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On the road to Arizona

We pulled out of the storage lot this morning at 7:30. We spent quite a bit of time yesterday packing food, clothes, and gear. Kevin’s new hobbies of 3D printing and his astro photography equipment took quite a bit of space, but it all fit in nicely. We pretty much empties the freezer, deep freeze, and refrigerator so we won’t have to shop as often. I have lots of individually frozen packages of uncooked chicken breast and chicken thighs, nicely protected with the vacuum sealer. There is also brisket, smoked turkey, roasted turkey, and smoked pork butt in meal sized portions. Add in frozen vegetables, and we are pretty well set. We also have a lot more canned good and dry goods than normal. I want to grocery shop no more than once a week, and we should be able to do that.

The forecast for today said good weather along our trip until 10-11, but that icy rain/sleet started early. I drove 35-45 mph for probably 50 miles until the weather and roads improved south of Des Moines. The rest of the way was smooth sailing, though we had some winds as we left Kansas City. We are safely tucked in at the Topeka KOA, a place I do not recommend. Their long pull through are right next to the Kansas Turnpike; the highway fence is about 40-50’ from our door! Not only is it noisy, but the interior roads are truly awful with big ruts. It is just for a night so we can manage. I will definitely look for an alternative the next time we go this way though. Kevin got the rig dewinterized, and we have water and heat. What more can I ask for? Oh, and we even got the Dish satellite restarted, always a bit of a trial after suspending service.

Lily settled in about 5 minutes. She sat on Kevin!s lap a lot, and she slept in her carrier (one of her favorite places). She is now sleeping on top of the carrier quite soundly.

More catchup during COVID times

Since the last post got so long with just seeing things, I decided to add another post about travel and some other things.

We ended up taking a couple of short trips to a nearby county park for to be closer to Kevin’s cataract surgeon. Squaw Creek Park in Linn County, Iowa is one of our favorites. First, it has nice facilities (a FHU section with reservations and a W/E section with no reservations), and second, it is close to two of our kids. We end up doing a reasonable amount of our medical specialty work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa because we know the doctors there. It is about an hour from our house though, so we head to the campground if any overnights are needed. We stayed there in early October and mid-October for 5 days each time, just enjoying the weather and seeing family (outdoors and distanced of course).

We also ended up taking another trip to Red Bay. The slide topper on our big living room slide tore where it was attached to the roof, and the minor fix Kevin made just wasn’t going to last. While we could probably have found someone closer, we had lots of recommendations for a specific firm in Red Bay, so off we went. Of course it could have been just an excuse to get out of the state a bit too, as my oldest son laughed about. We did get gorgeous upgraded slide toppers on all four sides. We decided on a dark red Sunbrella fabric that matches the motorhome very well and which is much tougher than the original vinyl. I thought I had pictures, but I can’t find them. Too bad, because the color is amazing.

Kevin has spent all kinds of time doing things in the motorhome. He managed to fix the roller blind on the driver side with a free part from the blind manufacturer. Tiffin only wanted to sell the entire assembly for some $300!

He mostly has been busy making all kinds of 3D printed parts for organization, mostly at home. This is just a small sample. Every holder on the pegboard was printed.

Plus some Christmas things.

We didn’t put up a Christmas tree this year, just our 10’ long Christmas village. This little display fit right in. It is actually cuter than it looks since my camera isn’t great with white in bright light.

As for Thanksgiving, I was able to cook loads – roast turkey, pies, and stuffing. Kevin smoked a couple of turkeys that mostly went into the freezer in smaller portions. I then delivered to my daughter’s family (they just moved into a new house the weekend before!) and my son who is single. I delivered two portions to him because a workmate was also by themselves this season. We are having a virtual Christmas this year too, though I am not supplying food. Presents are being distributed today, and we are having a Zoom opening later today.

As for future travel, we have been back and forth for months trying to decide if we are traveling to Arizona. We just decided to do so a couple of days ago. Our original plan was to leave on 28 or 29 December, but a storm is rolling into the Midwest then. We now plan to leave on Sunday, the 27th. We will get to central Kansas somewhere on Sunday then head to Oklahoma City a few days where I have family. I am crossing my fingers we stay out of the snow belt, but if it happens, we will just stay put another day or two.

