May 19 Bellingham

After over 3000 miles, Karen is making this last post.
Today was one of the worst travel days of our trip.  Traffic through Seattle was horrific.  Then we ran into a motorcyle accident that held up traffic outside of Seattle.
Here we are at end of our trip. Catching the ferry home tomorrow morning.
Some of the things that I will remember from the trip;
All the wild rhodo’s in bloom along the roads in northern Oregon. The large oleandar bushes in bloom with pink, white and shades of red, along the sides of the road and in the medians of California. The lupins and California lilac bushes in full bloom through the Grant’s Pass area. The fields of white or purple clover in bloom in Oregon. All the wild flowers in the desert. The lush fields and pastures. The rivers and the rolling hills, not to mention the mountains. Looking at the rivers, big and small and the waterfalls. The smell of dead skunks on the road and the scent of horse parsnip (like onions) and the fresh pine smell of the trees. The odor of fresh cut hay and of course ,manure.
Seeing all the large herds of sheep, cows, horses and even llamas.
Looking at the jack rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and those pesky prairie dogs that were on the side of the road.
Seeing working cowboys in the cafe with their spurs.
Also seeing the abandoned farms and rustic wood houses along the roadsides, that make you wonder what happened.
Who knew that rocks came in so many colors, reds to yellows in the canyons and hills.
It’s been a great trip, thanks for following our blog. Looking forward to the next trip.
Thanks and see you soon.
John, Karen, Mickey and Gladys (our GPS)
   

May 18 Portland

     
We awoke at 7 Feathers to blue skies and sunshine. Hit the road at 8 for the drive to Portland.
Traffic was light and it was a nice drive until about 40  miles south of Portland when we had another downpour. Could barely see the front of the truck. Talk about white knuckle driving!
We got into the Pheasant Ridge RV park about noon. It, along with 7 Feathers ,are among only10 rv parks in the US to earn a perfect score from the Good Sam rv organization. We still like 7 Feathers the best.
We unhooked the trailer after lunch and went to the Bridgeport Mall, which is very nice. Full of high end stores set in a little village with narrow streets with no parking on them. Stephen would love it.
It’s the first mall I’ve been to that has valet parking. $5 unless you’re driving an Audi or Porsche, then it’s free, for some reason!
We just parked ourselves, glad we weren’t dragging the trailer,kind of ruins the image ,the dirty red pickup was bad enough!
Mickey had his picture taken with the big horse in front of a restaurant.
All of the stores are dog friendly and he got lots of pats.
Tomorrow on to Washington

May 17 Sacramento to Oregon

We left Sacramento about 8:30 for the north country. It was overcast and cool, about 60.

There were miles of rice fields then miles of olive groves.

We stopped in Corning at a place called The Olive Pit. They sold every imaginimal kind of olive and olive oil.We bought a few things and some coffee to go and headed back out.

We were only going to go as far as Redding but we got there at noon and because the weather wasn't nice enough to sit outside , we decided to keep going on to Oregon.

We had to stop in Weed for a Mickey pee break and just to say we had been to Weed!

We arrived at our destination, the 7 Feathers RV Park at Canyonville, at 5 pm, about an hour too long a drive.We've stayed here before and really like this park. Very clean, great services and good location.

Just after we got set up the skies opened up in a huge downpour. Made us feel like we were coming home!

May 16 Porterville to Sacramento

We headed north to Sacramento in the morning About a 4 hour trip. Had a bit of a problem finding the freeway with the GPS but soon sorted things out.                                                    

Just north of Merced we were heard and felt a loud bang on the side of the truck, sounded like we had been hit by a large rock. I pulled over and found a big orange splotch on the drivers door. We had been shot by a paintball from the other lane of the freeway. Glad it did't hit the window, it was startling enough on the door. Also glad it didn't leave a dent. They also hit the side of the trailer.

We stopped in Modesto for groceries and gas. On leaving the gas station I realized I had left my clip-on sunglasses on top of the pump. Of course we are on a divided highway and have to find a place to turn around. Luckily they were still there when we got back. Just something else to add to the day.

