All over but the crying ....

Thursday May 1

We're back in Bellingham now. At the Bellingham RV park (which is surprisingly nice actually) and now have the car with us and will be packing it up with all the "stuff" so we can return the camper first thing in the morning. The trip ended up being about 3 weeks and the time went faster and faster the longer we were away.

On Monday we spent the morning in Salt Lake City cruising around the downtown core again and enjoying the city. It was a gorgeous warm beautiful day and the tulips were out and blooming and there were tons of people around - a stark contrast to the last time we were here. The beautification of the city and downtown core has been quite successful and we enjoyed walking around and having lunch outside even though it was almost "too hot". And then we drove to Mountain Home, Idaho. Yes it was just a stopping point with an RV park, but it became memorable when Bella met her first chicken. We have a lovely "key stone cop" memory of Bella chasing a chicken and Jan chasing Bella around the park. Still makes us chuckle thinking about it and we'll have to tie up Bella around any fowl in the future.

Tuesday was Mountain Home, Idaho to Boardman, Oregon on the Columbia River. We spent the afternoon "seeing" Boise which amounted to lunch inside cause it was raining and a trip through a Cabella's store to find out what it was like inside this "famous" US retailer. It's a huge "outdoor gear" shop that sells everything you could ever want and also does a large catalogue business. We'd heard about them but had never seen a shop before as they are more "midwest" than west. Turns out they do sell everything - including many guns, rifles, ammunition, huge gun safes, and video's of how to shoot wild animals. Oh, and some meat processing equipment too. I think I'll stick to MEC.

Wednesday we toured along the Columbia River - what a day. There were huge winds and the river had large whitecaps and 2 foot waves and appeared to be going in the other direction. The same thing was true of our camper on I84. This area is popular with wind surfers and we were hoping to stop and see some in action but I think they were all hiding. We stopped for lunch in Hood River and ate at a restaurant overlooking the river. It looked cold. We ended up driving all the way up to Edmonds that day since we didn't get that distracted by wind surfers and spent the night in Lorraine and Andrews driveway. And now we're back in Bellingham enjoying our last night in the camper.

We have very fond memories already of the camper and continue to marvel about how happy we were with it and how well it worked. It was so easy to stop and setup and then unsetup and go when we needed to. No dread, no fuss, no muss. Yeah OK, the gas mileage sucks but the furnace, the generator, the flush toilet ..... things of beauty that make you forget about the credit card full of gas bills waiting for you at home. Our future of touring the North American WalMart parking lots (probably CostCo actually) with a gaggle of dachshunds in an RV has been further cemented.

And, so here we go again, the end of one journey simply marks the beginning of the next. Onward and Forward-Ho to our next Great Adventure.

Camping (euphemistically speaking)

Sunday April 27

It's official - we've been camping now. I'm dusty and smelly and my clothes are dirty. But we did run the generator this morning to make cappuccino's for Greg and Bella and although it got to below freezing in the park last night, the propane furnace in the camper kept it a nice and cozy 65F so that Jan wouldn't get cranky. This kind of camping I can take.

We spent the past 2 days in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah in a real live campground with no RV hookups. It's a beautiful park with wall's of hoodoo's to take photos of and, I've heard, some great hikes down into the canyon. We did the scenic drive yesterday and then went out for sunset photos. But the highlight was the campfire around the picnic table where Greg cooked the burgers and where we sat to keep warm and hear the wonderful sputtering of burnt dry wood. Course we had to be ever vigilant to make sure the sparks didn't ignite the forest around us, nor land on the precious Bella who appears to have no idea what a campfire is and therefore no built in fear about fire (condo dog). We were somewhat relieved when the campfire finally burnt down and we could return to the safety of the camper.

We did hiking Jan style this morning though and had a blast. We signed up for a horse trail ride down to the bottom of the canyon ... and more importantly really, on the horse back up again. Turns out that we were both on Mules - Greg on Dixie, and myself on Winchester (who confided in me that she prefers to be called Winnie). According to our trail guide, Stetson, (I kid you not but could not obtain proof), the mules have a better temperament for the trail than horses and are 2 times more efficient than horses. The whole ride was almost 2 hours and was spectacular scenery the whole way. We had the most gorgeous blue sky with the red and white rocks, and green pine trees, and a little chipmunk even waved at our little parade going by. Apparently, the horses like to walk on the outside of the trail, next to the drop off , but we were to be assured that they would not fall off the edge and that we should just close our eyes if we were uncomfortable. The trail was a loop around to the bottom of the canyon and back up again and we never got off the animals and took a few breaks along the way to enjoy the view. Although the animals did all the work, our leg and butt muscles have something to say about the ride.

