We are mostly just hanging around Quartzsite. I was rally master for a small rally of the RVForum.net folks, and the last ones just left today. It was a small group, and I don’t think we will continue next year. Kevin and I have decided we will look for a seasonal RV site in town, leaving the motorhome and RZR in Arizona for October through December without us (no winterizing!), the coming back down after the Christmas holidays. It will be a lot faster drive in the truck than the motorhome even though I will have to stay in a hotel a couple of nights each way (boo).
Campfire at the rally
I did get a picture of both of my quilt tops that went to the long arm quilter for basting when we did show and tell at the Quartzsite Quilt Guild meeting. Pretty proud of them actually. The jewel tone one will be for our bed at home, and the green/brown one will be for the bed in the motorhome. Note the green/brown one doesn’t have the same number of borders all around; the bed is a big odd sized.
Jewel Box patternMystery quilt with a lot of added borders
The ukulele concert was fun. It definitely wasn’t professional, but the audience and the performers (including me) had a great time. I am going to experiment with using YouTube to post the video instead of directly on the blog. If you hold the cursor at the end of the URL, you should be able to follow the link. This is (most) of the song I led – “Under the Boardwalk.”http://“Under the Boardwalk” Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra, 29 January 2026 https://youtu.be/KjdSw8vy4N4
The crack in the ukulele is getting much better. I ordered a sponge-style humidifier and hygrometer to keep in the sound hole, and it is staying at about 50% relative humidity. The crack is mostly closed, so I am going to wait until I get back to Iowa to get it repaired. That gives me a lot more time to find a good luthier.
We had some more friends show up for their first trip to Quartzsite, and, of course, we had to go to the Desert Bar (aka Nellie E Saloon) north of Parker, AZ. It is only 4-5 miles off the highway on a rough grave/dirt road, but it feels a lot farther than that. The place is completely off-grid with no cell service and no electricity except what is generated by the huge number of solar panels. There are backup generators just in case, but they aren’t used much. They have really good food, but only a so-so bar. They also have live music each weekend. They are only open Saturdays and Sundays from October through April. Here’s another YouTube video to give you an idea of the inside. There is also a LOT of seating outside in the sun.
[I somehow didn’t publish this on, just left it in draft. Not sure why, but here it is.]
We have just been doing normal Quartzsite stuff. Kevin has been doing some 3D printing too. I now have a nice setup to keep my new jewelry box on the shelf while traveling instead of having to put it on the bed. He’s also made a some small fit samples for some more things he wants to print. He really loves his printer!! And the one we have with us is just his original Ender 3 printer, not one of his newer and nice ones which are at home.
After the “design choices” I made in the October Block of the Month (code name for “mistakes”), I figured it couldn’t get much worse. It did. First, I seem to have lost the pattern for November. I cut pieces for it a week ago and sewed a few components, but now I can’t find the card with the design. Oh well, I’ll just work on December. December did not like me! I can’t tell you how many components I sewed wrong. I ended up putting the block into time out for a couple of days before finally finishing it. I’ll get a picture of it and the November one together later. I have arranged for my two king sized quilt tops to be based with water soluble thread by the quilt shop in Havasu I like, Fabrics Unlimited. She is going to use a wool batting for them. One is for our bed at home and the other is for the bed in the motorhome. I have them carefully folded up, so no pictures of those either.
And for yet more disasters, the surface of my ukulele had a rather rough feel, and I realized it was getting really dry. Duh! Humidity has been running around 15-20%, so of course it is dry! I put the humidifiers I bought at the guitar shop before we left Iowa in the case, but they are really too big to fit in the sound hole. I ordered a new one which shows temperature and relative humidity too. But it was too late! The day after I added the humidifiers I found I had a tiny crack in the front of the ukulele! It runs from the bottom of the guitar to the bridge. I am heart broken. I am looking up luthiers now, and I will be calling one in Yuma tomorrow morning. The ukulele orchestra is going well, and I am even going to lead one song – “Down on the Boardwalk>” Turns out the leader didn’t know it very well, and I started singing out on it. That was enough to get me to lead that song LOL! Our concert is in 9 days, and I am hoping to get the ukulele fixed right after that.
One of the interesting things that we have seen here is a Vandenberg AFB satellite launch. Interesting views of the first stage coming back into the lower atmosphere for recovery. It took a 2 second capture to get this view, but wow! There are two other launches this week. I am hoping they have a better launch angle.
