactly what happens as they hide behind the tires.  I guess what happens beneath Hannah stays beneath Hannah!

Back at the house, we say our goodbyes to Rick and Sue.  It is a bit of a hard visit as Rick has multiple sclerosis.  He was diagnosed over 30 years ago and the disease progressed pretty slowly for years.  But now he is basically confined to a wheelchair, and cannot interact like he has over the years.  I felt bad when Spouse cracked a joke and Rick laughed while he was chewing and nearly choked.  But he was ok and enjoyed the laugh, which was good to see.  Fortunately, he has a beautiful property that can house the caregivers that really take good care of him, and allows Sue some ‘me’ time. 

For us, we are heading to visit our nephew Crew and his wife Sunny.  They bought a home in the town of Ione.  Although we could have taken the scenic hwy. 49 down, it is pretty windy, it is a holiday weekend and we decided to take I80 to 99, then to Liberty Rd… which takes you past Lake Comanche into the middle of nowhere. 

The house has a long driveway, and electricity – perfect fit!  It is 100 degrees, and we can run our air conditioner in Hannah.  Their house is quite nice, it is new with no landscaping or fencing, so they have lots to look forward to.

We are teaching them Skipbo… let’s all sharpen our fangs…

September 3, 2022 More Visiting

 

September 3, 2022  More Visiting

I got to sniff a bunch of stuff today.  My human let me walk around a lot.  But those other felines kind of followed me. 

My morning walk around the Thoroughbred Loop was as beautiful as ever.  On the way back toward the house, 3 deer crossed my path.  Just another day in the Bain Animal Kingdom.  OH… look at that bear scat on the road…

We had to do a little yard work today.  For us to get Hannah out safely, we needed to trim a few trees that were dangling a bit too low.  The barn kitties gave us a little hand, and Rudy watched quite intensely.  Hopefully we did enough.  We will be leaving tomorrow.

In the meantime, more visiting.  Sue gave us a ride in the golf cart around the property.  It is 46 acres, lots to see.  The caretakers are building a chicken coop.  That won’t attract any bears, right? Hmm… bear tracks around the pond…

Visiting, playing Skipbo, eating, drinking…  It is pretty darn nice here! 

It has been warm during the day, but quite cool during the night.  Great for sleeping.  If we close the rig windows in the morning, it doesn’t get too hot during the day.  We don’t even have to use the air conditioner.

September 2, 2022 Wild Animal Kingdom

 

September 2, 2022  Wild Animal Kingdom

There are other felines here.  My humans let me sit outside and they came up to me.  They were not mean but I had to show them that my paws are bigger than their paws.  Then a canine came up to me.  I had to hiss and show him my paws.

When we stay at the Bain House, my walk is around the Thoroughbred Loop.  Spouse does part of it with me.  We head down the road from the house.  It is a dirt road all the way to the main street, about a half mile.  Two coyotes run through the brush.  We cross McCourtney Rd and start the loop.  The 6B ranch is looking mighty dry, like most of California.  No horses are in the pasture.  The entire loop is large horse properties with pretty pastures and lots of pine trees.  The geese that roost on Rick and Sue’s pond at night hang out at one of the pastures over here during the day.  I cannot pass up the blackberry brambles.  I eat a few… then a few more… ok, let’s face it… I shoved a bunch down my pie hole!  MMMM Good!  While Spouse turns back about half way, I follow the loop all the way back to McCourtney Rd, then retrace my steps back.  It is about a 3 ½ mile trip door to door.  It is one of my favorite walks.

