RZR – TooBusyForWork

Soudan, Ely, and nearby locations

The appropriate sign you are in northern Minnesota in late August, early September is that sandals with socks is perfectly acceptable!

We moved to the DNR State OHV Campground near Soudan on Sunday, 30 August. The sites are HUGE, 60-80’ long pull throughs with picnic tables, and fire rings. There are pit toilets one each of the three loops plus a central flush toilet/shower facility. It even has a OHV wash area. Absolutely no trees, but hopefully they plant some next year.

Once we got settled, we drove the truck to Hibbing on Monday because we had a leak in the differential. Oops! Bad drive train, and the dealer said it was unsafe to drive. Big ouchie. They have to order parts, and it will be a week, so they gave us a loaner car. It is a brand new Ford Bronco, and it is a dog. I admit it is the lowest level of trim, but it is not comfortable at all. Hopefully we only have it a bit over a week.

We visited an historic Finnish homestead, the Wirtanen Pioneer Homestead. It is an original homestead site begun by a single bachelor farmer/logger in 1904. The first thing built was a sauna, of course, but the house and other outbuildings are impressive. It has an obviously loving historic association taking care of it.

While we were in the Soudan area we took one long RZR RIDE, 90+ miles, on the Prospector Trail. The most notable site in my opinion were the boardwalks over bogs. There were a number of them, but the longest was a full half mile in length! They are controlled by gates that enforce the 65” maximum width of the trail. Lots of those along the boardwalks and bridges.

The trail itself is jointly maintained by DNR and local clubs. This is one of the nicest trail stops I have ever seen. There is also a fire pit and a large collection of split firewood in a covered area. Oh, and a spotless two hole outhouse!

Nice facilities on the Prospector’s Trail

We also spent a day just sightseeing around Ely. Back when I could move better, we did a number of wilderness canoe trips out of the town, and we re-visited the area. The trees are just starting to turn, and it was generally beautiful. Wednesday was Kevin!s birthday, and we had an absolutely fabulous dinner at Insula Restaurant in Ely. Good food, good service, and a great rye whiskey Old Fashioned! What can be more Minnesotan than walleye and wild rice?

On Thursday, 3 September, we moved to the West Forty RV Park in Gilbert. Sites are crowded, but FHU and we met friends here. We have been camping with the Lopers occasionally for 25 years or more, and it was great to catch up. We are now planning on staying here through Thursday night. We need to be in Duluth on Friday for a train trip, so I sure hope the truck is fixed by then!

Shell Lake and surroundings

We ended up driving to Iowa for Kevin’s hearing aids on Wednesday 18 August. It was a long drive down to Iowa City, but he really likes the hearing aids. The technician made five separate programs for him, and two were for music! One is for crowded spaces like restaurants, and another is for normal conversation. I do t remember what the fifth one is! We spent the night at home in Cedar Falls, then drove back on Thursday. The cats survived us being gone a day, though Luna followed Kevin everywhere he went for a few days!

On Friday we drove into northern Minneapolis to get n alignment done on the motorhome only to find out they couldn’t work on it because of the SafeTSteer! I was pissed! I drove the MH over 200 miles round trip for nothing. They recommended another shop, and we made an appointment there for the next week. I am really glad we decided to stay in Shell Lake more days since it gave us time to do a bunch of sightseeing and get un-pissed. Kevin’s last day of arm movement and weight restrictions expired, so we spent a couple of days running around in the RZR. One day we took the Wild Rivers Trail which is an old Chicago Northwestern rail line bed. Wisconsin has totally embraced UTVs, and this trail is one example. Very well maintained with good signage and surface. It is an old rail bed though so not a lot of curves or ups and downs! It was beautiful though – so very lush and green.

Surprisingly we saw very little wildlife. I am guessing the habitat is so rich they don’t have to be around people to find food and shelter. The deer and sandhills were about all we saw.

Another day we wandered north and spent time in the Washburn County Forest. Much more interesting riding, mostly on fire roads. Lots of ups and down and curves along with a more varied scenery.

We even took a train ride just north of Spooner in Trego. A scenic train runs over old Chicago Northwestern tracks a a very slow speed, but they had a dinner train reservation available so we took it. Dinner was actually very nice with white table cloths and napkins plus good service. The steaks was nice, but the carrots and potatoes were fabulous!