Looking back three months

Yup, it has been three months since I last posted. I am not really depressed, but it seems like the things I am doing just aren’t the things I normally write about. Today I looked back and realized that I probably should document some, so here is a very top level summary.

First is sewing. I have been doing more sewing than I have in the past. Of course I have been doing masks, probably another 150 since September. Most of them went to local schools. I have also semi-joined a local quilt guild that does a lot of donation quilting. I say “semi-joined” in that I went to one meeting, but I haven’t paid dues yet. They aren’t meeting right now, even virtually, so I will wait until they do to officially join. I have enjoyed quilting 6 quilts for them on my Sweet 16 though. It gives me a lot of practice, and it gets them done. Like most quilt groups, they have a lot more people who piece tops than those who quilt the completed quilts. The ones they gave to me, someone unknown to them, have mostly been among the ugliest quilts I have seen. Totally random patches of various sizes of old fabric, but they will keep someone nice and warm. These are twin bed sized quilts, and for 4 of them I just did a simple meander. One I practiced doing pebbles on, and another one got some ruler work. I didn’t take any pictures though.

I also did some non-quilting work too: three Hogwarts robes for some of the grandkids. I used a lovely poly/cotton gabardine, and they turned out wonderfully.

For quilting of my own, there have been a bunch of baby and children’s quilts. The first two were cut completely with my Accuquilt system. I got the alphabet dies for my birthday, and I think they do a great job on children’s quilts.

For a young girl getting a surprise cancer diagnosis

I made one for me – a Riley Blake National Parks panel with a wool batting. I will keep this in the motorhome.

Another for my daughter to give as a shower gift. I am quite proud of this one. All those triangles were cut with an Accuquilt 4 1/4” equilateral triangle die. I could not have done it without the die! Trying to keep the bias and non-bias edges straight would have been impossible, but the die cuts notches on the bias edges to use for matching to the next piece. Very nice!

“Fox and Friends” or, as I prefer it, “Foxy Friends”

Daughter and I like this one so much we bought the fabric to do another one in the spring.

Of course all sewists need to do something for Christmas presents, so I did microwave bowl cozies. I made a few, then decided a new cutting die would make it much easier. I ordered from Blue Wren, an Australian company who has dies that fit my Accuquilt. It took just over 3 weeks to get it from Australia, and I went to town. Thirty total cozies. This is most of them. A few had already been packed up.

And what else have I sewn? I actually did some machine embroidery too! Lake Volney is where one son has his cabin, so he wanted two beach towels with the name on them.

I also bought a new (old) sewing machine! I have been wanting a vintage Bernina for a long time. I could use it as my travel machine for the motorhome and as a backup for my beloved Bernina 440. I finally found this 830 Record, built in 1974, in great shape with loads of accessories. She is sooo pretty, though she smelled of cigarettes and mustiness. The repair guy who cleaned up her insides and get her oiled up got rid of the vast majority of smoke, and I figure I can eventually cure her of mustiness. I sold the Viking I had been using. I guess I am just a Bernina girl!

A classic mechanical Bernina. The knee lift goes in the bottom right but isn’t shown.

All the standard accessories plus lots of extra feet plus lots and lots of bobbins.

I am probably forgetting something, but this is long enough already. We are planning our trip to Arizona now; more one that later.

Slow going in the coronavirus era

I really haven’t felt like updating since we just haven’t been doing much. I wrote that, then I realized it was incorrect; we have been doing stuff, but the vast majority of it isn’t travel related, so I haven’t been posting. I was on the site of one of my favorite bloggers, and she said she was in the same funk. It isn’t really depression, just a bored funk. Hard to get motivated to write though.

We did take one trip on July to Alabama to get work done on the motorhome. The results are great!

Television lift and cabinet modifications to accommodate it.

Old TV removed and added shelves for a pantry.

The top pull is for the new prep surface.

