Two Weeks Later And In North Carolina.....

Drove through Moab, Utah on my way to Cortez, Colorado and spend 5 days visiting my nieces Leslie Foster and April Maley. From there headed out for North Carolina and driving over the last steep grade Pass in Colorado.

Decided to route my drive using secondary roads instead of interstates.... I absolutely love driving through rural America and the small dwindling towns. Seeing the architecture of buildings, town homes, farms and seeing farmers out in the fields working. Just a good feelings seeing all this as I drive.

Drove through the towns of Kit Carson and Oakley (named for Annie Oakley). It was dark for Oakley so no pictures. Kansas is flat, no trees, miles and miles of farm land and HOT.

Drove through West Virginia and the mountains are so small as I compared them to the ones I've seen in Colorado. The tree line goes all the way to the top of the mountains and looking at them in the distant reminded me of clumps of broccoli.

Arrived at my place in Lizard Lick and will stay here for about 3 weeks or so before heading on home to Florida.  Gonna do some figuring and see what this Alaskan Adventure cost and will post.

View from road south of Moab, Utah

Sign says it all

Kit Carson -- 152.7 miles to Denver and 505 miles to Kansas City ( in case you can't read it on the sign)

Kit Carson Museum

Downtown Historic District (and pretty much dead area)

In case you didn't know who Kit Carson was

Stopped at this neat road side memorial honoring General George Custer and William Comstock

First church in Fort Wallace -- both families of Custer and Comstock were members.

I love the detailed workmanship of this statue.... wish the photograph showed how well it was crafted (William Comstock)

Sign about Fort Wallace

 

 

 

Moving on..... James Robb State Park in Fruita, CO

Laura and I left Wolford Campground Wednesday had lunch in Silverthorne then went out different routes (she is headed down to New Mexico and I'm headed to visit Leslie and April for a week or so).

Checked into James Robb State Park in Fruita, Colorado today (Friday) for 4 nights. Nice paved roads in the campground with level concrete pads to park on, fire pit and covered picnic table with gravel area. If you don't camp you have no idea how wonderful this is. Am able to get 30 tv stations with my antenna -- which is GREAT as rain is expected every afternoon (and that is good as it keeps the temps down).

Supposedly, the Dinosaur Museum is within walking distance..... we'll see tomorrow. Great mountain views -- only thing I don't like is.... showers are NOT free. It's $1 for 4 minutes then 25 cent for each minute thereafter -- and this is on top of a $7 daily vehicle fee that is in addition to $24 daily camping rate (and a $10 reservation fee). This is probably the most expensive State Park I've stayed in. Just glad I can shower in Yoda III.

Wolford Campground -- we are parked on the water

My site for 4 days... great views when afternoon storms came through

My view after a storm passed -- sun was setting

We saw rainbows each afternoon after the storms -- sometimes a double rainbow

Early morning view as I was packing up to leave

My site at James Robb State Park -- site 26

View from my site at James Robb State Park

An OLD RV I saw sitting in a service shop parking lot

More buttons and switches than I would know what to do with.

Change In Plans...

Spoke with my niece this mornin, she is leaving her vacation in Florida returning home in Cortez, Colorado sooner than expected. Thankfully, I'm in a part of Colorado that will make visiting her about 600 miles roundtrip out of my exit plans for Colorado. Gonna stay a week or so with her then will use my same route (I-70 & I-64) heading to North Carolina.

Weather here is great!  Nights down in the 40's and highs during the day are mid 70's. Been cloudy a lot with afternoon winds and rain. It's been very peaceful camping on the water for a few days -- at least today is. The week-end had a lot of families that were loud in both voice and music. Will leave here Wednesday morning and head west then south for Cortez. Made reservations in a State Park as Leslie isn't due to be home until the 15th.

Yoda III camped water side

My view from picnic table.

Catching Up With Photos From Wyoming....

Gonna try again to post my photos and tomorrow with blog again. Am in Colorado now.

West Yellowstone -- built for tourist

More West Yellowstone

This is a 1938 Bus built by White Motor Company and used to meet the Old Milwaukee Railroad at Gallatin Gateway Inn. Holds 14 passengers and 13 quarts of oil. In the background is a water hauler.

By January of 1906, the entire alignment for the railroad from St. Anthony to West Yellowstone was established. Shortly thereafter, the site of the station grounds for the rail terminal was proposed for a location in the Madison Forest Reserve (now the Gallatin National Forest), next to Yellowstone National Park's western boundary.

Madison River in Yellowstone -- Major Salmon Fishing Area

Little Geysers EVERYWHERE

On both sides of the road.

I thought these were unlikely toursit

Old Faithful just letting off steam....

Old Faithful starting to blow -- you can see the white stream in the middle

Grand Tetons... hazy day.... lots of smoke hanging around.

Grand Tetons... sign states they are still growing!

Grand Tetons taken on the road.

Just driving in Wyoming.

Again... Grand Tetons in the haze.

Jackson, Wyoming -- Antlers Walkway to the Park. Jackson was so busy we could not park anywhere so I could only take pictures while stopped at a light.

Jackson, Wyoming

Jackson Stores

Other side of park with antler walkway.

Took forever to find a place to eat after leaving Jackson.... this is a cafe -- food was so so.

