Moab, Utah

April 11, 2013

Hello Everyone!

I have been busy and lazy so no blog for a month. (Mostly lazy!) I will try and bring you up to date!

We stayed a week in Georgetown, TX and spent time with our friends in Austin. Harry and Maddie are from Kalispell, MT and winter in Austin. Harry is a physician and does part time work with the Indian reservations. We spent the night with them and bummed around Austin and saw some of the music that was playing downtown. After we left Austin we headed to Dallas.

My cousin and her hubby (Joanne and Marvin Joyce) live in Dallas and we spent 3-4 days with them. What fun! Traffic was hell on the freeways getting into Dallas. We were glad to be settled in an RV park! Joanne and Marv took us to the Fort Worth Stockyards and drove us around Fort Worth and Dallas. We saw the exact spot President Kennedy was shot and the book depository where the killer (can't think of his name right now) sniped him.

After we left Dallas, next was Mineral Springs, a short drive from Fort Worth. Here we stayed a few nights in a very nice State Park. We visited with a couple we'd met a number of years ago while at meetings in New Jersey. The men both worked for BMS and we had not seen them since this time in NJ. We really enjoyed them and plan to see them again.

We headed towards Amarillo as was going to the Palo Dura State Park. Had motorhome problems so had to stay in Lubbock one night. Got Ethel fixed and off we went. The State Park was, by far, one of the most interesting places in Texas. Canyons 800-1000 feet deep and roads going clear to the bottom. We camped down there for 4 nights with no internet, TV or phone. Just like living in the olden days! We hiked, biked and even went on a guided horse-back ride! Me raised on a horse and PAY to ride one? It was fun tho. This State Park is one for all of you to put in your MUST SEE list. It is truly a beautiful park.

We made it over to Santa Fe, NM, Taos and Los Alamos the following week for another stay. We shopped, visited art galleries, pueblos and looked over the entire area. We have friends in Los Alamos we met in Los Algondonas this past January so had a dinner date with them. Los Alamos is where the atomic bomb was developed in WWII and still secret things are going on. We had to show ID to get into town! It is part of the Dept.of Defense/Energy. Very interesting. The town is also very interesting -- spread out among "fingers" on top of a mesa at 7800 ft. We also spent the afternoon at Bandelero, part of the National Park System. There were cliff dwelling we climbed up into. Some of them were high enough we had to climb ladders. Bandelero is near Los Alamos.

After leaving NM, we drove over to Durango, CO and took the ride of our lives over Hwy 550 to Ouray. We were up/down, up/down over the curvy mountain highway for over 100 miles at elevations over 11,000 ft.  We crossed two passes. I  had to drive the car as the m.home was grunting and groaning. This was definitely a hiway we will never drive again! It is ten times worse than Going to the Sun Hwy and Beartooth Hwy in Montana. Scary. Steep. Curvy, narrow highway,  Snowy but Beautiful.

Montrose, Colorado. Our next stop for a few days. Buster has a friend living who he'd gone to pilot training with way back when. Leonard has a crop-spraying business and nine airplanes -- 5 of which are used for crop spraying. Two of them are helicopters. What a set-up he has! We so enjoyed being there with him as we hadn't seen him in 40 years. He took us for a plane ride up over the mountains and down into the canyons. What fun!

Then to Grand Junction, Colorado. Again, Buster has a friend there he had worked with for a number of years. We had such a good time -- the guys reminisced for 2 1/2 days, laughed and drank too much whiskey! Buster and I went to the Colorado National Monument (National Park) and what a drive! We were up over 11,000 ft. and it was a gorgeous drive. At the top we had stopped to take pictures. We were returning to our car met up with a couple from Cascade, Montana!!! All of us were very surprised and had a nice 30 minutes visit! Small world!!

We are now in Moab, Utah. Yesterday we visited Canyonlands Natl. Park. It is awesome! We drove along the top of the mesas, looking over the deep, deep canyon walls. At  the bottom is the Colorado River and Green River winding their way through the canyons. Truly a beautiful Park. Today we visited Arches National Park. Again, it was beautiful. It is so different than Canyonlands. This time we looked UP at the rock arches, spires and "fins". We hiked in both Parks (short hikes) to take pictures and see what was beyond the highway.

Tomorrow we leave. We are heading to Las Vegas. We will be there at least a week and then on to Reno to see a friend that Buster and I went to 8th grade with. Then home. We will be home May 1.

That's is in a nutshell! I have almost 2,000 picture that I've taken. I wish I had learned to post them here but you can follow me on Facebook with most places and pictures where we've traveled.

Until the next blog, enjoy each day!!! We sure are!!!