Blown up a LOT
Kevin and I took a ride northeast of Quartzsite to a mining area north of I-10 that was quite nice. I prefer mountains to dust, and this trip delivered.
Just nice rocky scenery.A saguaro being very classically “saguaro!”Cabin ruins. Note the little side rooms on the right.
We went on a UTV ride the SunRiders today after I went to quilt guild. We took a very round about route to the Cyprus Mine then drove around it. It is a big mostly open pit gold mine that is still actively being worked. It was HUGE! It was 2-3 miles to drive around the pile of overburden they had piled up. Sadly you can’t see the pit; that would have been nice. There were a few nice flowers like the sand verbena below, but it was mostly driving on sand/dust that wasn’t my favorite locale. Oh well, the mine was nice.
Water is pumped from the tunnels to here.Sand verbena
And I will end with a classic Arizona sunrise. Absolutely stunning.
I left off on 29 December in New Mexico. We spent the night of 30 December in another Elks Lodge parking lot, this time in Gila Bend, AZ.
Oh, and just outside Gila Bend the motorhome hit 100,000 miles! Not bad for 7.5 years almost exactly. I got a quick picture from the passenger seat, so excuse the quality of the picture.
Average of 13,000 plus miles a year
We made it to Quartzsite on New Year’s Eve, and we decided to stay at Rice Ranch, a full service campground right across the road from the legendary “Big Tent.” The price was just under $40 with tax since we still got December rates; I think the rates double in January! It is just a huge gravel lot with a few palm trees, but it is clean and relatively quiet this time of year. We asked for, and got, a spot as far from the road noise as possible which was nice. We got our laundry all done, our tanks cleaned out, our power at 100%, and we went into the LTVA area ready to boondock for quite a while. One of our RVing friends was already there.
We had a tiny spot of rain that first day, so we got a lovely rainbow.
Faint but nice
That first evening in in the LTVA we were treated to one of Arizona’s truly spectacular sunsets. The colors are real, not touched up. The skies are this color frequently.
Dust and clear air makes for beauty
We were also treated to a rocket launch from Vandenberg. All day long it was relatively clear, but the clouds came in an hour or so before sunset. Since I didn’t take a video, you will have to trust me that the bright spot the arrow points to is the rocket flare.
It might seem as it if is “all sky all the time,” particularly after the next picture, but we really do get beautiful skies in Arizona in the winter. In the summer, there is frequently a lot of smoke from fires which makes the colors intense but adds a haze. The sky was clear for this photo of the Goodyear blimp on its way to the Fiesta Bowl this weekend.
We did try to go on a UTV ride with our club, the Arizona SunRiders, but the office where we needed to pick up our Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) permit was closed on Friday, 2 January, for the holiday. Sure would be nice if the CRIT ever published this information! But we did drive around the area some, just wandering through the various LTVAs. They are busier than they were last year at this time, and there are more and more tents, cars campers, and van campers than I have seen. I think housing prices are just so outrageous for renting or purchasing that a lot of people adopt a nomad lifestyle out of need, not desire. Lots of people obviously down on their luck. The local food pantry is trying desperately to handle the influx, but it just isn’t big enough.
Monday I went to my first meeting of the Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra, and it was great fun. Not at all professional, a bit on the uneven rhythm side, but enjoyable. I knew all but a few of the chords, and I caught up on those with my handy dandy chord chart. The vast majority of the players use standard ukulele tuning and chords, but my baritone ukulele uses guitar-like chords. I am enough of a musician I can handle playing with just the chord names, and I don’t require the tabs to be written on each song. Good thing, because they weren’t there LOL! Our next concert is 29 January, and I think I will be ready for it.
I did get to go to the Quartzsite Quilters sewing day on Tuesday though. I had cut all the pieces for the last three months of the Kona Block of the Month I still had to finish, and at the quilting group I pieced the October block. I also got part of November done, but by the time I had taken out the third poorly sewn seam, I decided it was time to stop for the day! October isn’t my best work either, but it is good enough for me. It will also look better when pressed.
Kona BOM for October
Wednesday, 7 January, we went to the SunRiders monthly meeting before packing up the motorhome for the short trip to Indio, CA and the Western Region FRVA rally. So far I am not impressed. There were not directions for which gate to use to enter the fairgrounds, and there were no signs directing us either. We got lucky and found our way. The organization is really quite poor at communication. I found out one of the sessions I wanted to attend had moved to a new location quite a bit away from the one in the program, and it was only know through word of mouth, not anything from the organizers. I could go on, but I won’t. I will say this isn’t a rally we will return to!