We drove back to Salt Lake City afterwards and have now officially closed our driving loop as well. Back to the KOA with a good internet connection and we are now on the fast track back home. We have extended the RV rental a couple of days so that we don't need to do the whole "all nighter" thing we used to do along I5. We decided we like stopping for pee breaks along the way. But it feels a little sad to have "closed the loop" on the trip and returning to ground we already covered. But at least I'll shower more often and won't be as dusty and smelly.

The Internet Gods ...

Thursday April 24

The Internet Gods have not been kind lately. I have either been too busy doing other stuff (MPRF, QCD), we have not had internet, or surprisingly, too busy actually having fun. Since last we checked in, we spent a day at Mesa Verde National Park, drove to Taos New Mexico and spent time in the dust bowl, shopped in Sante Fe, and actually spent the night in Gallup, New Mexico which has no redeeming qualities other than it's mentioned in the old "Route 66" song. We did travel for a while on the old road and listened to the soundtrack to commemorate it, however the road is much longer than the song.

Some 18 wheeler closed I40 in Albuquerque and we couldn't go west anymore. Spent 1.5 hours driving around in major rush hour traffic, only to find that the highway didn't re-open in 1/2 hour as they expected. We also stayed in a couple of places that advertised WiFi only to find out that "the internet is down". On the upside, they had free WiFi at the McDonalds in Flagstaff. (The downside being we felt compelled to eat there). 

On Wednesday, we drove from Gallup up to Page AZ and went to a place called Antelope Canyon which is a lovely slot canyon on Navajo land. There was a $6 fee to get in but you had to pay $20 for the guided tour as well. But since we were photographers, we didn't need to go with the tour but still needed to pay the $20. Pictures better be good.

Today we drove around Page looking for an internet connection, stopped at the Glen Canyon dam which was really quite big, and then drove to Zion National Park in Utah. The park is an amazing feat of infrastructure in the middle of ..... rocks. There is a small very cute and trendy town associated with the park and the whole Visitor Center area is one of beauty. You can't drive the scenic drive at this park, but they have buses that do a circle loop, stopping at all the trailheads and scenic byways, with another bus going by every 6 minutes. I guess if you get over 2 million visitors a year, you learn something about crowd control in remote places.

In general, I'd say the desert has been very hot (sunburn on the backs of our hands), very cold (the water line to the camper freezes and we sleep with the furnace on each night), and very dry (my poor little hands, my poor wrinkled face). Oh, and windy too. I suppose I would adapt over time, but I've decided that rain is not so bad after all. And I've also decided that I really like trees. Tree's are good.

I can tell we're having fun mostly though from how many nicknames we've been able to come up with for Bella. She rarely get's called by simply her name now. Miss B, Big B, Bellalicious, stick girl, dust bunny, and fancy pants come to mind just at the moment. She changed colour in the dust and so I gave her a bath the other night in the kitchen sink even though I knew it wouldn't last long. But I think we were both happy for a short while.

In the end game of the trip now and feel the pressure of places to go and things to do and not enough time to do it. Oh, and it's about that 1000 mile straight shot back to Ferndale - that should be fun. Stay tuned!

Regret

Friday April 18

Today was a travel/errand day. We left the campground late (as usual) and I drove to Cortez, Colorado where we found a grocery store and stocked up on more food. Very important to have beer and snacks and frozen pizza. Our next travel stop was to Mesa Verde National Park but by the time we finished shopping, and read about the park in the tour book, we felt it was too late to go into the park.

So here's the dilemma - to go straight to the RV park we picked out and just hang out? Or go to the 4 corners monument? It's basically a piece of metal stuck in the road that marks the spot where the 4 states meet. Oh, and it has native craft shops around it and you have to pay $3 per person to get in. Doesn't that sound like fun?

No, of course it doesn't. But if you're this close, and you'll probably never go there again, do you just do it so you can say you did it? Will you regret that you didn't do it later? While we were in Ecuador, we went to the spot where we could put one foot on either side of the equator ... course we were on a tour bus and were forced to go there. But it sure made a great story later. So, off we went and had our picture taken in the 4 corners monument so that we could tell stories later.

The body of a 25 year old .... no more.

Thursday April 17

Was able to see downtown Moab in just a few minutes this morning. We did manage to find the trendy dog store as we were walking Bella down the sidewalks and I bought a "Life Is Good" camping dog hat so now I feel like I belong.