Small cabinet to hold maps and atlases in the bottom with remote controls in the top. There is even a spot in the back to store our iPads.

New heather colored carpeting in LR and kitchen slides plus bedroom.

Oh, and we added a 12v and a USB port, but I didn’t get pictures. I am very very happy with the mods. It took a couple of weeks, but that is the way it goes. While we were waiting, we visited the Natchez Trace some, and we drove to the far eastern Alabama to see the very edge of the Appalachians. It was mainly just a way to kill time, but the country is pretty.

When we got back we just put the motorhome up, but that doesn’t mean Kevin hasn’t been playing with all kinds of things. He has now bought two separate 3D printers, one with one color only and one that can manage three colors. He is having a blast learning the software, a huge job actually. He has made a bunch of mask holders, the ones that elastic from masks slip,over to keep them from behind your ear. The school aged grandchildren all have multiple ones with their names on them. We bought a BlueFire data bus reader for the motorhome (fabulous BTW), and he not only made a custom dash board I canwatch while driving, but a custom holder for the iPad we use as a display head.

He also made all kinds of little custom holders for our cell phones, etc.

Holds phone, GPS, and TPMS on co-pilot’s side. Something similar on driver’s side.

While Kevin has bee printing, I have been sewing. I quilted 4 quilts for the local quilt guild. There are always lots of pieces, but not many quilters. I really don’t like the quilt tops, so I won’t show them! They are the worse type of scrap quilts, but I am sure the recipients will find them warm. I finished the Drunkard’s Path lap quilt for Kevin. The texture is luscious – wool batting and fairly loose quilting.

Kevin chose the layout. I call it “setting sun”.

All the corners match! I just did a gentle meander for the quilting and a decorative stitch for the binding.

I also did a small quilt using the design I am going to do for our bed at home – Jewel Box. I really like this one, and it will be a nice little baby quilt.

I am quite proud of the circles and scallop ruler work.

Also pretty proud of the straight ruler work!

I will be using most of the same quilting designs on the king sized quilt I am working on now. I have always had problems with getting my machine completely flat and level in its table. It was off just enough to make the rulers rock on the needle plate. I enlisted Kevin and his new printer, and he made custom pads to make it perfect! He used a micrometer to measure and then printed the right size of pad for each corner.

Oh, and like all the sewists in the world, I am still making masks. I wish I had kept track of how many, but it is between 350 and 400. Wow! Lots went to kids and grandkids since everyone really needs 7-10 to let them be replaced once or twice a day before washing. I ended up buying the mask die from Accuquilt in both the medium adult and the child sizes. They made the volume possible! I gave 60 to my grandchildren’s school and 45 to another public school.

Adult (red stars) and child size (snoopy and rainbows) for comparison

I have made dozens and dozens of masks with licensed University of Northern Iowa fabric. Those are so popular I bought an entire bolt. I figure masks will be needed until at least next summer, and I can use any left over for baby presents or home dec items. There is only one fabric store that has it (they did a special order from the supplier), and it was too far away to go often.

After writing this post, I figure I might just keep it up. We actually are doing things, even if I feel bleh.

Traveling again! Badlands National Park

I obviously am not terribly motivated to keep up the blog when we aren’t traveling, so it has (again) been weeks since I updated. I will try to catch up. Warning: there is a bunch!

I finally got caught up on my donation sewing, and I am taking a serious break. I made 20 isolation gowns of a horrid fabric that turns out to be designed for outdoor signs! It was a very heavy double knit fabric, and a bear to sew. Each gown took 2+ hours, so it was a considerable amount of work. I didn’t take any pictures because I don’t want any nightmares of them! I also finished a box of “Button Buddies” which are small absorbent pads to fit around a pediatric g-tube. Those were for The Preemie Project, and I completed 600 of them.

The top one is the sample. The rest I sewed.

I was also very lucky that my son in law dug out a garden for me, and a daughter in law helped me choose plants and planted most of them! It is a shady spot facing north, so shade lovers only. Obviously lots of different types of hostas, coral bells, azaleas, variegated redbud shrub, Sweet William, and some others I can’t remember.