We left Shell Lake on Wednesday, 27 August and spent the next two nights at the Grand Casino RV Park there. Very nice place, and under $50 with tax! Great laundry room too. We were here to be closer to Blaine’s TruckAlign shop where I had a Thursday morning appointment. The MH has been pulling to the right, so I got it aligned front and rear, swapped the weird wear tires on front for a pair in the back, and got the SafeTSteer perfectly set. It took 6 hours, and the bill was only a bit over $700. I commented to the guy it was rare to pay less than $1000 for anything MH related, and he said they hear that a lot. Today we left Hinckley and drove to Whiteface Reservoir campground. It is so rural I can’t even give the name of a nearby town! Awfully pretty though. The white bucket is where Kevin stores our potable water hose which is doubling as a stand for the Starlink dish. We even have electricity!

However we weren’t aware we can’t use the RZR here, and even if we could there aren’t enough trails to make it worthwhile. So we will be checking out of her on Sunday and heading to Tower and the Soudan Underground Mine ATV campground. The sites look nice, and there are a lot more trails up there.

Kevin’s been busy

I have accomplished almost nothing in the last few weeks. Not feeling guilty about it at all, well maybe a little. I did get almost all the binding applied to the motorhome quilt, but I need about 12 more inches. Of course that means searching for the fabric remnants and getting around to cutting them. I have found the remnants, but there are just a few shorter pieces left which means a lot of joining. Oh well, today or tomorrow I will get that done and finish the first step of the binding. Then I have to rearrange the sewing area to lay the quilt flatter so it doesn’t distort the last stitching. Sigh.

Kevin, however, has been amazingly busy! He has mounted the Navajo rug. That required making a frame with internal supports, stapling 2” wide Velcro to the supports and frame, then getting it securely on the wall.

He also replaced the mount on the outside TV in the motorhome. We hardly ever use it because it was flat mounted too high to easily view. He installed a rotating/tipping mount that should be much more usable. We probably still won’t often, but it might come in handy for movie nights with others. He also spent time on the phone with the Vroom slide guy, diagnosing our slide out issues. It wasn’t just as simple as replacing cables, since it still didn’t work when he did that. A motor or two might be dead, so we just gave up and set up an appointment with the guy in Red Bay to get it worked on. I am still pretty pissed at Velocity Truck Center in North Las Vegas for being the root cause of all this. If they had been more careful with tying back the wiring they untied, the slide would still be working. I know they won’t do anything about it though, so I plan on just doing some complaining on social media.

Kevin is also getting his new 3D printer on Tuesday! He ordered it months ago, but it was a brand new 4 color model, and it took a while to make and ship to the US (from China of course). He already acquired a 4 spool filament dryer, and says it works so well on his single spool printer that he is going to buy a single spool dryer for the motorhome. It is easier since we will be having full hookups most of the winter. Yes, he does take his single spool printer with him in the motorhome!

He has replaced the CVT belt on the RZR and got it all greased up. Since new belts need some gentle driving to break them in, we went to Wisconsin to ride the Cheese Country Trail. We have done it before, and it is a nice ride on an old railroad bed. We tried to start at Mineral Point, the northern terminus, but there was so much construction we couldn’t find the trail! We then drove to Darlington, the next major entry point. From there we ride to Monroe, had lunch at the Suisse Haus (fabulous Wisconsin buttermilk blue cheese burger!), then road back. The only complication was there were three big detours due to bridges being out on the trail. They added about 12 miles to the trip, a not insignificant amount! But I did take some videos.

Here are two of what most of the trail was like. Lovely country. The second one shows where the trail was dug into a hill leading to a pretty solid tree covered route.

http://Cheese Country Trail, 19 June 2026 https://youtu.be/9wMl0nDlJA0

http://Cheese Country Trail canopy 19 June 2026 https://youtu.be/8EkzJmttOok

And here is what the detour looked like. Still nice rolling countryside, but I missed the trees.

http://Cheese Country Trail detour through farm country https://youtu.be/OEqLOBY6hns

I also had fun at a ukulele seminar by Ukester Brown. The Des Moines Ukulele Society sponsored it, and he went over some strumming techniques and even how he memorizes songs (a real issue for me!). I brought my Kala baritone that I wanted to sell, though I played my new Pono. I think I have a buyer for the Kala! I am holding it for her.