Today is our day for Arches National Park in Utah. It is one of the signature parks in this area and is a mecca of sorts for photographers. Seems good to me as arches don't move and don't close their eyes or have a funny smile either. Simple right?

The park has places that you can drive around and then stop at a pullout to see the cool sight. There were lots of cool red rocks and huge beautiful vistas, but we were tourists and so it's one sight, take a photo, and onto the next. Then we actually hiked to an arch. Real exercise. Landscape arch is a long skinny arch that continues to crumble. In the late 90's, tourists were there when there was a loud crack and a huge piece fell down on them. No one was hurt except now we can't walk under the arch at all! It was supposed to be a 1.0 mile hike roundtrip, but somehow when we made the return trip, the sign said the trailhead was 0.9 miles back - someone lied! There were also a couple more arches on the way back to view - each one has a cute name so they're hard to pass by. We had beautiful weather for a change and so we thanked the weather gods for our good fortune.

The piece de resistance, the signature, the picture on the Utah license plates - it's all "Delicate Arch". This is the "big one" for the park. This one is supposed to be a 3 mile hike round trip and is best seen at sunset. The hike is marked "strenuous" but hey, they cater these descriptions to ..... older people right? Holy crap I thought I was going to die of a collapsed lung on the way there! I had 100lbs (at least) of camera gear on my back which I'm sure was why I was totally winded on the hill up there ... Greg kept offering to take some of the load, but I was "fine".

When we reached the arch, there was already a throng of photographers there, all setup with their cameras on tripods, just waiting for "the moment". They all had parka's and hats and gloves on so they had clearly done this before. After a good sweat, it was freezing, freezing, freezing.

Couldn't go all that way and not pose under the arch right? (Talk about pissing off a throng of photographers, but at least I was only 1 of about 75 people who did it). The arch is on the edge of a cliff and when you look up at the rock above you, you can get a little dizzy ...... I grabbed a few snap shots and left to rejoin the throng quickly and pretend that it wasn't me. We all stood around and talked photography stuff and complained about all the other people standing in the arch and ruining our shots. And complained about the cold. We bonded.

And just like that it was over and we all packed up and went back down. Shortly after the sun went down, our fingers froze and stopped working and we couldn't take any more photos anyway. The way down was much easier than the way up.

It must have just been the elevation.

Poop'in and Pee'in are good

Wednesday April 16

As many of you know, Bella has not been that good about poop'in and pee'in on a leash or anywhere in public. It was definitely a concern before we left especially since the RV park didn't end up charging us the $100 "pet fee" .... could've been some guilt there upon return. But I'm glad to report that Bella has figured out the whole camping thing and, as long as there is grass, will pretty much poop and pee on command. Especially in the morning. For Greg.

More Quilt Craft work in the morning, but we head into town to give the Mormons another crack at converting us. The "Bee Hive" house has tours and so we start there. It was the original residence and also office of Brigham Young. It started out as two different buildings, but after he died, his son did an addition that connected the 2 buildings into one big building. The emphasis of the tour was on how much of a "family man" Brigham Young was. We found that way too amusing given the fact that, in his time, the Mormons believed in Polygamy. The girls doing the tour, sister something from Brisbane, Australia and sister something else from Chicago, explained it this way - the prophet at the time, Joseph Smith, decided that more families needed taking care of and so Brigham Young was asked to take care of more families. Later, in the 1890's after Brigham Youngs death, the prophet at that time declared that everyone was OK and so they only needed to take care of one family. Hey, a religion that changes with the times. The Bee Hive moniker comes from the fact that Brigham Young like the comparison of the people to the activity of the Bee Hive - many people/bee's working all at once together as a team to accomplish industry. You see the Bee Hive indication all over the state.

We cruised the rest of the square and can indeed report that they have been busy as bee's. It's a beautiful square with lovely gardens and walkways and appears to be a thriving business with one of the largest skyscrapers in town serving as the office building. We learned that the convention center which holds over 21,000 people is where people go to hear the prophet speak and to communicate with him. Each of the missionaries volunteers for 18 months at the square and there appeared to be volunteers from all over the world. Good to know, but it was time to go.

Took Bella for a walk and out for coffee before jumping back in the camper and driving for about 4 hours down to Moab. Arrived around 7:00 pm and got the last spot in the Portal RV Campground (free WiFi) and we could only stay for 1 night as they were full the next. It's apparently busy in town but they don't know why. You can actually buy time share RV spots here too FYI. It was late by the time we finished up but there was nice grass outside the site and Bella obligingly poop'd and pee'd on command before bedtime.