Left an empty spot for some type of garden ornament

Still did some more piecing. I got a new die for my Accuquilt cutter, a 7” (finished) Drunkard’s Path. I ordered a fat quarter collection from Connecting Threads, and here is the first sample I made. I am thrilled! Everything went together perfectly. It certainly helps to have perfect cuts.

I started saying we were traveling, but gave no information. We took a trip to Badlands National Park for Kevin to take night sky photos of the Milky Way around a new moon. We left on a week ago on Wednesday morning, and spent the night in Fairmont, MN at the Flying Goose campground. Nice little place with lots of long term residents, but well kept and good sized sites. Thursday we stayed in Al’s Oasis campground in Chamberlain, SD. Not bad, but more open and close to the highway. We then made it to Badlands on Friday morning. The NPS concessionaire campground is Cedar Pass. It is a series of loops with bump outs along the road for sites; the vast majority would never have held a rig as big as ours. Site 76 fit us fine, though we had to wiggle around some to get in. It is an odd site where we had to drive to the site the wrong way down the road so the door didn’t open into the street. I liked the view from the campground.

We saw lots of wildlife, as expected. In addition to the ones pictured, we saw bats, an owl, and we heard coyotes. There was a large nursery herd of bison I didn’t get a good picture of. There were also a number of bachelors showing off. This guy was getting a belly scratch on a post.

We saw a surprising number of mountain sheep in at least two separate nursery herds and one herd of males.

This girl was grazing by the road. We passed by 5’ from her in the car without her acknowledging our existence.

As good a close up as my little camera can take

Kevin found the guys, and this is from his (much better) camera.

It rained much of the time we were there, so we had to time our sightseeing carefully. The pictures show at least some of the beauty.

The whole purpose of coming was to get some Milky Way pictures, and the rain and clouds were bad until the very last night. Kevin got some spectacular pictures, though they need some post processing to get their full glory (he shoots in RAW format). Here is a taste.

Galactic core with the landscape highlighted by a passing carlight

The Milky Way core can only be seen in its entire glory in the summer. Saturn is the bright spot center bottom.

Since we lucked out with the weather on Monday night, we left this morning happy. We are staying in the KOA in Sioux Falls, SD. Pretty place with lots of trees and a huge pull through. We paid with points because $66 was expensive! Full hook up, and we will prep the rig for its next trip to Alabama next month. Oh, and while we were gone, I cut 80 blocks of Drunkard’s Path for Kevin’s lap rug. Two thirds of them are sewn, and I am very happy with my progress. I probably could have finished them tonight, but I thought I would write instead. Taking the Accuquilt and some dies seems like a very reasonable thing on long trips.

Life is looking up

We are still semi-isolating, it it is a lot better than full isolation. The local medical facilities are managing well, and the local hot spot is a meat packing plant that we have no interaction with. We are going to the grocery store by ourselves now, and it is so wonderful to choose fresh produce! We have ordered more takeout too. We wear masks everywhere outside except in our own car, and I made some more masks of a fitted style since Kevin has issues with his glasses fogging up. I even bought a die from Accuquilt to speed up production. I keep refining my design. This is the most recent.

Accuquilt die cut, bound with 1 1/2” double fold binding.

To get an even better fit I am going to put a small dart on the side. It has a tendency to gap there.

I have also been cooking. We ordered an Air Fryer lid for our Instant Pot, and it finally got delivered after 6 weeks (Amazon u essential items). It certainly does make good crispy things like tater tots are brilliantly. I made onion rings from scratch that were pretty good too, but I overcooked my diced potatoes. Live and learn. Kevin has been sous vide cooking steaks and a pot roast. Love the steaks, but the pot roast was bland even though he seasoned it. I think I will go back to doing that on the stove or in the Instant Pot.

My Accuquilt adventures continue. I got a great deal on a 12” Qube that makes bigger blocks like I will be using on our bedroom quilt. I also ordered a Drunkard’s Path die and a 1 1/2” strip cutter. Those haven’t come in yet, so I am working on my piecing skills. I still have a ways to go. Here are some examples and comments. And yes, I am being hard on myself. I really want my piecing to move up a notch. I picked up the fabric at a local shop, and the blocks will eventually become a baby girl quilt.

