Tag: Camping

On the road again

It has been HOT in Salt Lake City! It has been over 90 degrees, and sometimes higher the last few days. That is 10-15 degrees warmer than normal, and I have been dying. We finally got on the road today, heading in a very slow manner to Spearfish, SD and a family get together. We have so much stuff the truck is filled to capacity. We brought our Pack and Play for the youngest grandson to use plus some bouncer toy thing that my daughter originally intended to rent. I was able to buy a used one on KSL classifieds for less than the rental would have been! Add to that a few goodies for the grandkids, birthday presents for oldest son and his wife, my sewing machine and some goodies there, and it is a lot of stuff.

We originally intended on going to Fossil Buttes National Monument, but it was just too hot to enjoy walking around so we just went straight to our campsite at Lucerne campground on Flaming Gorge Reservoir. We don’t normally make reservations in advance except for destinations, but Kevin decided to make this reservation a couple of days ago, and I am glad. We got a site that looks over an arm of the lake and has lots of space between us and the neighbor.

The view from my door is pretty nice.

Nothing between us and the water except a meadow. This site also has electricity, a definite plus though we didn’t need AC today. The cost was $18 plus the $10 resevation fee, so it wasn’t too bad. The Senior Pass we have discounts the basic camping, but the electricity is provided by a concessionaire so that isn’t discounted.

We did have some visitors. Can you see the two pronghorn? These two (or their friends) wandered through three times that I noticed.

They walk within 30 feet of the trailer.
You can tell they aren’t afraid of campers.

There is even an osprey nest right at the edge of the campground.

Osprey nest just outside the campground.

This is one of the nicest evenings we have had in a long while. We sat outside enjoying the view, then I roasted some carrots and potatoes. We ate those with some brisket we brought from home. Ahhh. The campground is very quiet except for insects and the occasional bird – just the way I like it.

Gold country living history, trains, and heading home

On 19 May (Friday) we went to Columbia State Park for a living history festival called “Columbia Diggins 1852”. It turns out the entire state park is a living history location. It was great fun. There were hotels, restaurants, homes, stores, etc. that were from the early gold rush days – blocks and blocks of them. There was even a stagecoach ride that I had to take, just because. The stage was “held up” by a masked bandit, causing the children on the stage enormous amounts of fun.

Me in front of the hotel
Stagecoach ride was fun
Lots of kids on school trips

The “Diggins” was a tent city with lots of costumed docents teaching (mostly children) how to do laundry in a wash tub, how to pan for gold, how to use a sluice and a rocker for gold, how to bake in a wood fired brick/stone oven, and other fun things.

We bought some food and some very small presents for the granddaughters.

On Saturday we went to Jamestown and their 1897 Railroad Park. This is another California State Historic Park. There is a working oil fueled steam train and cars that you can take on a short excursion. Of course we did it. The train only runs on Saturday’s and Sundays, and the entire trip took 45 minutes. It was well worth the $15 per person cost.

The only known woman steam engineer was running our train

Saturday night was pizza at the Pizza Factory in Groveland with the remaining rally attendees. The pizza was very good, and I highly recommend the place. No atmosphere but good food.

We decided to do most of the cleaning and packing on Saturday so we could get an easy start home on Sunday. It worked; we were out of the campground by 8:00. The original plan was to find a Forest Service campground somewhere near Lake Tahoe or Reno, but the Tahoe area was too crowded for us. It was a beautiful lake, but not worth the number of people. We decided to just head home in two days instead of our planned three, so we ended up in Winnemucca, NV again. This time we stayed at the KOA which is actually quite nice. Real cable TV so I can watch the news is very pleasant. The internet isn’t very good from the campground, but I am running great on my Verizon hot spot. Since we have a full hookup site we can get all the tanks dumped and cleaned before heading home. I really like being able to do that on the last night of a trip. There is some road noise from I-80, but I expect much of that to die down later tonight. We have the windows and doors open right now, cooling off in the lovely evening air. Home tomorrow!

Yosemite and housekeeping

We arrived Sunday at Yosemite Pines RV Resort in Groveland, just off Highway 120 near the west entrance to Yosemite. It is ok. Definitely nothing to write home about, but adequate for visiting Yosemite. We had a nice Happy Hour with the other RV Forum rally attendees. Monday was my first time at Yosemite, and all I can say is “Wow!” It is truly spectacular. Since the winter was so wet, the waterfalls are roaring. Even more than the waterfalls, I just loved the valley itself – green, broad, a river rolling with whitewater, and surrounded by granite cliffs. Here are some of the obligatory photos.