We are getting decent solar and we have enough water, so we are going to do at least one load of laundry tomorrow, probably just shirts. If I have enough water, we will also do towels, but that is quite tentative. But it is also nice to go into a boondock situation that anticipates weather swings knowing you have lots of both short sleeved and long sleeved tops. You never know in Quartzsite!
It has been a really beautiful fall season in Iowa, at least so far. Yesterday it was in the upper 60s, and we decided to take the RZR to Wisconsin for a ride. Kevin has added all sorts of things to the RZR – new lighted whip lights, a new winch to replace the less capable one we had, and an emergency brake. Did you know emergency brakes don’t come standard on most sUTVs? I didn’t! This one just holds down the brake pedal when activated. Hopefully it will keep the RZR from moving around so much when Kevin loads it in the truck. Regarding the trip, no pictures because we road only 7 miles! Turns out the power steering is screwed up again/still. Luckily we can now reproduce the problem easily for the service shop, and Kevin had already made an appointment with them for yearly maintenance. Sigh. This was the reason we had decided to take the ride, just to make sure everything works well before our winter sojourns. Better to wait for service and parts now than when we are in Arizona!
I actually have been piecing quite a bit, but I didn’t take pictures. I added 72 piece border blocks to what will become our RV bed quilt, then I added an additional 4” border all around those. Now I have to add enough borders to get it to an RV king bed size with a 10” drop. I even planned for 5% shrinkage, just to make sure it fit. I will probably get those borders on tomorrow. Then back to the Block of the Month!
I do have some nice pictures though. The first two are a follow-up to my last post which shows the development behind our house. The first one shows our house and how it sits now, while the second shows the new lot lines. They are priced outrageously in my opinion. I live in a nice neighborhood in what is considered a LOCL area, and the lots are going to $110,000-$140,000 for a 1/4 or 1/3 acre lot! No scenery, just previously fallow Iowa farm land. No wonder young people can’t buy houses!
My house circled in blueThe new lot lines. Arrow points to a newer elementary school.
We also had some real excitement with the recent solar storm that lit up the sky with auroras. We could see them with the naked eye, but the photo sensor on my iPhone caught them even better. These photos are not processed at all, as should be obvious from the dust and the porch light flare. I think they are still pretty impressive though.
Green barsRed flares
My ukulele playing is definitely improving. I remember the chords pretty well, and I am moving between them fairly quickly. The chord transition is what I am concentrating on now. I have a book of mostly old folk songs, and I am just working through the ones in the key of G and C. Once I get these in good shape, I’ll work at some others.
I have a birthday coming up, and Kevin has already gotten me a present – a new GoPro remote control that charges with a USB C plug. My previous one had a weird custom plug that was always getting mis-placed. Since we now have 20-30 USB C cords around, I doubt that will be an issue with this one!.
We spent our last night in Ignacio visiting a bit of Chimney Rock Monument and a Native American flute player. The weather was threatening as we drove up, and it got worse. Lightening and thunder were all around us, so the planned outdoor aspects of the visit were superseded. We got to listen inside the Visitor Center, but I did get just a hint of a small ruin, shown below. The giant kiva and the Big House were out of reach this time, so I guess we will have to go back!
One of the smaller ruins at Chimney Rock
We drove to Farmington, NM where the Rocky Mountain Motorhome Association, a regional group from the FRVA, was having a rally. It was our first time at a regional rally, and it was a nice change.It was small enough (100 or so rigs) you got to meet people more easily. The Frustrated Maestros I mentioned last time were a blast! Not all were great musicians, but the purpose is FUN, and I am pretty sure everyone had a lot of that. It took me a while to get into a popular music style since I do so much more formal choral music, but I finally figured it out. Now if only I didn’t get so nervous singing a solo!
Oh, I have to mention that the Verizon service at the Fairgrounds where we had the rally was astonishing! Look at this screen shot; even Starlink could only run at about 180 or so.
I have never seen speeds like this!