We followed our trusty GPS to our campsite.Glad to have it with all of the clover leafs in this city,never would have got there otherwise.

We setup,gave Mickey a run, then headed to my nephew, Scott and his wife Sharons place 20 miles to east of us. They have a beautiful house,also with a pool. They fed us dinner and we had a nice visit with them and their daughters, Yumi and Christina.

Tomorrow we head north again

   

May 15 Porterville

Jason was out of town in the morning so we went exploring and discovered a huge swap meet going on in town. Karen was in her element! I had to drop her off and take Mickey back to the trailer. It's 85 out and we can't leave him in the truck.
As I'm returning, she calls me on our walkie talkie and says she needs more cash ,so I pick her up and we go looking for a cash machine.
Fresh cash in hand we returned to what the locals call the Mexican Market. There are only a few white people here and we are very white indeed,not much of a tan yet!

A few purchases and a burrito later , we head back to pick up Mickey before meeting Jason.

There are lots of orange groves along the road . We stopped for a picture and picked a couple of oranges. They were the sweetest, juiciest oranges we had ever tasted. Maybe because they were solen!
There are also miles of almond and olive trees.

We got to his house at 2, nice to finally see where he and Eve and the girls live. It's a nice house with a pool.
Jason has made a business for himself manufacturing and machining parts
for agricultural equipment.
The top picture is machine he developed and the next one is part of a conveyor he also built for harvesting walnuts. A lot of welding in that!
The last is one of his daughter Sammy in his shop.

May 14 Vegas to Porterville

We left Las Vegas about 8:30 after a noisy night. The guy next to us started up his diesel pickup at 4 am, preparing to headout. He left it idling loudly for about 20 min.
As we were hooking up we met a nice family from the Netherlands. He wanted to give away his beer because they were leaving for home. The wife has a sister in Abbotsford.

The first picture is one we took yesterday of the New York New York Casino.

The drive to Porterville is a long one, 330 miles, mostly desert.

We had planned on stopping at Barstow for lunch and fuel but decided to do it at the turnoff for Bakersfield, there are usually services at most major junctions but not this one.
We kept driving, thinking something would show up but we got back into the desert and nothing in site on the horizon. The gas gauge was below 1/4 so I was getting kind of anxious.Bakersfield was almost 150 miles away. Eventually we came to another junction in the middle of nowhere and managed to fill up and breath a sigh of relief. I didn't question the price!

The GPS was telling us we would get into Porterville around 6pm but the mileage didn't make sense ,then we discovered we hadn't set the time on the GPS back from Utah time so we were happy to be an hour early.

There aren't alot of RV parks in Porterville, we picked the first one in the phone book, Eagles Nest. We pulled into this dusty place, were greeted by barefoot woman with no bottom teeth ,who told us where to park. The place is full of old rundown trailers with people living in them. Our site was covered in unmown dead grass.As soon as we stepped out of the truck we were swarmed by little flies. When I plugged in the power it didn't work. The locals were hanging out of their trailers watching.
As tired as we were of travelling, we decided we couldn't stay here and politely told the woman we were going to drive on a little further today.
Was that the duelling banjos from Deliverence we heard coming from somewhere as we drove off?
The next park was much better. Cleaner and no bugs. There's no tv or wi-fi but thats okay.

Mickey met a friend, Benji, who lives on a farm nearby but hangs out at the RV park. They had a good time chasing around. Mickey looks like a city slicker with his bandana!

There are quite a few old oil wells along the way ,still pumping a bit of oil out of the ground

We talked to Jason and will see him tomorrow after he makes a run to Fresno for his business.

May 13 Las Vegas

Woke up early this morning, still operating on Utah time, an hour ahead, or is it behind??
We drove up the strip, looks different from the street. It was busy even at 9 in the morning.

Later,we did a little shopping then returned to have lunch at the RV park restaurant then spent some time at the pool.