Back at the house, Scooter the big horse, and Daisy the miniature greet me with little whinnies.  They are thinking I have treats for them now doubt. They have only had Daisy for about a year.  Their other mini-horse got taken down by a bear.  They found her, and asked a trapper about the evidence and he said it was definitely a bear.  Long story

short… let’s just say bear steaks were had by all real soon after.  Since then, they move the horses to the upper pasture at night and haven’t had a problem.  This is the first time this has happened in the 35 years they have been here.  And Scooter and Daisy are inseparable, it is so cute.  But there are bear tracks around the pond…  I hear the theme music from Jaws…

Sue knows there is a bobcat at the south side of their pond that has kittens every year.  And on the upper property is a fox family.  Her help, that live on the property have two kittens, about 8 months old.  They keep them in at night, but I doubt they will last real long.  They are sweet and were very curious about Rudy.  When they got close to him, Rudy gave them a little hiss, and a gentle swat to show who was boss.  And when Charlie the maltipoo ran up to Rudy, he gently showed off his polydactl paws!

And then we visited.  We have known the Bains for 40 years, and had some catching up to do.

September 1, 2022 Why, oh why did he say it?

September 1, 2022 The Fates Exact Revenge

I am popular.  Humans flock to me and I let them touch me.  Canines bark at me, and I don’t let THEM touch me.  It is exhausting being so attractive.

When we first started talking about retiring Hannah, Spouse talked about all the work he has done on her.  Then he said this…  help us now… ‘I’ve pretty much gone through her, so there is not much that could go wrong now’.

Are you kidding?  How could he do that!  He threw down the gauntlet and the fates heard it, I am sure.  I did not respond.  Maybe if I don’t acknowledge this dare, it didn’t happen, right?  Like if I cover my eyes with my hands, then you can’t see me, right?  What was he thinking?

Several days pass…  then this morning…  Spouse opens the refrigerator and the door falls off in his hand and onto his foot, spilling all the contents across the floor.  Of all the things that could go wrong, this was not even on my radar.  Fortunately, no damage to his foot, and although there was a little spillage, nothing broke.  As Spouse stood there dumbfounded, I did what I could do to help… I took a picture and texted to my RV homies!  Hmm, make sure I have no typos on my text – tick tock tick tock…  oops… fat finger, let me retype that… Finally, I helped him pick up the carnage.

Now that he was awake, what are we going to do now?  Youtube videos gave Spouse some ideas.  While we were picking up the mess, we found a screw here, a nut there.  Then Mr. Fix-up put on his cape with the big FU (fix up) and left for Walmart for some epoxy.

While he is gone, I get some walking in.  Totally uneventful.  When I got back he had epoxied the damaged hinge, and now we had to let it cure.  We put some of the fridge contents in the mini fridge my spouse keeps in the truck.  I cooked breakfast and it was so nice just reaching inside the fridge without dealing with the door.  After the epoxy was cured to Spouse’s satisfaction, he applied Gorilla tape to make it extra secure.  The moment of truth came when we actually got the door in place and was able to screw it in.  Will it last?  Who knows, but it did make some decisions for us.  We had talked about staying in Reno a few days to visit people.  But given that our days feel numbered, we skipped that and headed straight to Grass Valley to visit Rick and Sue.

Taking hwy. 50 to I80 west… OMG so boring, it actually hurts the eyes.  Then we pass into California and start over the beautiful Donner Pass.  Mountains, pines, the Truckee River and Donner Lake guide us along to hwy. 20, which is basically a two lane road through a thick pine forest.  Alas we arrive at the Bain house.

Rick and Sue have a large property, and we have stayed by the barn before.  This time we thought we would come in from a different angle…  I must apologize to our truck and to Hannah… this won’t happen again…

Time for a cocktail!

August 31, 2022 Inching West through Nevada

 

August 31, 2022  Inching West through the middle of Nevada

I was sitting outside with my paternal human and he walked away and left me all by myself.  Sometimes, I am ok with this but there are canines here!  DON’T LEAVE ME!  MOMMY LET ME IN!

My morning walk took me around the town of Baker.  It is a desert town where all the side streets are dirt.  On the road going up to Great Basin is an old rail car that has been converted to a home.  It is on about ½ acre, maybe more as it has a couple of outbuildings.  It is for sale at $599k.  The rail car is 498 square feet…  on a weed patch with a few fruit trees.  There are art sculptures around the property made from scraps of whatever – bottles, bike tires, etc.  It is quite creative.  But, $599 k?  Are you kidding?