Flying Birds block looks good, but the first one ended up too small. This is the first and second one showing the difference.

See the 1/8-3/16” size problem in the closeup?

This is a Flying X block. It came out the correct size too. What a bear to put together though. Won’t make more of this one!

Dutchman’s Puzzle looks better. Best flying geese I have ever done, but still needs some improvement.

I have also been sewing some isolation gowns, but my serger is having issues. I can’t seem to get any of the repair folks to call me back! Frustrating. Oh, and I made 7 masks for a local non-profit. I intended to make more, but they didn’t get my fabric pieces put together well. They were the Olson masks with a spot for a filter. Hard to sew!

We did break our isolation to spend Mother’s Day weekend at a local lake. The Friday before my daughter called to say a campsite was open and to ask if we wanted it. We instantly said yes and began getting ready. It was a lovely weekend, and it was so nice to see a different view outside. We are looking forward to a couple of trips this summer, so we got our yearly diesel maintenance done at a local Freightliner shop. We also had them install the Koni shocks we bought a few months ago. They make a huge difference! The coach seems a bit smoother, and it doesn’t wiggle when we hit rough roads and pot holes. Our next trip is to Badlands NP in mid-June, and we will drive I-90 which is very bumpy, so the shocks should help. Kevin got reservations at the NP campground during the week of the new moon. He is looking to get some astrophotographs of the Milky Way which is at its best this time of year.

Life in isolation (heavy on sewing)

We aren’t really in quarantine, but we are self-isolating pretty solidly. We have done curbside pickup for a number of items, and I did go to a small grocery store a few days ago. My oldest son has been dropping off groceries once a week, but we stay at least 6’ away. And I did visit my primary care provider for a very sore shoulder. They were very cautious with no waiting allowed except in your car. The poor PCP was in full face shield and mask which made it rather challenging to do some detailed examination. She was able to schedule me a referral to the orthopedist for next week. The specialists are just now opening up their practices again.

But on to happier things! I have been sewing up a storm. I made 70-80 masks for family, friends, and a nursing home. I made a scrub cap for my daughter, but the pattern needs some more tweaking before making more. I also got a number of quilts finished, all baby sized. I apologize for the wrinkled. These have all been curled up in a closet.

These two were completed while we were traveling. I was determined to use up a bunch of batik scraps I had.

Scraps from a bedroom quilt. I love the brown/teal fabric.

I also had a bunch of his pink print from my granddaughters quilt. I pulled the pink and white from scraps, and the white was just too bright once I got the top together. A woman at a lovely shop in Lake Havasu recommended using a cranberry thread to pull things together, and it was a good choice. This is the same pattern as one below based on a 6” square.

I had to order fabric for this one. Friends of my second son are ardent UNI fans, so I went with this theme for them. Normally I just do an all-over meander on baby quilts, but I did free-form curvy lines on this one.

For a University of Northern Iowa baby. Their colors are (surprisingly) purple and gold.

I did this quilt with my brand new Accuquilt Go! cutting machine. I am not a good rotary cutter, and I have been thinking about one of these for a while. A local quilt shop had a special going, so I did it! I got the basic cutter, a 2 1/2” strip cutter, and a set of cutters for miscellaneous shapes that finIsh at 2” and 4”. The miscellaneous set is called an 8” Qube, and it is lovely. I particularly like the animal focus fabric. This is the pattern of the girly quilt above, but based on a 4” square.

Just a quick Accuquilt sample. Cute animal fabric, isn’t it?

I have also been cooking. I finally got over my fear of crepes, and we have had them a couple of times filled with eggs, cheese, and bacon. The left overs were enjoyed with maple syrup the next day. Multiple batches of brownies made me decide I really needed to stop baking when there are only two of us! We have had sweet chili grilled shrimp, Dijon salmon, sous vide steaks, and lovely Iowa pork chops.