We actually didn’t stay too long or do any walking. A light mist turned to a dreary cold rain, and we did not have adequate gear. We visited the park headquarters, had lunch in the lodge bar, and took the shuttle bus round trip through the stops. Back in camp we warmed up and dried off, then some of us went to the oldest saloon in California, the Iron Door. Fun local place, and they had a good local dark beer.

Tuesday we did housekeeping chores. After a week or so on the road we needed to do laundry. We also went to the little local museum in Groveland (quite nice) and had lunch at a local bakery. Happy Hour again with the rally folks, then off to the Iron Door saloon again for a beer and onion rings. I also did some sewing on a quilt for Quilts for Kids. It was a fairly productive day for just getting some things done.

Petaluma KOA and San Francisco

We arrived at the Petaluma KOA yesterday evening at 5:30. It was a beautiful drive from Nevada, but I rediscovered how painful driving in California traffic is! The KOA is very nice with lots of trees, level pull-through sites, and it is remarkably quiet. I can’t believe how big the roses are; there are individual blooms as big as my outstretched hand. In general the place is nicely landscaped with lots of flowers in addition to the trees. The sites are quite spacious for a private campground too. It is expensive for us, though not unreasonable for a popular vacation area like this ($55 for Sunday through Thursday, $75 for Friday and Saturday for a water and electric site). We got a discount with our KOA card, and Saturday night was a special fee which made it less expensive. We also used some of our KOA points to reduce the cost.

Today we took a tour to San Francisco. There were 14 of us, a driver, and the tour guide. The guide was informative and the stops nice. We did all the standard stuff – Golden Gate Bridge, Presidio, cable car, Fisherman’s wharf, Golden Gate Park, Fort Point Historic Site, and Chinatown plus just driving some of the wonderful neighborhoods. They picked us up at 9:00 and we got back to the campground just after 6:00. This was worth every penny so we didn’t have to drive (and park) the truck in town. Here are some of the pictures.

Overlooking the city and the bay from the 9th floor of the De Young museum
Mandatory cable car photo
My husband on the cable car
Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Point National Historic Site

We were very lucky in the weather. It was cool and windy, but no fog or rain. I really like San Francisco, but it is still a big city with traffic, congestion, and no parking. I wish I could stay for a week sometime but I doubt it will ever happen. We just like open spaces too much. I always feel closed in when I am in a city. I guess I am just a western girl at heart.

Tomorrow is a wine country tour (driving ourselves), and dinner with an old high school friend.

 

Water Canyon BLM campground outside Winnemucca, Nevada

We left the house at 9:15 MDT in lovely weather. After taking our time with a stop for breakfast (McDonald’s Egg Mcmuffin for me in Magna, UT) and lunch (incredible chicken friend steak at Bella’s in Wells, NV – I highly recommend it), we arrived at this wonderful BLM campground around 3:30 PDT. We found a shady campsite next to a fast running creek. No neighbors anywhere within sight or sound, and the campground is free! The site is a huge pull through and we kept the truck connected so it will be easy leaving tomorrow. We sat outside in the recliners next to the water for a long time.

Kevin took a bike ride up the road some. This is just a general area picture he took plus a closeup of a chukkar, one of my favorite birds.

 

The moon came up over the mountains just as the sun was setting.

 

Tomorrow we head to civilization, Petaluma KOA. It definitely won’t be quiet and dark like tonight. Urban California (or suburban California) is tough to drive in with the truck and trailer. The roads are much better for smaller cars than our 55′ combination. I can handle the traffic, but there just isn’t any parking even in shopping centers.

Oh, and we only forgot a few things – both sets of house shoes and my cotton kitchen towels. Both should be easy to replace somewhere tomorrow. Dinner was a one spot meal – Knorr’s Chicken Fettuccini plus frozen rotisssrie chicken from Costco. We didn’t need much with such a big dinner. Now if only I can stay awake until 10:00 pm PDT …

New trailer goodies

The weather is warming up again, and we are continuing to get some goodies for camping. We bought a new 32″ Samsung TV and got it mounted. I also bought an Apple Lightening to HDMI connector that lets us watch videos I have downloaded to my Apple devices on the TV. That will be nice! I doubt we will be able to stream very often, but being able to view videos will help.