In addition to singing three mornings, I also taught a class on making oven mitts. The students got to pick their favorite fabric kit, quilt the fabric, cut it with the Accuquilt, machine bind the edges, and then finish sewing. We had a blast! One of the nicest groups of folks I have ever had the pleasure of teaching, they had enthusiasm and great attitudes as you can see from this picture (yes, they gave permission). Everybody finished one mitt completely, and the second mitt didn’t need much more work but wasn’t quite finished in the two hours we had. I had so much fun picking out the fabric, and I have quite a few kits left. Guess what some of my Christmas presents will be?
We had so much fun
All good things must come to an end <sigh>. We are heading to the Red Bay, AL area for work on the motorhome, so most of the rest of the trip will be pretty boring. We spent the first night out of Farmington at the Santa Rosa State Park in NM. We would normally have planned on somewhere closer like Albuquerque, but the Balloon Fiesta is running and there isn’t a place within 100 miles at a reasonable distance. But the state park was lovely. There was a lot of water in the lake since they have had heavy rains, and the area was a lot greener than we had seen it before. Here is a picture Kevin took from our site. The only issue we had getting here was a major accident just a few miles from our exit to Santa Rosa. It took us about an hour to go 3-4 miles! Somehow a semi had destroyed their trailer (peeled the roof right off!) and crunched the tractor pretty good just at the start of a big construction zone. It was awfully tiring driving 2-3 mph. Just about everyone was well behaved, but I was glad to get to the campsite.
Santa Rosa State Park campground view
We are now in a crowded Elks Lodge parking lot in Amarillo, TX. There are 7 other MHs here, and we are parked awfully close to each other. But the price is right, and it is fine for a single overnight. I got the chance to clean up and sort all my sewing stuff, so that is good. We plan on averaging 200-230 miles a day to get to Red Bay on Saturday. We stay in a parking lot there too!
I probably won’t post again unless I get some sewing done. I have a pair of oven mitts that are partially complete that I was using as a sample, so I need to finish them. I also have the October Kona Block of the Month to finish. Oh, and all those Christmas presents!
We actually drove the Byway on Monday, 21 September, first – Cortez, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Ridgeway, Telluride, then back Cortez. The eastern loop was lovely, but the western side was considerably behind it in color. We thought Thursday would be close to the peak color, so we drove from Cortez to Silverton again then. I took SO, SO, SO many videos, but I am not going to inflict them on you. They are lovely, but videos take forever to load. So you will get a very abbreviated tour of stills, mostly taken from the videos.
If you blow up this one you can see the color on the mountain plus a bit of the color in the undergrowth. Note the aspens this low weren’t doing much.
Color on the mountains in the distance
But the trees made up for it as we continued!
Mostly goldGold
This picture shows both the hillsides with yellow, green, and gold, plus the line of traffic all wanting to see it with us. People were actually quite well behaved though. There are a number of construction areas, but people waited their turns nicely.
Hillside between Durango and Silverton
And didn’t I say things got better? Notice the aspens intermixed with the conifers on this higher elevation hill.
More mountain color
This was the stand out spot! Not yellow but orange/gold.
All I can say is WOW
And for contrast, here are a few pictures from Monday. It was very overcast and cloudy. Note there is some color, but it was amazing what four days difference can do.
Not as vivid
Red Mountain is between Silverton and Ouray. The area shown is a mine that is being reclaimed for pollution issues.
An old mining flume
I love how Silverton, 9000+’, gets such lovely color. It was really, really crowded though!
Silverton
We moved to the Southern Ute Fairgrounds RV Park today. Full hookups means lots and lots of laundry! I will spray the shower, sinks, and toilet too. It’s nice to get some real cleaning done without having to worry about water, and we have so much dust in all the corners!
I actually have done some work on sewing tasks, though it doesn’t always seem like it. I am teaching a class next week at the Farmington RMMA rally, so I finally packaged all my fabric and insulation. I will work on my samples tomorrow probably. We will be heading to Chimney Rock National Monument for a special activity – a Native American flute player will play while we get to watch the night sky. I am looking forward to it, though we will definitely take warm coats and a quilt for our legs.
Ready for class
We leave on Sunday for the Farmington rally. I am trying out the “Frustrated Maestros,” a chapter of singers and instrumentalists who entertain at rallies. We sing at 8:00-8:45 the main three mornings of the rally. That is, by the way, a God-awful time for a singer! I will have to get up early to get my voice warmed up for that time. While most of the songs are old standards, some I have never heard of. Not complaining because some of the standard repertoire of the groups is awfully dates, but I have had to spend a significant time listening to the play list on YouTube. Most of the new stuff is definitely country/rock and indie. I have no idea how they will get a choir to sing them, but I am guessing we will just try to be close to each other. Even really well trained choirs with professional singers have difficulty with lots of 16th note runs and odd rests. I miss singing so much though! Hoping this works out well. We practice a total of 12 hours!