I told you this was a more positive post! I am getting ready to start making masks again with a local non-profit. I said I would commit 10 hours a week. They think I can do 30 in that time, but I think I can do a lot more. I was making masks at a rate of 4/hour when I had to cut my own fabric, and this group will be providing fabric and ties or elastic. I am pretty efficient at assembly line batch sewing.

Kevin and I have been getting out on our bikes over the last couple of weeks since it finally warmed up. That has helped my mental state quite a bit as has a number of bright sunny days. I just wish we could go camping …

COVID-19 update

Yes, it has been a while. The last post was made from Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, an absolutely beautiful, isolated place surrounded by mountains. I am writing this update from our house in Iowa, and it has been 7 weeks or so. I had better note what happened.

We left Kofa and decided to go towards Grand Canyon National Park. We spent the night of 3 March south of Lake Havasu at a BLM site. Not very scenic, but fine for an overnight. It was very unlevel though and a pain to get the rig parked well. We were planning on going to one of the many boondock areas south of GCNP, but Kevin decided to see if Trailer Village had any openings. Surprise, surprise – they did! We stayed there for 5 nights in a full-hookup campground. We got our laundry done, caught up with some streaming shows, and wandered around the park and surrounding areas.We even road the bikes quite a bit. It was a good thing we didn’t depend on the boondock sites. Everything was terribly rutted and muddy with snowmelt, and we wouldn’t have fit comfortably in any place we looked at.

We were just marking time until the FMCA Diesel Club Chapter meeting, and we decided to stay in the Yavapai FS campground outside Prescott. Lovely place, no reservations that early in the season, but the site was pretty cramped due to encroaching vegetation along the sides. It rained and rained, and we were very glad to have a solid surface site in a beautiful place. No pictures because it really did just rain and rain and rain with a little snow thrown in.

By this time, we were getting nervous about the virus spread. The last time I was hospitalized in 2016 I ended up almost dying in an ICU, and I actually have some PTSD from it, so my anxiety began to ramp up. States were beginning to shut down, and the kids were worried about us being so far from home. After much though and agonizing over the decision, we decided to cancel our attendance at both the Diesel Club and the main FMCA rally. It was the right move even though we lost hundreds in fees. We spent our first night on the road, 13 March, at Verde River Resort in Camp Verde. We got the coach cleaned, laundry done, and were ready to dry camp back to Iowa if needed. Instead we spent our first night on the road at American RV Park in Albuquerque. Nice place, and we have stayed there before. The next two nights were at Cabela’s in Lone Tree, CO south of Denver and in Kearney, NE (very nice!). Taking the toll road east of Denver was a brilliant move, worth every penny of the cost. We parked the coach in the storage unit and collapsed in bed in the house which always seems so huge when we first arrive!

My anxiety has still been pretty high in the last month which is why I haven’t gotten around to posting. Things are beginning to calm down due to more information being available, and I am getting along pretty well now. We have cancelled our Alaska trip planned for this summer. We also delayed until late July some motorhome modifications we are going to have done in Alabama. Until then we are self-isolating as much as seems reasonable. I have been busy in the sewing room, but I will post about that later.

That is the end of this topic, at least for now. Tomorrow I will post a much more positive piece about how I have been surviving isolation.

A wonderful week at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

After getting ourselves all cleaned up -laundry, grocery shopping, dumping waste tanks, filling up fresh water – we headed to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to meet friends. This is yet more classic boondocking. We stay on a spot off of King Valley Road, about a mile from US 95, 30 miles south of Quartzsite. Kofa stands for “King of Arizona”, the name of a significant mine in the area. They stamped their bullion with the initials, and it stuck. And yes, the refuge is capitalized as I show it here (weird I know). We arrived on a Wednesday just after lunch, and we stayed until this morning, an entire week.

We mostly just relaxed, but we did do some 4WD roads in the area. The trip to the North Star Mine (and driving by the nearby King of Arizona) was the highlight.

Lots of these too in big bushes, especially near the road

The ocotillos were mostly past blooming. I find them the most interesting structural plant.

