May 5 & 6

 We spent Wed. in the city, SLC, as it is abbreviated. Karen did a little more research at the Family History Library, then we toured the Convention Center which is huge , it has the most seating in the U.S. The Salt Lake Olympics ceremonies were held here. Everywhere you go a Mormon tour guide shows you around..
After lunch we returned to the RV park and saw a new resident next door with a pen with 3 spaniels in it, so we went to see them and it turned out to be Jack Forsyth, former realtor from Nanaimo. He and his wife were down to visit his son who lives here.

Thursday morning we left about 9 am for Moab. It was a long drive,235 miles, about half of it straight as far as you can see! We stopped just after Soldier Summit, 7700 ft. ,to let Mickey have a roll in the snow at the side of the road. Well, when I opened the door it was 34 F. and the wind was howling. Mickey spotted some little furry animal dart by and took off after it, I had to chase him down and haul him back to the truck.

Bad Dog !

We drove the rest of the way through the desert and arrived at our Moab campground around 3:30.
It's a nice park,on the Colorado River, lots of trees, and good wi-fi! It's 68 and sunny here, we are enjoying the heat after cool SLC!

We settled in and Mickey discovered he could reach the top of the berm next to us which is a walking trail, he got to meet all the dogs going by.

The people next to us are from California and have their cat Missy with them, she has her own cat stroller.

From the campground we can see the river and the mountains, a nice place.

We've got a beef roast in the oven for dinner,I can't believe how cheap beef is here!

Tomorrow we will explore Arches National Park and Moab. If Karen had her way we would spend the whole day in Moab shopping, lots of neat little shops.

May 4

I washed the truck yesterday at the campground car wash, last night we had some rain and woke up to the truck covered in a white film, apparently when it rains here it picks up salt in the air from the lake and deposits it everywhere. Had to rewash it today.

We went downtown to the Temple Square and saw the Tabernacle and various historic buildings. We visited the Family History Library which houses a huge amount of genealogical information. It is full of computers that are free to use to research family histories. All of the information is kept in vaults built into a mountain in Utah.

We did a little research into some family background that we didn't know about. A staff member will sit and help you through the whole process which can become quite addicting.

After a couple of hours it was lunch time so we went to a  brew pub with lots of local beers and good food. A bit of shopping later ,it was time to return to the RV park. We took it easy, walked the dog, and did the laundry.
Tomorrow we will go back to the Library and do a little more checking , tour  a few more sites and get ready to leave Thursday morning.
The laptop has started to behave badly, giving ominous error messages,so I fear it may be on it's last legs. If so ,the next post might be awhile coming.

May 2 and 3

We finally arrived in Utah on May 2.

Around noon we were looking for somewhere to stop for lunch. Exits are few and far between in the desert. We saw a sign for Mollies Diner and pulled off. Just a diner and a gas station . Molly is in her late 70's, wears tight jeans and has a blonde beehive hairdo . Everyone is "hon" or "sweetie" . The place was full of locals and cowboys. The food was good and we're glad we stopped, a break from the usual fast food joints. We then drove to Antelope Island State Park to spend the night.

It's a beautiful place ,28,000 acres in the Great Salt Lake, reached by driving over a man-made causeway. It cost $9 to visit the park but only $13 to camp, visit price included, so thats only 4 bucks for the night !No services but nice sites.

There is a large bison population on the island and we had one that hung out above our campsite for the afternoon, which was cool.

It was a welcome relief to stay in this calm place after many long hours on the road.

There was  a beautiful sunset, then today, May 3, we left for Salt Lake City.

It was a short 45 minute drive. We checked into a KOA rv park right in the city , for 3 nights. It's a nice place, lots of trees, clean showers and the wi-fi works! We will tour the city before heading south for the canyons.The weather has been good. Mostly sunny but still windy. It was about 68 today.

May 1st

We left Baker City and headed for Idaho but before we got there we stopped in Ontario, Oregon to buy a few things and saw these oxen and made Mickey earn his dog food again.

We then crossed the border into Idaho and headed for Twin Falls . Pretty boring drive, very flat, although I did see some animals I assume were prairie dogs on the side of the road. Since Karen and Mickey didn't see them , I guess it's like her elk, and subject to believability. Entering Twin Falls we crossed the Snake River Canyon which was very impressive in the middle of all this flatness.

Our RV park was not so impressive, all gravel, no trees, and the wi-fi didn't work, I'd put in the running for Ugliest Park in the state .

I'll post this when I get a connection.

Only drove 250 miles today, must be slacking off!

April 30

We left a rainy Portland at 9 am for points east. About an hour later the sun came out and we've had nice weather all day.

We stopped at the Cascade Locks on the Columbia River then at The Dalles where Mickey got to sit on an old wagon. He wasn't thrilled and the wind was howling. I sometimes had trouble keeping the trailer on the road because of the gusts.

By 1 pm we were looking for somewhere to pull over for lunch. Karen saw a sign for a winery [surprise, surprise]so we pulled off the freeway only to find we had to drive 6 miles up a very steep ,gravel ,Blalock Canyon road . About a mile in we had had enough, We passed a cow and suckling calf within arms reach of the window on one bend and Karen didn't like the drop offs beside the road so we stopped at the widest spot we could find and had our lunch. There were cattle wandering around the sagebrush. We managed to back up and turn around and head back down to the highway .

Later Karen claimed to have seen two elk on the hillside. As neither Mickey nor I saw them, their existance is questionable. 

The drive was interesting, lots of huge windmills in the Gorge, then miles of prairie.

After Pendelton we started climbing to around 4,000 ft., there was snow on the side of the road.

We arrived at 5 pm at Baker City, which is sure not a city, about the size of Coombs, but they have wi-fi at the RV park and clean showers. It's sunny but cold, about 8 c. and windy.

We drove about another 300 miles today. Gas prices are around $3 a gallon.

Tomorrow we should get to Twin Falls, Idaho.

April 28-29

We left Victoria in the sunshine on the 10:30 to Port Angeles.
Customs guy took our green onions, basil plant and Karen's little orchid she brought. Not allowed in the U.S.!

The dog food was okay because it didn't contain lamb or goat, also not okay to import. Last year we unknowingly smuggled a frozen rack of lamb across the border!

After lunch in Sequim and a couple stops for gas we arrived at our RV park in Portland at 6pm. It was a long day with intermittent downpours but the GPS worked well and took us right to our destination. Drove 300 miles so far.

Today we hoped to meet Michael, the guy that helped with my boat building via email, but he had to make an unexpected trip out of town so we didn't get to see him. We dropped a bottle of wine and some of Karen's preserves at his coffee roasting business in Hillsboro, just west of Portland.

We did our usual shopping to get what we need before heading east to Idaho and Utah in the morning. Should take a day or two to get to Antelope Island State Park, near Salt Lake City.
The forcast has been calling for snow at night there so we hope it starts warming up!