Cafe sign and seeing this I thought.... WOW, this will be a great little place to eat! Not my best thought.

View from behind cafe.... that was good!

Tomorrow update on Steamboat Springs and settling into the campground nestled in the mountains.

Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Jackson and Rock Springs, WY...

Left St. Regis Campground headed for Yellowstone National Forest and stayed 2 nights. Thursday, August 3rd we left early heading to Yellowstone to see the sights. Long day of driving and sight-seeing!

Entered Yellowstone on the West side, drove by Old Faithful, then down through the Grand Tetons, through Jackson and ended up very late in the day at Rock Springs for the night. Beautiful scenery and Jackson is a lot like my writings of Jasper in British Columbia.... tourist attraction and driving a RV though is not easy -- plus NO parking for RVs that we could find so we just drove through. Took a couple photos but only when I stopped at red lights.

Leaving today for Craig, Colorado for the night as Laura's RV needs some attention and she found someone open tomorrow (Saturday) close by there.  Beginning to get my route together for heading to North Carolina. 

Will edit this post later on today or early evening with more photos as I haven't transferred from camera yet.  EDITED:  Have tried many times to update and add photos. Evidently, there is no enough hotspot coverage to upload photos.  Will do as soon as I have better service.

My camp site in Yellowstone National Forest

West Yellowstone Town

Again, West Yellowstone

Was surprised to see these people at Old Faithful's viewing stands -- Amish, I reckon.

Better Be Glad Santa Uses A Sleigh....

Long day driving and will update tomorrow with pictures. But..... I do have something to write about tonight.

Last month, July 10th to be exact, I was in  North Pole (Alaska) and had a package mailed from the Post Office to Wake Forest, NC. Remember..... July 10th.... inside the package were two Peppa Pigs for Rosie and Shane (shipped to Grandma Dianne's house). I admit the package was shipped ground instead of Priority as that was a flat $50.00 (more than the Peppa Pigs). Ground was $20.00 and was told it would more than likely take 2 weeks.... o'kay, that was fine with me.  

The package arrived yesterday....August 2nd!!! So when they said GROUND... they meant it probably would not see the inside of any airplane. 

All I can say is.... be glad Santa used his sleigh on his once a year ride.... using the Post Office would have lots of sad little boys and girls around the world.

At least now..... almost a month later.... Rosie and Shane have their Peppa Pigs.

More tomorrow.....Here is a little teaser of where I went...

A whole lot of Geysers blowing off steam on my way to Yellowstone

Back In The Good Ole U. S. of A.....

Left the Lake Louise OverFlow Bus Parking area early Thursday morning and drove highway 95/93 south to highway 3 in order to cross the border into Idaho. Of all the roads I've been on this was the most stunning in views. Maybe it had something to do with the eerie nature of smoke from the wildfires with the sun rising. Whatever it was, as I rounded every corner there was another reason to thank God (out loud) for the blessing to view his handiwork.

I have friends, Jan and Sarah, who will be making a trip here soon. Sarah, you have GOT to drive this road -- I know you will have the same feeling as I did. Stop at the rest area on hwy 93, I marked the coordinates for you....  51.025351, -115.982434 (be sure to save it).

Spent the night in Ponderay, Idaho and filled up with gas at $2.34 a gallon, ate at Cracker Barrel and although am glad to have had this adventure -- there is something about being in the USA.  Drove to St. Regis, Montana and checked into a campground.... with a pool and gonna spend 4 nights here waiting on my friends (Laura) to arrive. We plan to drive east then south to see Yellowstone and Jackson, Wyoming. The temperatures are getting hot, when it's around 90 and you are in a tin can (so to speak) it really is hot. The a/c doesn't work as one does in your home and I don't want to run it all day and night. Night time, after the sun goes down, it does cool off and thankfully there is no humidity like Florida or North Carolina. Sooo, will be following cooler weather down through the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado then probably head east on I-70 to North Carolina.

It's 7:15am Saturday morning, I put a roast in the crock pot, am sitting outside drinking coffee and typing this on my laptop. It's quiet in the campground, can see others sitting outside drinking coffee, a couple are walking (1/4 mile loop around campground), birds are chirping, squirrels running and dashing up trees, sun is up but not shinning over the mountains yet and I feel all is right with the world.

Spent the night in the Bus OverFlow Parking Area (along with about 20 other RVers)

Leaving the OverFlow Parking Area.... BEAUTIFUL morning!

Just shots as I drive....

You can see the smoke from the wildfires.

Another to show you the wildfire smoke drifting in.

BEAUTIFUL

Getting away from ice capped mountains.

I wish the colors would show you the pretty water colors.

Tried again to capture the colors.... reckon, it's something you have to see in person.

Sun coming up in an area that was caught in a wildfire last year.... haze is from current wildfires.

I love the mountains....

BEAUTIFUL rest area on Hwy 93... Sarah this is the one you need to visit.

Another view of RestArea

 Not sure this video will play... adding it anyway... It's of the Rest Area

Yoda III nestled in the tree at St. Regis Campground in Montana

Campground has lots of cute things dotted all around for a comfy atmosphere.

Every campsite has several wood sculptures -- they must have spent a small fortune on these.

One of the sculptures by my site.

Until Next Time........... which will be a few days away.