I have no idea why I sometimes just don’t get in the mood to post. Maybe I get overwhelmed with beautiful things, and I have trouble deciding what to show. Ok, I’ll go with that one, at least this time.
We spent four nights at Elk Creek campground in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. Nice sites with electricity, a rarity for NPS campgrounds. My youngest grandchildren had noted I hadn’t sent them any post cards (bad grandma!), so I picked some up at the visitor center. They didn’t have any way to mail them though, so we had to wait until we got to town. Gunnison wasn’t too far away, so that is where we spent some time. I came down with a UTI, so I had to spend time at a very nice clinic and the local pharmacy. Sigh. They don’t allow UTVs in the park, so we kept to the truck. Pretty country though. Kevin got an oil change on the truck and we did laundry – fascinating stuff. Not all of camping is sightseeing!
After Elk Creek we stayed at a BLM dispersed site halfway between Alamosa, CO and Great Sand Dunes National Park. We were in a large sagebrush covered area on the flanks of Mount Blanca, the fourth tallest peak in Colorado. While we could ride the RZR there, the trail got rougher than we like about 5-6 miles up the trail to the top. The area is called the Lake Como dispersed area, but we sure never saw a lake. As you can see from the photo, it is a pretty isolated area. We were at least 100 yards from our nearest neighbor. We took Minnie to a vet in Alamosa for follow-up blood work. Thanks fully everything is perfectly normal! She is acting like her old self again, and I am thrilled.
Sunset, the motorhome, and the Clam shelter.
One of the other things we did while we were here was take a long waited for ride on the Toltec and Cumbres Scenic Railway. Kevin bought tickets a few months back for the “Parlor Car.” It was pricy but absolutely worth it. It was an enclosed car with half the number of seats. Each seat faced the window and was comfortably padded. Since we went a bit over 60 miles over 5 hours, that padding was important! I can’t begin to pick the best photos from the trip, but here is a sampling.
At the stationGrandpa rock (use your imagination)Lovely canyonsSome population in the high meadowsWe had the back car
And of course we went to Great Sand Dunes. It was intermittently raining so we didn’t get out much. I am always thrilled to see just how huge the sand dunes are. If you blow up the picture a bunch you can see two people on top of the far dune.
People for scale
And like most parks, the animals get to know people won’t harm them. This doe and twin fawns are an example. They were perhaps 6 feet off the road and totally ignored us.
Not scared of humans at all
After the dry open sagebrush of Lake Como Road, we splurged on 10 days at the 4K River Ranch in Red River. We had a big site right on the river, though we did have to move for the last 3 mights a few sites farther down the row. Full hookups of course (laundry!),and green, lots of green. We had a few dozen teal ducks keep us company, and there were lots of other birds flitting around. The ground squirrels had obviously been fed by previous campers, and they would come within inches of our feet. Kevin’s sister came over for a few days, and they did some sightseeing and hiking. It was nice for Kevin to have a hiking partner since that’s something I can’t do anymore. He also took her on her first side by side ride. She had ridden an ATV before, but she agreed the SXS was a lot more comfortable.
The old Questa Church was lovely. At one point an entire adobe wall fell down, and the community spent 49,000 hours of work to rebuilt with original techniques.
Questa Church
As a change from the barren sagebrush We had grass and trees. Those led to visitors.
NeighborsMore neighbors
We also had our first significant mishap of our SXS career. There was a very deeply washed area where our tire slipped and we ended up tipping sideways. It wasn’t anything really serious; both the rig and us were fine. But it was slow going to get the right on its four wheels and get it winched out. You can’t work very hard or very long without a break at 9600’! We also decided we needed a winch with a longer work cycle. Ours had to rest 20 minutes for every 5 it was working, so it took quite a while to get it all done. Yes, we travel by ourselves a lot, and yes, we carry a full complement of self-rescue and self-support gear. Still took us (well, Kevin) two hours to get us all out. Just as we got on top of the washed out area and stashed the gear back, along comes two rigs that could have helped! It never fails.