We also bought a new bug shelter, a Clam model. We also bought the wind screens for all 6 sides. It is advertised as a 45 second shelter, but I figure the 5 minutes it took us the second time will be more standard. I think this will be very useful this summer in the Midwest. We have a couple of weeks planned in Iowa in July and a week in Missouri in October. Both can be rainy and windy, and Iowa can be buggy in July. It is long, maybe 5-6 feet, and everything (including the wind screens) fits into a single bag. Kevin has already figured out where it fits in the trailer’s storage compartments. 

We have decided to use a small sewing table instead of the standard dinette table. The sewing table is a bit narrower, and I can use it for sewing too. It has a cutout that can be lowered so the machine is level with the table, and that helps my back and neck a lot. I am working on a tablecloth to be used when I am not sewing. I got it cut out and all the pieces serged, ready to be sewn together. We will need to take the dinette table when we want the grandkids to stay, but that is pretty rare.

Kevin is working hard to get all kinds of stuff done before his knee surgery next week. He is having arthroscopic surgery to clean up some meniscus tears. He has been in a lot of pain for a couple of months, but it just takes a long time to get diagnosed, connected with a surgeon, and pre-authorized for the surgery itself. Hopefully he will be much better in a couple of weeks.

Spring has definitely come

It has decided to rain and rain and rain here. We blew past the average rain for March, and there is a lot of snow in the mountains. Today is dry with puffy white clouds and a brilliant blue sky. It sets off the snow covered peaks in a very picturesque manner. My daffodils have decided to riot, the yard is a brilliant green (I bet we don’t need to water for at least a month!), and the mulch is fully down in the back yard flower beds. I still need to buy another 10-20 sacks for the front flower bed, but I will wait until tomorrow.

We have just been busy doing regular “stuff.” We ordered a new Samsung gas range/electric oven combo. Since we don’t have a gas line, we first had to find the right contractor for that job. Hopefully we will have both the gas line and the range installed in a couple of weeks. Kevin has been doing taxes, and it is a huge job. We have income from Utah, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Income from the pensions, farm, oil, and the wind mills do not have any state tax taken out before it comes to us so it is painful. This is also the first full year we have both been retired, and we discovered we hadn’t had enough federal withheld either. Sigh. We have corrected that so hopefully it won’t be so bad next time. I did get some embroidery done for my daughter/grandson. 

Isn’t that fox adorable? Everyone loves my burp cloths. I use high quality prefolded cloth diapers, and they are the most popular baby present I make. The fabric is cotton and the thread is polyester so they can be washed in hot water with bleach. I do not believe in giving impractical gifts!

I have also been informed I am now to make Clay’s baptism gown. My daughter picked out a tailored style with a romper and a detachable skirt. Poor baby is being baptized in July in Iowa – think HOT. The detachable skirt will only be used for the service, and then he can be a lot cooler. I will use some heirloom techniques on it, especially pintucks which I think are very appropriate for a boy. Probably a Victorian embroidery of trinity crosses and a lot of entredeaux too. It will be a blast. Here is a picture of the romper; I will just wing the long skirt. I am using the version shown in blue and white, but I won’t be adding the faux overall straps. Oh, and there might be some religious embroidery where the chest buttons are. I will decide that later. I am also making the entire outfit out of a white broadcloth.

I almost forgot the other thing I made. I altered some high quality queen bed sheets to be 6 inches shorter so they fit the “short queen” bed in the travel trailer. We had sheets we bought at an RV supply house, but they weren’t very nice sheets. We put the altered ones on the bed, and they fit great except that I need to make them narrower. I forgot the sheets are made to fit very deep mattresses, and ours is only 8″ tall. I should be able to get that done before we leave.

Home (and getting there)

After a nice Brueger’s bagel, we headed from Tucson to Payson, AZ and Houston Mesa campground. It is a Forest Service campground run by a concessionaire just north of the town and set in the pine trees. It is just gorgeous, and there were only a couple of other campers. The camp hosts were very nice, and obviously rather bored with the limited number of campers. They talked to us quite a while, and were helpful in identifying places to go. The only problem with the big pull through site was the road noise; there was a lot of it!