I have to apologize to the state of Nevada.  I have said some pretty harsh things, like how ugly the terrain is.  There is a whole lot of ugly desert terrain here.  That terrain totally pegs the boor-o-meter.  That terrain could be used as a sleep aid for insomniacs around the world.

However… there is some terrain that is actually ok, so let’s give credit where credit is due.  There are rolling hills with desert sage, pinion trees and ponderosa pines that are actually interesting to look at.  Maybe not for so many miles but it isn’t bad.  Occasionally you see cattle grazing on some green.  That is ok… We saw a huge sand dune that was kind of cool… broke up the Nevada Brown with some light ecru. 

But, give me the night sky like you did last night outside of Great Basin and I will be much nicer to you. Not only did we see stars, but we saw STARS!  The milky way, satellites, shooting stars and then even more stars!  It was an amazing sky.

We are taking hwy. 50 which is known as the loneliest highway in the country.  It is a great alternative to I80.  It is actually fewer miles to Reno and the speed limit is 65-70 except through towns, of which there are few.  And we saw very few cars… we owned the road and that was really nice.

At one point, we thought of stopping at the town of Austin.  But we blinked and we missed it so we ended up in Fallon.  Inching closer to home…

August 30, 2022 Nevada Brown - Ice cream problem solved

August 30, 2022  Heading to the Nevada Brown

MEOWT!  My human took me to the grassy area for a while.  Then she brought me back.  I refused to walk and when she picked me up I made sure to whine out loud so other humans might rescue me.  She put me in the little house that moves.  I saw her touching another feline…  I jumped out the window and chased it away.  When my human came after me, I ran under a really big house that moves, and laid right in the middle where nobody could get me.  Ha Ha!

My morning walk had a bit of a little twist to it.  It is a weekday and the scent of the candle factory gently escorted me all around.  It was really quite nice!  And the ducks were just chattering up a storm!  People use rental scooters quite a bit here.  They go where they need to then just leave the scooter whereever.

Time to get Hannah ready to move again.  While spouse was draining the tanks, I took Rudy to the park.  He has cabin fever and just sits at the door waiting for us to leash him up.  I let him roam, then decided to take him back to help get ready.  Sometimes, he can really whine when he doesn’t want to be moved.  I stuck him in the truck.  The windows were open and we wouldn’t be long.  I saw another kitty and he let me pet him.  When he crouched, I knew Rudy must have escaped and sure enough, he was coming to check out the new kitty.  New kitty took off.  Rudy ran under the neighbors enormous rig and laid down right in the middle.  I got long poles, then longer ones before I was able to get him out from under.  He is sooo  grounded…

Spouse was a little sluggish in moving and we didn’t get on the road until almost 11.  South on I15 for about 25 miles, then back on the back roads to hwy 6.  Western Utah is desert.  There are lots of rolling desert hills, some farms and some amount of diverse terrain to keep it interesting.  Once we leave the town of Delta, the long flat desert floor stretches as far as the eye can see.  BORING!  There are gazillions of off road trails here (I am thinking it is more of the same only dirtier).  As we get near Great Basin, the mountains form a small pass for a minute, then we take the Baker shortcut to the town of Baker.

This is ugly desert down here at the base of Great Basin National Park.  The park itself is beautiful, we have been here before.  It goes up to high elevation and has a stunning bristlecone forest at the top.  It is also home to the Lehman Caverns, some of the most pristine caverns in the world, as well as being a premier stargazing venue.   It is definitely worth a trip once… 

But twice?  Don’t know if we are going to do it again.  We didn’t even try to get into the park with Hannah.  We stopped at the base at an RV park I likened to the Bates Motel.  It isn’t pretty, but it has electricity.  IT is hot outside, we are tired.  This was the easy way out.

Arty is getting a new black tank.  He won’t be ready for 3 weeks, which should work out perfectly for us… I hope…  It isn’t ours until the money changes hands…

August 29, 2022 Houston, we have a problem... plus we have no ice cream!