“Kevin, I don’t think we should be lying on our side”
After Kevin’s sister left, we visited Taos more extensively. We finally got into the Taos Pueblo World Heritage Site after being disappointed three other times due to religious ceremony closures and COVID closure. Fabulous place. The church, San Geronimo, was lovely. Here is the outside. You can’t take pictures inside, but it was lovely too – very traditional southwest.
Taos Pueblo Church
The Pueblo itself is well worth visiting. We took a guided tour, and she was worth her tip. The three story adobe buildings have the homes of multiple families inside them, but no more building is allowed there due to structural concerns. Families still live in the houses, but most are only used for ceremonial or tourist businesses. Building is allowed for one story adobes, but since the homes inside the wall cane have no electricity or plumbing, there isn’t much new construction. The older ones are occupied though. Our guide said 40-60 people live full-time in the historic Pueblo, but thousands more live just outside in more modern houses.
Three story buildingsOne story buildings
When we left Red River on 12 September, we spent one night at the Sante Fe Elks so I could pick up a prescription, then we spent two nights at the Farmington Elks. The Sante Fe site was just dry camping, but Farmington had electricity. We didn’t need much because the weather has been quite pleasant. We are now at the Cortez Elks lodge, staying until Friday morning, 19 September. Then we will find one night at a FHU campground to get laundry done and generally clean up the rig and ourselves before heading to the Rocky Mountain Motorhome Association Ramble. Kevin is going to help with parking, and I am joining the “Frustrated Maestros” musical group. I am also doing a class on sewing oven mitts,
I actually have done some sewing, but not a bunch. I made a cover for a little folding table we have, but I forgot pictures. I also finished the September Kona Block of the Month a bit before the last day! As usual, it hasn’t been pressed, and I noticed just now that I have some spare threads here and there. Oh well!
I like the colorway for the month
We do have some things planned while we are here, so I will try to be more diligent at posting.
The drive from Delta to Lake City was truly awful. Colorado Hwy 149 was so wiggly I got seasick – really! Slow speeds of 30-40 mph with lots of up and down hills made it a miserable drive in the motorhome. I was not in a happy mode when we finally got to Lake City, and our campsite was so small we had to really wiggle around to get in. The owner tried to direct me, and he ran me into tree limbs. I stopped and said the only one who could back me in was Kevin. Owner seemed kind of perturbed, but I was pissed. Luckily the tree branches only rubbed the chrome outside of my mirrors, but that was only because I stopped. Sigh. Once we got in the site and I was able to calm down, I could appreciate the long but narrow site. It has a lot of trees, but luckily an open space for the Starlink. They have a spring that has its own little waterfall along the road. I loved the lush moss.
Silly rocks but cute waterfall
Monday we discovered our 7 year old Dyson stick vacuum had died. Sigh. And of course there isn’t a good place to get one in Lake City, so we had to head to Gunnison. The road is much easier in a truck, especially with Kevin driving. We picked up the new vacuum, did some other miscellaneous shopping, and drove a bit of the road we will take to on our way from Blue Mesa Reservoir where we will be staying next. The trip here is still heavy on my mind! We had dinner at a fabulous place called Breakfast Hangout and Euphoria. Weird name, but really good food. I had salmon with baked sweet potatoes and a piece of hazelnut crepe cake. Delicious.
Tuesday we did the famous Alpine Loop trail. Yup, it is worth everything you have ever heard about it. If you have a slow internet connection, come back later! I have lots of videos and pictures.
We left about 8:30 and returned around 2:30 with lots of stops for pictures and a long lunch. Our campground, Highlander RV Park, is right on the trail so we took off from there. We had a nice ride around Lake San Cristobal. There are a lot of dry camping available, but it would have been challenging to get the motorhome in the sites.
The first big pass was Cinnamon Pass. The trail gets considerably rougher, though still a relatively easy ride for the RZR. Can you see the trail switch backing up the mountain?
I wish I could say I took a video at the top of the pass, but I didn’t. I did take lots of miscellaneous pictures though.
Even in mid August there were flowers in the meadowsSage meadowsStunning mountains
Animas Forks is a state supported ghost town along the Alpine Loop. Lots of pictures from here too.
Houses and businessesThe big mill ruins is for sale!Old mines and mills were all over the place
Then we headed to Engineer Pass, a more challenging road. There was about a half mile of really rough road with big holes intermixed with ledges. Our little RZR was capable of it, but it was hard driving.
I didn’t get any pictures of the shelf roads we drove or the really rough areas. During those areas I was holding onto my “Oh Shit” handle! Handy gadget found on the passenger side of all SxSs.