Freezing, Freezing, Freezing.

If this camper is a rockin' ... it must mean there's a really big wind storm outside. Wow, talk about a cold desert wind. We went and took pictures of birds on Tuesday morning and managed to get pictures of Bella at a full run which is slightly more rare than the bird pictures. A tour around the island allows us to tick off several species - coyotes, antelope, Bison, and empty and closed bistro's and gift shops. Since we always do things backwards, we hit the visitor center on the way out and learn all about what we just saw. It's still freezing.

We head down to Salt Lake City and it's still windy and cold. The iPhone shows us to Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake where it is really windy and cold and freezing. Elder Osborne tells us that a tour starts every 15 minutes and we can wait inside where it's warm and there are restrooms (two key words). Two young girls, sister something from the Phillippines, and sister somethingelse from Guatamala, tell us about the buildings in the square and when and how they were built and a little bit about the colonization of Salt Lake by the mormons, especially Brigham Young. We go inside the Tabernacle where the choir sings and are lucky to be able to see/hear the organist practicing. He is recording himself playing the 11,000 pipe organ and then sits in the pews listening to what he has just played. We get to hear it both ways - live and in memorex. Although the tour was riveting, when it was done it was sleeting and freezing outside. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. We (eventually) found the shopping mall (outdoor - what *were* they thinking), and hit the Apple store as well as JJill and a coffee at Barnes and Noble.

When we left, it was snowing and sleeting. Being the intrepid campers that we are, we bailed and checked into the Salt Lake City KOA for the electrical hookups and turned on the furnace. Of course, they had free WiFi.

Portable

So the portable office rides again. It's the middle of the month and bill paying time for Quilt Craft and I have previously arranged with Jenn to work with her this morning on Quilt Craft "stuff". Well WiFi doesn't reach the camp sites, but we're told we can sit in the cafe if we want, however no dogs (it *is* a restaurant). But the WiFi reception is apparently really good in the laundry room and they even have an electrical plug there. So that is where we spent our morning - talking to residents doing their laundry while we sit at the folding table with dueling laptops and a mini dachshund on our lap. If you smile nicely, the barista (Greg) will make cappuccino's in the camper and bring it to you (complete with foam for Bella). Ahh, the glamour.

Time for play and we head to the famous Snake River canyon and Shoshone Falls. This is the site of a "failed" Evil Knievel jump back in 1974. First to a lookout over the canyon and then onto a state park at the falls (aka the Niagara of the west). The snow melt is late this year but the falls are still cool and picture worthy.

On the road again and there is a whole lotta nothing between there and anywhere. Farmland and more farmland. The world according to Google tells us that the CostCo in Ogden, Utah is too far away from the freeway so we skip it. We try to decide whether or not to try and see "Great Salt Lake" and the iPhone tells us about Antelope Island, a state park that you can camp at which is on an island in the middle of the lake. We have detailed driving directions within a minute. (Well except for a slight detour when a different website gave us bogus directions to a different camp ground but that's a different story for later).

There is a long causeway to get to the island and after a whopping $13 camping fee we're driving to the campsite. It's very desert looking surrounded by white "sand" beaches and great scenery. After parking we take Bella and the cameras for a cruise to the beach. There are cute little bunny rabbits living in the campsites too. Bella turns into a beach dog until the rocks hurt her little toes and she starts limping and needs to be carried. (Condo dog).

The wind picks up and everyone is freezing and our eyes and noses are running and it's cold. This roughing it camping thing is OK though when you have a huge RV with a furnace, a fridge and running water and you can have a glass of wine with dinner. A portable home.

We're not in Kansas anymore Bella

So we spent Saturday night in Fruitland, Idaho at the RV camp that seemed to be mostly permanent residents and had semi clean self contained bathrooms. But they had WiFi so that's all that matters. *I* drove through Boise on Sunday and it turned into a shopping day. And we also realized that the way we travel had changed too. We now travel by "The World According to Google".