 

August 29, 2022  Houston, We Have a Problem

I like when my humans take me to the grassy area.  They let me roam free and sometimes I sneak away.  Then they chase me but I can fit under the big houses that move.  Ha ha!

My morning walk was early, and I stayed close to home as I wasn’t sure what time Bill would be here with Arty.  The plan is that we need to move Hannah to one of the dry camp spaces so that Arty can go in the space with full hookups.  Spouse wants to test the tanks, valves and do all the guy things that he is into doing. 

When Bill got there, the shenanigans began.  I had the liberty of backing up Hannah, all by myself.  I have backed up many a boat through the years, but I had only driven Hannah forwards, so I broke my ‘back up’ cherry today. 

Bill was fabulous.  He walked Spouse through everything with his chipper personality.  He has really taken good care of this rig.  After the lessons, he left so Spouse could do his thing.  He filled all the tanks.  He checked this and that.  I started taking inventory.  The rig has silverware, pots and pans and all sorts of stuff.  I thought I would test the shower by actually taking a shower.  If I wasn’t sold on the rig before, the shower won me over!  Great showerhead and water pressure.  I was in love. 

Then I heard the words…  there is a leak in the black tank…  this could be a deal breaker.  These types of problems can take you down a rabbit hole to who knows where.  Spouse called Bill, and he came to get Arty.  He thanked Spouse and said he would have it fixed and asked if we still wanted it once it was fixed.   YES!  So, for the time being, Arty is not ours… sigh.  And I had the pleasure of back up duty when we moved Hannah back to the hookup site.  The rig is not quite as responsive as a boat, but I can do it.

So, tomorrow we start the most boring part of this trip… we are going to cross Nevada on hwy. 6.  Hwy 6 is also known as the loneliest highway in the country.  We will head towards Reno, then to Grass Valley to visit our friends Rick and Sue.

Stay tuned so that you too can enjoy the various shades of brown Nevada has to offer.

Normally, I don’t like to publish the blog on the same day that I write it.  But I have no idea where we will be tomorrow and if we will have wi-fi so hang tight.

August 28, 2022 Slow Sunday in Utah

August 28, 2022  What to do on a Sunday in Utah

My humans took me to the grassy area and sat while I sniffed and chewed.  Then some humans with canines came.  I jumped on the table and stared them down.  The little one kept trying to sniff me.  I hissed.  They left and then, ack ack ack!  What is happening?  I am stuck! Ack ack ack!  I can’t move!  Ack ack!  I flipped help me mommy I am hanging!  Ack ack!

Spouse came on my walk again today.  We found that we can walk down the main street, then cut over to Bay Blvd. where there is a nice walking path through the industrial area.  There are grassy knolls, streams, ducks and an egret fishing in the pond.  It is a decent walk where I feel safe.  At one point, we walk past a scented candle factory…  oh that is nice!  There is hardly any traffic on this Sunday in Utah.

We made arrangements for Bill to bring Arty over to the Elks tomorrow where we can test all the tanks and the valves and all that stuff.  This is going to be a major hemorrhoid.  We will have to move Hannah out of her spot into one of the dry spots here, and move Arty into the full hookup site so we can do what we need to do.  We will probably keep him overnight, and if it looks good, we will pay the price and suffer the consequences of two rigs!  Which one will we use for the night?  What about Rudy?  Ugh…

First, we need to find a place to store Arty.  We could use the place he is at now, but that is expensive and we don’t know how long, and the weather, and…  Bill told us of a place about 200 miles south that has covered storage, but there is a waiting list for that.  Being Sunday, most other places were closed so we could not find any details, so that will be part of our day tomorrow.

This is going to be an overwhelming adjustment, but we can only do one day at a time.  We will make it work… somehow.

We had nothing really planned for the day.  Spouse did NOT want to go on another scenic drive after yesterday’s adventure, so we spent the day lazing.  How odd is that? 