That’s about it. In a week from now we will head to Whitewater State Park where we will stay while Kevin gets his heart testing done. I have a bone density test (super easy) and a surgery consultation during the same time. This trip will determine if we blow the entire summer or just some of it! Of course health is more important, but the older I get the more I realize we just don’t have that much time left to really get out. So time becomes even more precious.

Quartzsite still

We are still in Quartzsite, but we will be leaving soon. The last Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra concert will be on Saturday, 7 March. We will either leave on the next day or we will wait a couple of days. I will decide when we find out if there will be a party for the ukulele group.

It got really hot in Quartzsite last week, so we chickened out of boondocking in the desert and went to a campground. This time of year places are really clearing out, but there were also a number of folks like us who came in from the heat. While we absolutely can run our AC when needed using the generator, I really dislike doing it for hours on end. But I kind of stop feeling comfortable when the temps get much over 85, so in to town we went! We stayed at Rice Ranch again, the place we will be staying seasonally next year. The temps were only high for 4-5 days, but we stayed a week on a discounted rate (7 days for the price of 6). We got all the laundry done, enjoyed having power available, ran the AC as needed, and we were able to heat the rig with the built in electric fireplace heater. Even when the desert gets to 90 degrees in the summer, it can be in the 50s at night so a bit of extra heat is needed for this temperature sensitive gal. I think I could get used to just how easy it is to stay in a real campground!

We took a side by side ride of course, even with the heat. We went out on just a semi-local around the Dome Rock area. There is still an awful lot of gold mining going on around Quartzsite, and here are some pictures of some of it.

This is actually six active claims. You can rent If you want

We also took our yearly trip to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. We usually go in late January or very early February, so it was interesting to see the differences 5-6 weeks can make. There were a lot fewer birds for sure! In a good year we can see hundreds of duck and geese of many species plus another few hundred sandhill cranes. These time of the year, not nearly as many.

Pond has 1/2 or less the number of birds

Great White Egret in foreground with some sandhill cranes behind

We took a trip to the more remote Island section of the refuge that is located between the current Colorado River and the historic Colorado. I love the mountains contrasted with the flooded ponds.

Island section of refuge shows how important water is in the desert

And of course I will end with sunsets, these from Rice Ranch.

Quartzsite then Havasu then Quartzsite

I am sorry my links didn’t work in the last post. Here they are for another try. Click on the highlighted link, then click again on the small text link. First, the Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra: “Under the Boardwalk” 29 January 2026
https://youtu.be/KjdSw8vy4N4

And what the Desert Bar looks like on a random Saturday. https://youtu.be/6OTLGvKubn8

Now on to new stuff. We were so busy with everyone visiting that we took it easy for a few days. I tried a new ukulele jam group on Sunday, 1 February, but it wasn’t quite my thing. Very churchy with praise music I didn’t know. It was nice to be able to do more than just listen though I probably won’t repeat it. One Tuesday, 3 February, we took a ride with the SunRiders that was just a half day ride. We wandered around to the Quartzsite letters, a big guzzler we hadn’t seen before, and we noted a number of military-related locations from WWII. It was nice to have a relaxing ride instead of full-speed ahead!

We then headed to an Anasazi Chapter of the FRVA rally in Benson, AZ on Wednesday, 4 February going to Gila Bend the first night. The rally began on Thursday. It was really busy, but enjoyable. One of the highlights was a visit to the Mescal Movie Site. They made a lot of old Westerns there, and it is a smaller version of Old Tucson movie set. Not in great shape, but it is now being run by a non-profit with volunteer docents who give you a great tour. They are trying to keep it from further decay plus improving it where they can.

The “hotel” was in the best shape because it was brick on a real foundation

We headed back to Quartzsite on Sunday morning early. I wanted to get back to Quartzsite to join another ukulele virtual group. This one is run by a guy in Melbourne, Australia! It is a 3:00pm MST on Sunday in the US but 9:00am on Monday in Australia. Nice group, and I am definitely going to continue with them.