We are using the iPhone as our replacement for printed maps. We want cheap gas for the big pig RV gas eating machine so, onto the iPhone Map application and search for "CostCo Boise ID" and there it is, just off the highway. Then hit the "Directions" button and from "Current Location" to "CostCo Boise ID" and we have step by step directions on how to get there. Then, onto Starbucks for more espresso pods, breakfast sandwiches, and coffee time (Bella really likes coffee time now since she gets to share Greg's foam). Slight glitch when we look for a nearby grocery store to shop at, (we find Winco, a popular local chain), and end up at their corporate head quarters in the industrial section a few blocks away. But you know what they say about computers, "garbage in, garbage out". Google maps then directs us to Albertsons in great detail and we're in food city. But all the way through we have a detailed street map of exactly where we are. And the whole process works in every city we've been in. Way more cool and way more efficient than that outdated printed map routine. (which assumes you were efficient enough to have picked them up ahead of time in the first place!)

It didn't leave much time for driving and we wanted to see something interesting so we picked a place outside of Twin Falls which is near Snake River - apparently a tourist attraction like a mini Grand Canyon. The park turned out to be right next to the freeway and the sites didn't have WiFi but we're intrepid campers and we persevered. There was a nice grass area for Bella to collect sticks in, and she saw her first squirrel which was amusing for all of us. No internet so we watched a movie on the laptop for entertainment - our version of roughing it :-)

The internet has even changed RV camping.

The Internet

Now that the internet is ubiquitous, it means we can waste a lot of time no matter where we are! Including campgrounds with free WiFi as it turns out.

Had a lovely morning at the Yakima RV parking lot sitting at the table - matching MacBook Pro's back to back, coffee on one side, tea on the other and the dog going back and forth. (Greg gives her steamed milk left over from making his morning cappuccino so I generally lose Bella rights until coffee is over :-)) Catching up on email, world events, the latest Apple rumours, the latest Photography announcements, and the latest Quilt Craft doings takes a long time. When we left Vancouver, I told Greg that we wouldn't be able to go anywhere once we reached a campground, so that I had time to do all the things I planned to do while we were gone - I didn't realize how right I would be.

But we did a fair amount of driving yesterday, and made the requisite CostCo stop for gas and got to see what the wine country of Washington looks like. It was quite beautiful country and it was cool to see the lines and lines of grapes off the side of the road. There is not much growth right now as you can imagine, but it was a beautiful warm sunny day with a bright blue sky and you could see shades of "Napa" in all the beautiful brand new estate buildings that have been built in the middle of the desert. I bought a bottle of local wine at CostCo and will send a review later :-)

Ended up making it to Fruitland Idaho for the evening and we are staying at the "Neat Retreat" RV Park. Yeah, it's pretty neat-o all right. But again, we have free WiFi!

OK, off to Boise! We need to go to CostCo for gas and there's a Starbucks there - we already have maps :-) I'm going to drive for the first time so wish us well.

Packing ...

Did you know that even if you take all day to pack, you can still forget things?

It's true. We took a long time to pack and get things settled before leaving, and didn't get out of the house until almost noon. By the time we crossed the border, dealt with lunch and mail and got to the RV rental center, it was late. Of course we had to get "checked out on the equipment" and pack it up with all the stuff we packed too. Got more "stuff" at the storage locker and we were right in the middle of Friday afternoon rush hour traffic. Yah.


We decided to head to Yakima even though we were so late and then we could have a leisurely time in the morning. The RV park is very reminicent of RV parks found on television - why is that?
The propane alarm went off in the middle of the night .... twice. Don't know why as nothing was using the propane at all. One of those mysteries that we will try and figure out along the way.

Bella has not quite learned that when we tell her to pee or poop, we really really mean that she should pee or poop NOW. Again, she'll learn along the way. The adventure is in the journey.

On The Road ... Again ...

Hi all.

We are again off on another great adventure. This time, there are many levels to the adventure.

Our friends and family are very important to us and we would like to keep in touch and connect with you all. Perhaps we'll keep this up to date with where we are and what we've been doing, perhaps we won't. But we will be thinking of you as we hit the road and see the scenic highway. We have the camper van rented (Class C maybe 22'), we have the packing list that includes the espresso maker, and we have the dog and the open road. What more could you ask for?

We're planning on heading into Arizona and New Mexico, but we hear from Carol and Murray and other folks too that Utah is beautiful so we'll probably spend a fair amount of time in that whole "4 corners area" and then see Taos and Santa Fe etc. And of course the journey is important too so we'll be sure to "see" all the wonderful RV parks along the way :-) Photography will be a big part of the trip - no flights involved so we could bring all the toys we want so I brought them all. Now if I don't get any good photos, I have no excuse so I'll have to come up with something else. Will try to post photos of us along the way at least - the iPhone has a nifty camera to catch snapshots with.

Besides, we need an excuse to post cute pictures of the dog and this is a forum to do that!

Jan and Greg