We ended up just spending the night and decided to head to Utah. We drove through a wonderful scenic area with a huge copper mine. I live in the town with the Kennicott mine, the biggest open pit copper mine in the world, and I was still impressed with this one. Oddly the tailings were very colorful and interesting – all the shades of tan, brown, gray, along with green and pinks.

We spent our last night on the road at the Beaver KOA. Nice folks and only one other campsite occupied. It is a nice little place, very well kept and far enough off the highway to be very quiet. We took our time leaving, making sure the tanks were clean and empty before heading home. I even dusted! I still need to sweep the floor and wash the rugs, but it was pretty clean as we pulled it in the side yard. We started laundry (a never ending task) and cleaned out the refrigerator. Now the trailer will sleep for a few weeks.

We aren’t making any plans for April until we find out what is up with Kevin’s knee. It is very painful and makes these weird popping noises. He had this rather silly idea that he could wait until he went on Medicare in September, but it is just too sore. He saw our family practitioner today, and he has a MRI scheduled for Friday. By mid next week we will hopefully know what he has to do to be better since the PT and meds aren’t working. I am hoping it is a quick arthroscopic clean up of the tendon, but that is not based on any specific knowledge. If he can get better quickly, we may go to a high school get together in Oklahoma City on Easter weekend. If not, we will stay here (or at least close) until mid May when we have reservations for the Yosemite area.

Desert beauty

We decided to go to the Tucson area today. We are staying at the Pima County Fairgrounds, just south of Tucson proper. The site is fairly cheap, $25 for full hookups, but it is a crowded gravel parking lot. Of course it is just for an overnight stay so I don’t mind. We got in around 1:00 and chose a well-reviewed Thai restaurant for lunch. “Luckies” was wonderful. My green curry was loaded with good stuff, and just spicy enough to leave a tingle on my lips. It was deliciously warm today, upper 60s, so after lunch we took a trip to the Saguaro National Park’s east unit. It was glorious! I enjoy desert plants in general (such textures!), and I have a special fondness for the Sonoran desert flora. These are the types of plants I had in my yard in Albuquerque – yuccas, barrel cactus, chollas, sotols, etc. Here is a somewhat fuzzy picture of the area.

Saguaro National Park

I never had ocotillos in my yard since they need warmer weather. I do think they have the most wonderful shape though!

Ocotillo

The chollas looked like little fuzzy trees.

Cholla “tree”

And of course there were lots and lots of saguaros.

Saguaros

We keep heading gradually northwest. Where we stay tomorrow depends on when we get out of camp. There is a Brueger’s Bagel bakery not too far away, so we have to have breakfast there. They do real boiled then baked bagels, something I can’t get in SLC. I adore them!

A short and windy day

We were planning on making it somewhere just east of Tucson and doing some sightseeing, but the weather changed our minds. We knew there were wind and red flag warnings to the New Mexico border on I-10, but our trailer/truck combo handles wind very well. It does help to have an oversized truck! However New Mexico and Arizona closed I-10 west of Lordsburg, NM (I don’t remember where the Arizona closure began). They identified a detour using Highway 70, but that is a long way out of the way. We thought about it, but decided to stay in Lordsburg for the night. We had a choice between the Flying J parking lot or a KOA, and we chose the KOA. It was a good thing too! When we went to dinner (a nice little local place called “Ramona’s”), the line on 70 trying to get back on eastbound I-10 was miles long and moving at a crawl. There were city police, county sheriffs, and highway patrol trying to move the traffic along, but it was a mess. I am sure the westbound end was just as bad. You can’t take the traffic traveling on a high speed interstate and easily put it on a two lane state highway. I understand the issue west of Lordsburg is a large playa (dry lakebed) where the wind blown dust provides zero visibility.

The KOA is a decent place to spend the night, though the train does sound a whistle occasionally. I just slept through it all after having two glasses of Pastis, an anise flavored liquour introduced to me by my oldest son. Oh, and the truck picked up a nail in the tire driving into town. Everything was fine as we set  up, but by the time we went to dinner we had lost 1/4 of the air. No tire shop was open, but Kevin headed off to one this morning after airing up the tire (it was down to 20 pounds). We bought a high capacity air compressor just for this reason! The truck needs about 80 pounds in the rear tires to hold the trailer weight. Thank goodness for the TPMS that now comes standard in most vehicles. Having a tire blow out at 65 mph while pulling a trailer is not minor.

Today we continue generally north and west, heading back home.