On Tuesday, 10 February we drove to Phoenix to visit Costco for a hearing aid test for Kevin. Turns out that even though he has significant high frequency hearing loss, it isn’t bad enough for a hearing aid to really help. Good to hear that from a professional who was paid to sell hearing aids! We also went to the Guitar Center to look for a ukulele for Kevin. I have been having so much fun, he decided he needed to get one too. They had a very limited selection, and we didn’t end up buying one there. But he was able to try the difference between a tenor and a concert, and he decided the larger tenor worked best for him. We eventually found a barely used one in Quartzsite at a good price, so he has joined my new obsession. He is still working on getting his fingers limbered up though.

On Thursday, 12 February, we took a tough ride with the SunRiders. It was labeled “moderate, 3/5” and it probably was for wider rigs than ours. For our little 50” it was difficult. Then again, this is why you can safely ride harder trails when you are with a group; if something happens, you have a set of experienced folks who can get you out of trouble. One spot we visited is called the “Movie Set.” This isn’t a real movie set, but is a tourist spot built by the nearby town of Bouse.

https://youtu.be/tTjurF7sscA

I also liked this one looking at the volcanic cores
https://youtu.be/NTfKzsSRU8Q

On Sunday, 15 Feb, we went to Lake Havasu for a SewCation with their quilt guild (I’m a member). Had a fun time as usual. I finally finished my 2025 Kona Block of the Month with the last two blocks, sashing, cornerstones and borders. Originally I was going to add another piano key boarder, but this thing is big enough already!

I had so many of the Kona charm squares left! I cut a bunch of triangle blocks for another donation a quilt, and I started sewing the piano keys I cut into strips for the binding of the BOM. This is going to be a massive lap quilt for Kevin. He always says he is cold, and the other quilts are too small. He will be able to wrap up in this one pretty well!

We are now back in Quartzsite in a wind strong enough to keep us settled inside the MH. Minnie seems to be quite happy to cuddle on my lap. One last video of the laziest playing by a pair of cats. Silly kids. It’s a long one, so if cat videos aren’t your thing, feel free to skip it.

Lazy cats
https://youtu.be/ApOV–KTu0E

Hanging around Quartzsite

[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.

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.

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.

And I will end with a classic Arizona sunrise. Absolutely stunning.

A beautiful fall so far

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!

The 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.

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!.

RZR ride from Bradfield to Benchmark Lookout (and back)

We had one of the loveliest Goldilocks-type days on today’s ride. We carried the RZR to Bradfield Recreation Area (a parking area next to the Dolores River near the Bradfield Campground). We off-loaded it (oh I mean Kevin off-loaded it), and we headed across the river and up the mountains. The temps were in the 70s, there was just a puff of breeze, the sky was brilliant blue with a few puffy clouds, the mostly BLM roads were easy, and the scenery was spectacular.

Here’s what it looks like as we leave the truck. The landscape was sage with some nice pines. It was just us as we left. There were 3 others here when we got back. And the correct comment on the ramp length is “My what long ramps you have!” Yup. Makes it easier to get the rig on and off. The brand name is actually “Long Ramps.:

We were in mostly a sagebrush area as we headed up the mountain and towards McPhee Reservoir. As usual, click on the link to see the video. And sorry for the edit; I accidentally deleted the first video.

Climbing the first mountain

After the last picture we took a series of sharp switchbacks down to the edge of the reservoir. There was a pickup of men heading out to fish, and there was a couple on a canoe trip. The boat was pulled up on the shore, and they were walking around the rocky shore many feet below us. The water is very low.

We then decided to head to the Benchmark fire tower aka Benchmark Lookout. Absolutely beautiful ride there. As we took the last turn to the lookout, the trail became dirt and a bit more rutted. However the oak scrub (Gambel oak maybe?) was in glorious shades of orange to red. Sadly the GoPro didn’t capture the colors well, and I didn’t realize it until I downloaded them. Kevin got a couple of good iPhone shots though.

Here is the path to the lookout.

On the way to the lookout

And then the lookout itself showed up. If we had been a week earlier we could have visited it, but it is closed to visitors now. We did have a lovely lunch break where the final few hundred feet of road was closed.

The lookout

On the way back we took some side trails, just because. At least we weren’t on gravel passenger vehicle roads the entire way!