We went to Kathy and Dan's for dinner around 5 and had a nice visit and saw their home for the first time. Georgia drew some nice pictures for us and made them into a book to take home. Thanks Georgia!

In the morning we will leave for California and begin the drive north. Hopefully we will see my nephew Jason in Porterville, just north of Bakersfield, on the way.

May 11& 12 Zion to Las Vegas

Well, we went from a warm sunny day to a night of wind and rain. The trailer was rocking and it wasn't coming from the bedroom!
It was 38 outside and sleet was coming down. Visibility was low but we what we could see of the mountains had snow .
Everything high tech started to malfunction. My wi-fi adaptor in the " cantenna" shorted out from the rain so our Internet didn't work ,there is no cell phone reception ,and when I tried to turn on the camera and it just kept zooming in and out and telling me to restart which I did 20 times to no avail.
Here we are in Zion Canyon, no visibility and no camera, and no communication.

I took the laptop to the office and plugged into their network and Googled my camera problem . The consensus was to bang it on something hard and hope for the best. I did this, gently at first and nothing changed .Thinking I have nothing to lose, I banged it hard on the tile floor and ,voila,the camera came to life! Usually smacking sensitive electronic devices on the floor would not seem to be the best option but it worked.

There are allot of hummingbirds around. They hover over the river and dart around . I opened the trailer door once and had one staring me in the face from a foot away!

I spoke to some motorcyclists,travelling south, covered in balaclavas and looking frozen, they said that in Bryce,where we had been yesterday,there was 2 in. of snow and it was 28 degrees.  Glad we left when we did.Wouldn't want to be dragging the trailer in the snow!

By noon the rain and sleet stopped and the sun came out , so I headed out to the canyon. Karen had had enough of scenic rocks , it's more my thing, and decided to stay back with Mickey. The only way to see the park is by shuttle and no dogs are allowed.

The shuttle is very well done, there is one every 7 or 8 minutes so you can get out at any of the stops to hike or take pictures and then get on the next one coming by.The whole trip without getting out is about an hour.

In one shot you can see the snow on the top of the peaks.


We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Springdale and spent a much quieter night in the trailer.

This morning  May 12, was clear and sunny and we headed out to Vegas.
The drive is about 3 hours, the first half is though more canyons then you are back into the desert.

Until now , Gladys, our GPS, has been performing admirably but her instructions to take us to the Oasis RV park took us in the wrong direction. After twice around  the wrong block, we soon found where we were supposed to be and checked in about 12:30. It's a nice place, expensive, $50 a night, but it's on the south end of the strip and has a great pool and restaurant.
We did a little shopping then enjoyed the 80 degree weather by the pool. Big difference from yesterday!
Tomorrow , after some more lounging, we will visit with our niece , Kathy .

May 10 Bryce to Zion

We left Bryce about 11 am. The park is smaller than I thought and didn't take too long to see.

Zion Canyon is only about a 2 hour drive away.

It is a nice drive, not too hilly, lots of ranches and more trees than before. Kind of looks like the Okanagan except for the towering cliffs everywhere.
Just south of Hatch, Utah ,pop. 125 , we had a prairie dog scare. All of a sudden there were 4 on the white line to the right so I edged to the left only to see one on the center line. After much swerving and potential trailer fishtailing , we avoided running over any of the little varmints.
Karen swears one of them gave us the one finger salute as we sped by!

At the east entrance to Zion is a 1 mile long tunnel that any vehicle over 7 ft wide has to pay $15 dollars to pass through. This is on top of the $25 park entry fee.
They stop all the oncoming traffic and you drive through on the center line. The tunnel is unlit except for some windows cut into the sides every few hundred feet. Very strange driving experience.

One of the pictures shows one of the windows from below.
After you exit the tunnel there is a series of switchbacks taking you to the bottom of the canyon. The temperature went from 52 at the top to 64 at the bottom.