Today I spent time with my sewing materials. I haven’t gotten much time for a long time, and I deliberately said I would stay put all day today to sew. I managed to cut and sew the August block for my Kona Block of the Month. I like the colorway we got for this month.
I like the pinks and reds
I also cut a few hundred pieces that I need for a random border for a quilt that will be going into the motorhome when I get it finished. It is much easier to sew the little pieces when they are already cut out. I can do it in small segments of time, but cutting is best done all at one time.
I also experimented with a new fusible for appliqué. I bought this adorable Accuquilt cactus die this winter, and this is the first time I have played with it. After using a few sample pieces to experiment with thread and fabric, I put this adorable design on one of the canvas bags we use for groceries. We wash them regularly, and it will be interesting to see how the appliqué holds up. I used an invisible thread on top with a blind hem stitch with 3 and length 1. I like it!
Cute appliqué
Tomorrow we head to Elk Creek campground on Blue Mesa Reservoir in Curecanti National Recreation Area. We will have electricity, an unusual thing for a National Park Service campground.
We left Tillamook to get an upgrade done to the motorhome. We decided to add True Toppers to the rig. They replace the slide toppers with a unique method to clear off the slide tops as they come in. No more noisy slide toppers! We spent Sunday 20 July until the morning of 23 July in their yard and shop. It took more than 2 days to do the work as it is quite extensive. It also required the awning be moved down a few inches which was surprisingly difficult. The shop did a really good job, and I am looking forward to getting some serious wind to see how it works. Astonishingly it has been remarkably calm ever since!
We then decided to head to the Oregon coast to get out of the awful heat. The temps were mostly in the mid 60s for highs and low 50s at night – lovely! We stayed at the Florence Elks Lodge downtown for convenience. One day we headed north on the coast driving to Newport. We had lunch at a fabulous place called South Beach Fish Market. I had the most fabulous halibut and chips I have ever had! Highly recommend!
Make sure you turn the sound up for the videos. I love the sound of the ocean.
I love the way the fog is climbing the mountain in this shot.
And you can’t see the rocky shores of Oregon without seeing a lighthouse (or two).
The north coast is very rocky. We were there at nearly low tide plus the swells were quite low, so some of the splashing you normally get along the rocks wasn’t very visible this trip. We did get to see some of the standard sights including some sea lions sunning themselves plus some others fishing off the shore.
Another trip we took was south. Around Florence the coast is sand dunes. They are everywhere! Behind the shops, trying to overcome the side streets, everywhere! It is a really popular area for dune riding on ATVs, motorcycles, and UTVs. Kind of makes sense since this is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.
A picture taken looking south toward FlorenceThe Oregon DunesNot too crowded on a Friday morningI am a fan of the little donuts they were selling in the parking lot
One of the things we learned is that the county park at Winchester Bay has all kinds of fabulous camping available. There are a large number of dry camping sites that are non-reservation. I think we will definitely stay there the next time we come to the area. We spent all kinds of time in the area, and we saw another lighthouse!
And I finally finished my Christmas quilt top. My kids bought me a fat quarter bundle of Christmas fabrics for my birthday in November. As said they had noted I didn’t have a Christmas quilt, and decided I needed one. They were right! I worked on it off and on during our winter trip, but I managed to finish it this week. I will press it at home with the Laura Star steam pressing system. It is the best way to get flat seams, and I have totally gotten spoiled with it.
Made with fat quarter bundle from my kids
I also finished the June and July Kona Block of the Month kits. I was remarkably late with this, but I really do like this blocks. They are all big blocks with lots of pieces. You can make them with just half square triangles, but the enjoyable part is trying to figure out how to use different block types to minimize seams. For example, there are a lot of flying geese you can use instead of two HSTs. Now I just have get ready for the August block in a few days. And I am much happier with the July and later color scheme. Each month there are 40+ squares of a specific color palette. We choose from the package each month, and the others will be used for borders and sashing. I am also signed up for a class on various border options that can be used for this class quilt or other quilts.