We took Rudy to his park where he can roam.  When some people came over with their dogs, he sat on the table and let them know to keep their distance, but he wasn’t too perturbed until he tried to move.  His collar got stuck in weaving of the metal table and he flipped over when he tried to jump!  It was scary but I got him before any damage was done, and was able to unhook him, poor guy.  He had such a look of panic in his eyes, I felt so bad for him.  He was soooo obedient on his walk back to Hannah! He didn’t even stop to sniff one thing on the way back. I think he was happy he was home…  Hope he feels that way about Arty…

August 27, 2022 Killing Time

August 27, 2022  Let’s Kill Some Time

My humans walk me over to a place not far where I can chew grass and walk around without being tied up.  I try to sneak under the fence, but they catch me.  I won’t go far but they make sure I don’t escape.

Spouse went with me on my morning walk.  The Elks is just a short distance from BYU, but it is in a business district.  We are tucked way back, which is good, but it does not make for the best of walks, but as long as I feel safe, I will walk.  I will walk around shopping centers, through neighborhoods, over railroad tracks.  I actually find it quite interesting watching how the town functions.  Spouse went with me for a good portion of the walk only because we didn’t know where we were going and I was holding him captive!  But I think he enjoyed it.

Then we got down to business…  We went to Camping World.  In Arty, there are some things we think we should change.  Assuming he is ours, we figured we would look for solutions.  We got some good ideas then checked out the RVs for sale. 

I swear, they should hire me to come in a critique designs.  We checked out several RVs, and big ones at that.  They seem to make things for looks, without any regard to function.  For instance, here is a 5^th wheel with 3 sliders about 38 feet long with a huge tv and salon, but in the bedroom, the closet is only about 1 foot wide.  Really?  I could go on, but all this confirms that Arty is the right rig for us, barring any hiccups.

Coming home, we decided to take hwy. 92 from the I15 to hwy 189 through Provo Canyon.  The map says it is a scenic drive so why not?  Hmmm….  It says we have to pay a fee, but one road goes to the toll booth and the other is a bypass lane.  Lots of people are in the bypass lane so that is what we do.  Not sure about this, but too bad.  The road starts in a canyon, following a river.  It is a Saturday so it is a bit busy as we pass by Timpanogos Cave National Monument (hence the fee).  Lots of people as we drive on.  Then the road starts to climb, and narrow.  I am feeling good as there is a guardrail, something that was a rare sight on the high ground in Colorado.  This is a nice guardrail, until they ran out of money and the guardrail stops, but the steep drop offs continued.  And the road narrows.  We held our breath every time a car came the other way.  It seemed like they were always hogging the road.  It is beautiful with the pines, aspens and high rocky mountains.  I can enjoy it somewhat while Spouse is gritting his teeth.  Hairpin turns, narrow road… a car coming the other way…  Why did we do this on a Saturday?  Like, how would we know, right?  For 25 miles Spouse agonized, while I sometimes enjoyed the stunning scenery.  By the time we got to the Sundance ski area, the road widened some and actually got a double yellow line in it.  By the time we got to hwy. 189, Spouse was done!  We headed for lunch and home.

Time to give Rudy a walk in the garden… 

August 26, 2022 Transacting Business

August 26, 2022  Wherefore Arty Thou?

My humans picked me up and took me away from my birdies.  How can they do that?  I am not gonna look at them all day.  I will teach them a lesson… taking my birdies from me… sheesh…

 I decided to do an early morning walk around the RV park.  This place is huge.  In the over 21 area,  there are well over 100 RVs (at $197 per night!) all in their huge spotlessly clean sites.  There are pickleball courts, pools, spas, and all sorts of amenities.  Back in the sane zone, there is pretty much the same but not quite as nice.  We wanted to get an early jump on getting a site at the Elks in Provo.  It is first come/first serve, and we don’t know how many days we will be here so this would be so perfect for us.

We load Rudy who is totally pissed that we are taking him away from his birds.  He is facing away from us and won’t make eye contact.  He must be really pissed!

We leave the campground and head for Provo Canyon.  Starting with a reservoir at Deer Creek State Park, we see some early skiiers in the water.  Around the next corner, we see a sailboat at anchor…  Hmmm… take advantage of that early glass you skiiers as I suspect it gets quite windy here!