Oh, and there were some interesting ruins too.

North Star Mine. Much larger than it appears in this picture. The tanks were probably 10’ high or more.

A big picture view of the part of King of Arizona we could see

A very old “tank” along the road to North Star used to hold water for wildlife

An old well bore, maybe 8” in diameter. We put the cap back on

Pile of soft white material, maybe 30’ x 20’.

I have no idea what the white stuff is. The best I found out is a reference to a well 5 miles south of King of Arizona and supported an ore concentrator. I saw no signs of a mill, but there were some old metal fragments characteristic of the time. The well and white pile were right next to an obvious spring, so my guess is this is the concentrator.

We took a trip on another day to the Horse Tanks. They are natural water holes that have been enlarged by the Wildlife Service for game. Another gorgeous area.

The water from the hills comes down the wash resulting in lush vegetation

The Jeep in the landscape. Love the ocotillo

Just an interesting weathered area in the rocks

The lower Horse Tank. There is another above the pour over shown.

I have also been sewing. I have completed 3 quilt tops to be donated at the FMCA rally, so I haven’t only been goofing off. Oh, and I have gotten Kevin addicted to the Australian series Brokenwood Mysteries. I either download them (poor service spot) or stream them (good service location).

Sunset campground in Death Valley

Part 2 of our Death Valley trip.

We moved to Sunset campground in the Furnace Creek area. I was astonished to get what I consider the best site in the entire place – F1. It faces East so you get the morning sun but you have protection from the hot afternoon sun. It is also at the end of a row with nothing but a driveway between you and the mountains. We stayed for 7 nights, and we considered staying longer.

We did the must-see drive to Badwater Basin after a rain. Note the reflections.

Looking to the south shows the snow touched Panamints

Artists Drive and the Artists Pallette

Kevin took a trip to the Keane Wonder Mine again. I stayed at the coach and quilted.

We took what is probably my favorite backcountry 4WD road, Greenwater Road to the old mining communities of Furnace, Kunze, and Greenwater. Furnace had nothing left except a few sun bleached pieces of wood since it had been a tent city. Kunze was the small town, but had some great stone remnants.

Still with part of its roof timbers at Kunze

Someone has carefully selected some artifacts for the inside

There were other ruins in not as good of shape

The town of Greenwater was full of artifacts. This was the biggest of the communities, and it obviously spread out over a large area.

This is the “monument” to Greenwater at what was the towns main intersection

This type of debris was all over the square mile or so of the town

The Greenwater road had more animals than we had previously seen with numerous lizards running across the road and quite a few antelope squirrels. The squirrels look like small but very round ground squirrels except their very short tail (creamy white on the underside) held curled above their backs. They were very fast, and I never was able to get a picture. They were new to me this trip. The road was also a real 4WD road with big rigs that needed a high clearance vehicle and good climbing ability. The Grand Cherokee Trailhawk handled it like a pro. I am feeling more and more confidence in the vehicle’s abilities.

The weekend we were there was the Dark Sky Festival. There were scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Center, and more plus two local astronomy groups. The talks ranged from deep scientific topics to a kid’s activity of building their own Mars Rover model (quite popular I might add) to guided hikes to Star Wars filming sites (Golden Canyon). Death Valley has been used to test extraterrestrial vehicles for many years, and there were lots of stories about them. Most of the astronomy and astrophotography activities got rained out (DVNP got almost 1/4” of rain on Saturday), but we did go to one ranger program on Sunday night. Kevin has been playing around with astrophotography, and I love looking at his shots. Sadly I can’t show them to you in full glory due to size.

The Dark Sky Festival was very interesting, and I think we will plan on going again next year.

We left on a Monday and headed to Needles, CA as I noted in the previous post. We stayed for two nights at the KOA, and caught up on laundry, shopping, and the internet! I hadn’t had unfettered access for weeks which is the reason for the delay in posts. We are now at the Kofa Wildlife Refuge in a boondock site on King’s Road, about halfway between Quartzsite and Yuma. We don’t know how long we will stay, but it is glorious here.