We checked into our rv park in Springdale which is just outside the park.
We have a great site, right next to the Virgin River. We have tv and pretty good wi-fi. The sun is warm , we don't have to drive anywhere tomorrow, Nirvana!!

May 10 Bryce Canyon

We got an early start and got to Bryce Canyon about 8:30 after a windy night with a little rain.
Today is bright and sunny but cool at Bryce, about 45F. They had a trace of snow last night.

The sights in the park are amazing, totally different than anything else we've seen.

You can feel the effects of the altitude, about 8400 ft. You get a little short of breath climbing to some of the viewpoints.

May9 Route 12 to Bryce Canyon

It is Mother's Day so I made Karen some poached eggs with toast for breakfast before we hit the road south to Bryce Canyon, about 120 miles.

The first 1/3 is all climbing . The summit is 9500 ft. The poor truck got a workout.
It was neat to see the white birch forests, something we don't have on the Island.

At Boulder we stopped at the Anasazi Historical site. An ancient community was unearthed here. Many of their dwellings were mostly underground to keep warm in winter and cool in summer.

From there we climbed again into the Grand Staircase- Escalante park.

One 2 mile section of highway is called the Hogs Back. The 2 lane road drops off several hundred feet on both sides with only a narrow shoulder seperating you from the drop . Karen was nervous, everytime I stopped at a wide spot for a picture she made sure I left the keys behind in case I went over the edge. She wasn't worried about me, only wanted to make sure she had a way home!

We stopped for lunch at a viewpoint then arrived at our campground about 2pm. It's a KOA about 12 miles from Bryce Canyon. we had hoped it would have tv service but it doesn't. Would have liked to see the Amazing Race finale. I guess I'll have to download it.

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I'm making Karen's favourite dinner tonight , curried shrimp with rice and papadums.
Tomorrow we will explore Bryce then head south again for Zion National Park. It's the last of the parks on our list. After that we will begin making our way home, probably via Las Vegas and California

May 8

Had breakfast in the campground again the hit the road about 9.
We are headed west to Capitol Reef National Park and Torrey, Utah.

We saw 3 or 4 antelope beside the highway near Green River.

The first picture is rush hour on Route 24 ,Utah, next services 100 miles, you want to make sure the tank is full!

We saw these petroglyphs on a canyon wall on the way to Torrey, they are from the Fremont or Anasazi tribes.

In the middle of Capitol Reef is an old Mormon settlement named Fruita. It was settled in the 1800's but no one has lived here since 1969.
There are orchards that were planted a century ago that still produce fruit.

The mule deer love the grass and trees.

We are staying at the Wonderland RV park. Anytime a park is named Wonderland or Paradise, you know it isn't. We are parked next to the highway and the showers cost $5. One night will be enough.

Torrey is about 2 blocks long. A general store, a couple of motels and restaurants and 2 gas stations. They do have a coffeeshop that makes great coffee and homemade chocolates!

Tomorrow we're off south to Bryce Canyon.

More May 7- Arches

Here's me in my $10 Walmart cowboy hat that Karen talked me into buying for this type of photo op. and to bug Stephen.I thought I was striking a John Wayne pose but I think I just look like a gay cowboy, then again, John Wayne???
 I'm thinking I look like my dad in a hat. You know you're getting old when you start to look like your old man!

Below that picture is one of a a narrow slot canyon I took a walk in. Where the hikers are it is only shoulder width.
A little further in is a small arch.

We stopped to eat the lunch we had packed at the viewpoint for the Balancing Rock and had some Belgians take our picture.

We left the park around 1:30 and headed into Moab to look around.
Lots of bike stores and 4 wheel rentals and some funky shops.

Karen is standing in front of some copper wind sculptures at a Moab gallery. I think my metal working brother should think about making some of these!

We came back to the trailer and sat in the sun and read for awhile. It feels a lot hotter than the 70F the thermometer says.

Tomorrow we head to the town of Torrey to the west where we will stay 2 nights and see Capitol Reef National Park.