JuneJuly
After the joys of the coast we moved to Springfield, just outside Eugene. Again, we are staying at an Elks Lodge here, a place we have stayed before. Still hot here, but there is supposed to be cooling down in the next few days. I also got to visit a quilt shop in Springfield, Jean Marie Fabrics. Lovely collection of fabrics in a very crowded shop. I am beginning to collect fabrics for the oven mitt class I am doing at the Rocky Mountain Motorhome Association rally in October. I need 1/2 yard for each kit that will make 2 oven mitts. I found a fabulous fabric with red, yellow, and green chilis on it, plus another with miscellaneous produce on it. Those are the types popular for kitchen stuff.
We will stay here until Thursday morning when we will head back to the Ray Benson Sno-Play area. This time I sure hope it is cool enough to do some UTV riding! It was too hot the last time we were there, and I wasn’t feeling too well. I am still having a bit of incision drainage which is problematic, but it is getting much better.
We had been to Sisters before, but not during quilt week. Wow, is it busy! Here is the fabulous boondock site we found though.
Maybe a half mile from the high school where the classes were held.The view out my front door.
My first class on Monday was on quilting with lines. We started with straight lines, then slightly curved lines, then very curved lines, then … I guess you get the idea. I enjoyed the class a lot. It was well organized. My second class was on Tuesday and was for piecing. We used a kit that had a beautifully printed panel showing the Sisters Quilt Show design for this year. The kit also had fabric for lovely little star blocks which is what we really worked on. It used a “Tri Recs” ruler, and what seamed simple was actually pretty slow at the start! I finally got a rhythm established and could do a star in about 25 minutes, having pre-cut all the pieces. My brain was so exhausted by 2:30 on Tuesday I had Kevin come to pick me up early! Recommendation: Plan on having a day to recover between classes. They are so chock full of information it is exhausting!
The kit fabrics are gorgeous. The blocks (unpressed in this photo) are 6 1/2”, so each of this little star points are tiny! And they definitely have a right and left side.
Luscious
Wednesday and Thursday we just did errands and had friends out for lunch which was great fun (the friends, not the errands!). On Friday we drove the McKenzie Scienic Byway. Absolute stunner, but definitely for the truck, not them motorhome. Lots of ups and down, lots of tight curves. The size limit is 35’, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that size limit to drive it! Here are some pictures from our drive with captions.
Lots and lots of lava! Under these boulders is a solid river of lavaThe lichen was a brilliant green. Excuse the picture quality.This is the old Santiam Pass Toll Road. Can you imagine traversing the lava fields in a wagon?This small “windows” highlight various points of interest
One of the highlights was the historic Fish Lake Remount Station. It has a long and storied history of many uses, the longest was as a Forest Service muleskinner location. Mules were the primary way to get goods into and out of the remote locations where rangers were stationed. The site was also the summer quarters for the Head Forest Ranger for a number of years. Some of the buildings are maintained by the “Friends of Fish Lake” organization including the one below.
“Caulked boots” means boots with spikes for foresters/loggers climbing trees
Even the old dinner ware was marked with the Forest Service logo.
We had lunch at Clear Lake Resort operated by a USFS concessionaire. The food was good, and the lake was very popular. It is not the headwaters of the McKenzie River after a lava eruption damed the ancestral McKenzie. Deep and cold.
On Saturday we went to the legendary Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. We got downtown by about 7:30, and quilts were still being hung. There were over a thousand! We wandered around a couple of hours and saw hundreds before it started getting too hot for us. But wow, what a show! This is just a small sampling
Modern quiltsVery traditional postage stamp quilt (each block is 1”)Quilts everywhere!
A young boy made this cute Highland cow quiltI loved this modern quilt
The creator of this stunner was standing by the quilt as we came up.And of course there were paper pieced beautiesAlong with embroidered blocks
At 9:30 as we left, people were just beginning to throng, and I am sure it quadrupled in size before it finished this afternoon.
And I would be totally remiss if I didn’t comment on the town of Sisters. What a lovely place! There are flowers everywhere, and it is a tourist town with beautiful flowers, decent parking, and very few tshirt shops! Instead there are nice little restaurants, art galleries, etc.
Flowers everywhere!
We have gotten tired of the heat in Sisters though, so after we went to the show for a few hours, we packed up and went 22 miles away to the Ray Benson Sno-Park. Basically there are just a few huge parking lots you can stay in. It might sound bad, but the temperatures are at least 10 degrees cooler than Sisters, and the view out my front door isn’t bad! There is no one else staying in the lot we are in, and the place is very quiet.
View out my door
We will stay here until Monday morning when we head into an Elk’s Lodge in Tillamook. The weather there is nice and cool, and it will be a welcome relief.