A side trail

It was a total of about 60 miles over 4 hours, including a long break. You can put a lot of miles in when you are driving good gravel roads. However the RZR is so much more comfortable for driving gravel than the truck. Something about 10-12 pounds of air in the tires!

The Alpine Loop lives up to its hype

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.

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.

Easy riding along the lake

We continued on the 2WD road for a while, enjoying the scenery. There were broad meadows, nice houses, and the mountains started getting clearer.

Meadows and mountains

Still early on the trail

Finally just a bit rougher.

Still going up

Getting rougher

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?

Trail to Cinnamon Pass

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 meadows

Animas Forks is a state supported ghost town along the Alpine Loop. Lots of pictures from here too.

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.

Above tree line

Just more interesting scenery

Coming down from Engineer Pass

The rest of the trip was easier and still lovely. I particularly liked the partially restored mining town of Ute-Ulay.

Ute Ulay town

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 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!

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.

Into Colorado

From Antelope Island we spent the night in Green River, Utah at Green River State Park. Lovely, big sites! We spent the next night at Valley Sunset RV Ranch in Delta, CO. Not bad for a very small campground, and it was inexpensive to boot! We then arrived into the Taylor Park area, our destination until tomorrow.

We are attending the Taylor Park UTV Rally, an annual get-together that has been going on since 2010 or so with a hiatus during COVID. It is a very casual affair. The rally provides access to a dry camping area (for a fee), an evening program with lots of door prizes, a few vendors of SxS specialties, and lots of people knowledgeable about the area. As usual, we chose to go out by ourselves after picking the brains of some of the experienced folks. We just drive a lot slower than most of the enthusiasts who have big, fast machines.

Thursday we drove to Tincup and then to Pitkin via the Cumberland Pass at over 12,000’. Fun little almost mining ghost towns with a few hearty residents. The pass had incredible views. There was so much dust though! It hasn’t rained, really rained, for a long time.

The day started with a lovely sunrise.

Tincup is only 6 miles from the campsite. They have had some bad experiences with OHVs I guess.

All the buildings I noted were out of log construction. Some were new, some very old, and some in-between. It was a busy mining town many, many years ago.

We left Tincup to head up a mountain valley. Beaver sign was everywhere. There are two dams in this picture.

Beautiful beaver meadows along every stream

Cumberland Pass is a famous trail. It can be driven in passenger vehicles, but it is probably best in an OHV. We climbed and climbed.

See that road on the hillside? That’s where we go

The sign said 12,015’ but my GPS said 11,980. Either way it was really hard to breath.

Pitkin is also an old mining town with only a few residents plus some rental cabins. Like Tincup it was mostly vintage log buildings, but it is larger than Tincup and more prosperous. There were two restaurants. We went to one with green chili burgers and huckleberry margaritas.

We came by via the Slaughterhouse Gulch trail. It was a bit rougher, but quite doable. Didn’t get many pictures because we were mostly just in the trees.

By Friday my sinus problems were getting serious. We left at 8:00 am and went to Tincup for breakfast at French’s. Lovely meal. We then headed up to the Texas Lakes trail. We had a bit of a false start when we encountered a water crossing we just didn’t think we were big enough for. We ended up taking an alternate but longer route. The pictures got fewer and fewer as I was feeling worse and worse. The combination of dust and no air was really getting to me. We did see a lot of mule deer this day though. It helps to be the first folks out and about. We saw 12 different deer in various little groups. I am going to post a really bad picture of one that was bedded down maybe 10 yards from the road. Please forgive how bad it is. By this time I just couldn’t get out of the rig, and the RZR vibrates whenever the motor is on.

Luckily I did get some GoPro footage. This is looking at the reservoir from near where we are camped.

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Today (Saturday) I am even worse so no RZR riding for us! We took a big pickup truck trip up and past the reservoir then backdown the opposite side and into Gunnison on gravel roads. Really nice.

A view from near the outlet at Taylor Reservoir.

We leave tomorrow morning. My sinuses aren’t getting much better, but I am dosing myself with every type of allergy relief and cough medicine I can manage. I do fine if I don’t move, but walking around every a little bit starts me coughing again. We will be heading to Lake City to do the famous Alpine Loop, so I am working hard on getting better.