Then the canyon begins.  Huge rocky walls dotted with pines line the way for about 10 miles of utter beauty.  There is road construction, so it is slow going with Hannah.  There is a river running alongside us, calm in some places, rushing in others.  There are a few waterfalls cascading down the slopes.  There are lots of parks worthy of exploring.  Coming into Provo, BYU is the dominant sight.  Lots of businesses line the roads, and a few old houses here and there. 

Arriving at the Elks, it is not yet 9am, there are two openings.  We take the easy one!  YES!  They have five sites with full hookups, and 3 dry camping sites.  By the end of the day, all were taken.  These sites are not pretty to look at.  They are large RV parking spaces on nice new blacktop.  The services are all in the back so you have to run your sewer line quite a ways.  This makes it difficult for us to let Rudy out as he will tangle himself in someone’s sewer line.  The Elks have a little veterans war park right next to the sites with grass and raised garden beds.  We take Rudy over there and we can let him roam without a leash, as long as we keep an eye on him.  He can only be trusted so far.

After we set up, we met up with Bill, the owner of the Arctic Fox rig Spouse has been drooling over…  And yes… it will be ours.  It is a 2018 with about 6000 miles on it (in contrast, Hannah has over 100,000 miles on her).  It has lots of bells and whistles and the price is right so now we have a dilemma…  we need to get them both home.  Obviously, not at the same time!  We will figure it out… I hope!  We have to wait for money to transfer, so we have a few days here in Provo.  And the deal is not a done deal till the money is in Bill’s hands.

We headed back into Provo Canyon, checking out a few of the parks.  There are walking trails and bike trails along the river.  And a great view of the waterfalls.  We checked out the Sundance ski area for just a minute.  The chairlift is running but I don’t see anybody on it.  But I bet is a gorgeous view at the top.  It is late, we are low on fuel, we know we need to come back and look at these places a lot closer. 

Part of me is very sad to be giving Hannah up.  She has been so good to us, and I love her layout.  It is so hard to get newer rigs with a layout that is as good.  Arty (the new rig) is a bit bigger, but with a similar layout.  Some things I like, some things I don’t but it is just a matter of figuring it out and adjusting.  Rudy…  there will be a few new rules…

August 25, 2022 Going West

August 25, 2022  Go West Young Man

I caught a birdie! I caught a birdie!  But my maternal human took it away from me as soon as I caught.  She set it free and it flew away.  Why did she do that?  I just started to have fun with it!

Not much of a morning walk.  The campground crosses the Yampa River but there are no real trails.  You might get a couple of hundred feet but that is it.  So I walked around the park.  I am quite religious with my walks, so I turned on a podcast and before I knew it, I had over 7000 steps.

Back at Hannah, we readied her for her next journey.  Bringing in her slider is painful, but we can still do it, so on we go.  We head west on hwy 40.  Surprisingly enough, at night there was total silence up against hwy. 40.  It was totally quiet and dark.  But now, there are cars on the road. 

The scenery is rolling hill high desert.  It’s almost like a patchwork quilt where one area is nothing but grass, another has stunted pines, and another has the desert sage.  There are a few ranches here and there and you can follow the river by the growth of the trees.  It really is quite pretty given that there are hardly any cars out here. 

We stopped in the town of Maybel at a park so we could make lunch.  Rudy wants no part of being inside.  He wanted to explore.  We gave him a little time but he is getting demanding.

The more west we go, the more arid it becomes.  As we cross into Utah, throw in a hint of red to the soil.  The rolling hills become flat and it becomes more of the monotonous desert for a while.  Then add a reservoir or two, a mountain pass. And some beautiful green meadows and we couldn’t seem to stop driving even though we knew we needed to.

Normally, we are off the road by 3, but we kind of crossed a line.  We either stopped too early, or we were gonna stop too late, which is what we did.  We know there is an Elks in Provo we could do, but by the time we got to Heber City, we were done.  We pulled into Mountaine Valley RV resort.. Oh my… we are in the poor section.  There is an over 21 section… with the really expensive rigs… oh my… at $197 per night… oh my!  It was a little tough getting into our site as there wasn’t much swing room, but we ultimately got in.  I put Rudy outside as we started setting up.  It was all of 5 seconds before he was on this little sparrow.  Fortunately, I was able to get him off before any real damage was done.  I think it had just fledged and was learning the ropes.  I hope he learned this lesson…  Rudy will never forgive me!

Clouds have been threatening all day.  It rained around us, but we only got a few drops.  Good… kept the temperature down… but we are back to shorts and ready for the heat.

Tomorrow, we are going to relocate to the Elks if we can.  Seems Labor Day Weekend is a big thing over here so lodging could become problematic.

The Wi-fi at this high end park sucks!

August 24, 2022 Golf! And Welcome back electricity!

 

August 24, 2022  FORE!

There are lots of canines here.  I kind of stay hidden but one really liked me and I had to stare it down.  I know I am attractive, but no canines, please.

It is warm here during the day.  Actually, it may only be 70 but feels a lot warmer.  We opened the windows in Hannah and it stayed comfortable… that is till about 4 am.  It is 44 degrees out… and about 5 windows are opened.  I close a few and went to sleep.  When I woke, I closed the rest and turned on the heat.  We will do a bit better tonite.  And oh how I love having electricity again… 

There really isn’t much to walk around here.  There is a river in the campground but no trails.  I could walk on the highway, but that’s no fun.  So walking around the campground will have to do.  Besides, today we are playing golf, and I will walk the course.

Steamboat Golf Club is a 9 hole course.  Perfect for us since Spouse hasn’t played since he hurt his back last year.  It is a very nice course with lots of challenges.  I have rust and cobwebs on me.  Spouse is actually hitting the ball pretty good.  The course is in great condition.  

There are sculptures here and there with cute characters.  One had a moose that was obviously watching me play.

One of them was of a couple of eagles, and in between them, a live marmot was resting.  Oh they are cute. 

There were lots in this area, obviously not scared of the eagles!  Whenever you play a new course, you don’t know the ins and outs.  This was the case for us.  Oh, there is a hazard there?  Oops…  I only lost one ball… Spouse lost a few. But it was sunny and beautiful and fun to be out there.  My score wasn’t horrible (52) and I can’t figure out why it wasn’t worse.  I had to make sure I counted all the holes, and I did, so I guess it must be true.  But it wasn’t pretty…

Afterward, we decided to head up to the Pearl Lake State Park.  It is about 25 miles up Elk road… a two line road with gorgeous rolling hills with a ranch here and there.  Some of the hay has been mowed and rolled leaving things looking nice and clean.  The mountains in the background are rugged with trees.  There are puffy clouds and hardly anybody is back here.  It only gets more beautiful when the aspens and pines appear in swaths along the mountains. 

The lake is about two miles up a dirt road.  It is an alpine lake surrounded by pines on 3 sides, and mountains and meadows on one side.  The campground is geared towards tenters, but the sites have good parking for RVs, just no hookups.  At first we were impressed by a lot of the views in the lower campground.  Then we went to the upper campground… oh my!  These are KILLER views!  Reservations are required, but there is a pay station at the entry and it looks like you can get your site right there.  A Colorado park pass is required, but it sounds like you could add that to your daily fee.

Just up the road 3 miles is Steamboat Lake State Park.  The lake is more in a valley, and more spread out.  There are several campgrounds, and most of the sites are large enough for RVs.  In one of the campgrounds, electricity is provided.  The campground is not as pretty, but there are still some nice views, both of the lake and of the mountains.

This was a nice sidetrip that definitely leaves me wanting to come back.  When we got back to town, we ran a few errands.  The ski mountain is such a presence.  It makes even the dullest of parking lots beautiful!

Tomorrow we head west on 40.  This goes through Indian reservations so not sure about cell service or wi-fi for the next couple of days.  I normally do not post on the same day that I write, but given the big unknown to which we are travelling, I figured I would get this out.