Zion National Park

 

We left Pahrump and drove to Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah.  This is our first stop in our month long trip to see all 5 of Utah’s National Parks.  We are staying at a private campground/hotel about a 1/2 mile from the park entrance.  It is very convenient as we could walk to the park pedestrian entrance and pick up the shuttle bus to go throughout the park.

Here is our view from our RV

The good part of this trip was the weather was fantastic.  It got up into the 80’s during the day and the high 40’s at night.  The bad part was spring break.  The whole area was very busy during our visit, especially on the weekend.

Besides the beauty of the park one of the main attractions is to “walk the narrows”.  This is a trail that begins on dirt for about a mile or so then ends at a stream where you then walk in the water for another few miles to view the narrows, where the canyon walls come close together.  To accomplish this you need to rent waders, waterproof shoes and a walking stick.  As we are not avid hikers and the water was 40 degrees we chose to stop at the waters edge and wish all the hikers well.

Here is the where the water trail starts

We did most of the easy and moderate hikes but passed on the strenuous ones.  Here are some pictures from our travels through the park.

       

 

 

This is the Zion Canyon Lodge with its massive tree and lawn

The park has a highway that goes through it to take you to the eastern side and onto Bryce Canyon.  This road is narrow, has many hairpin turns and includes a mile long tunnel.  They have height and width restrictions to go through the tunnel without an escort, otherwise you have to pay $15 for a round trip so you can drive down the center.  Our big red truck was too wide so we paid the fee and got to use both lanes.

 

As Bryce Canyon is our next stop this road would be the shortest route for us to take with our trailer to get there.  According to the park rules we should not be able to take our trailer but we saw many motorhomes, tour busses and trailers going through it.  However, after driving the road, we have decided it would be best to take the alternate route that adds about 60 miles to avoid this road and tunnel.

On the eastern side the landscape changes somewhat.  The rock formations are more layered and have a wind swept look to them.

This is called Checkerboard Mesa

We hiked the Canyon Overlook Trail which was well worth it.  It takes you to a view of the western side of the park.

 

Route: From Pahrump we took highway 160 to Las Vegas where we picked up Interstate 15 north highway 9 into Springdale.

Death Valley, California

 

We spent the last 3 days in Death Valley.  It was our first visit to this park, which seems strange as we both spent so many years in Southern California and never made the trip.  I guess we just saw it as a very hot place with nothing to see.  Since we began our travels I had put this on our list as a place to visit, but in the winter months.  This year it worked out for us for the route we are taking and I am glad it did.  It is a nice place to see for a couple of days, longer if you are an avid hiker.  The weather was great as it only got into the high 70’s during the day and around 40 at night.

Before I get into our activities in Death Valley, let me tell you about the drive to get there.  The route from Lone Pine to Death Valley is Highway 190 which crosses two mountain ranges, going as high as 5,000 feet, before arriving in the valley.  The road over the mountains is narrow and winding so it made for slow going pulling a 40 foot trailer.  Adding to that is the fairly steep inclines and descents.  Most of the time we were driving around 25 mph.  We stopped at one point, at a turnout, so we would use the trailer restroom.  When we got out of the truck we could smell burning brakes from the trailer.  We let the brakes cool down and I backed the trailer brake gain down so the truck would do most of the stopping and this helped.  It took us over 2 hours to cover the 100 miles and over half a tank of gas, which means we probably averaged 4 miles per gallon.  We made it with no problems but both of us commented how it reminded us of the mountain scene in the “Long, Long Trailer” starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

We tried to see all the major sites, but some require an off road type vehicle to get to and can take most of a day.  Others required some long moderate hikes.  The only full service RV park is in Furnace Creek and is run by the National Park Service.  Even in this park they only have about 20 or so full hook up sites, everything else is dry camping. 

Furnace Creek.  In the summer it can be reach 120 degrees here.  I believe this is where the highest recorded temperature on earth was recorded at over 130 degrees.

The lowest point in North America.

Very near our RV park was the Furnace Creek Resort.  This is a very nice hotel built back in the 1920’s.

They call this area the Devil’s Golf Course.  It is very rough land that has some interesting patterns in the soil.

Volcanic crater.

We took a drive to a peak that overlooks the valley.  It is called Dante’s Peak.

The highlight of the visit was a tour of Scotty’s Castle.  There is a whole story behind this house that I will not get into now, but short story is that it was the summer home of a wealthy couple.  It was built back in the 1920’s and 30’s.  What is so neat about it is that the owner donated the house and furnishings to a charitable foundation he set up in the 40’s so they could conduct torus.  Later the foundation sold the house and furnishings to the National Park Service.  So everything in the house is as it was back in the 30’s.

The house

Our tour guide, who is a NPS Park Ranger.  They dress from the 1930’s to conduct the tour.

The music room

One of the living rooms from the upper floor.

Another stop was the large sand dunes in Stovepipe Wells.  The blowing sand gets trapped here due to the mountains. 

Dunes

Fran’s shadow in the sand.

Great time in Death Valley.  We have now moved on to Pahrump, Nevada where we will spend 3 weeks before moving into Utah.

Route:  From Lone Pine we took Highway 136 to Highway 190 to Furnace Creek.  From Furnace creek we took Highway 190 to Highway 127 to Highway 160 into Pahrump.

Lone Pine, California

 

We left the Bakersfield area and moved to Lone Pine, California.  As our next stop is Death Valley this stop made sense to break up the trip.  We have never stopped here before but had driven the highway, US 395, a few times when we lived in Southern California years ago.  We found a gem, especially this time of year.  The weather was just great.  It would get up into the 60’s during the day and high 30’s at night with the skies as clear as anything.  It made for star gazing at night and great views of the mountains on both sides of town.  Lone Pine is the gateway to Mt. Whitney, highest point in the lower 48 states.

First, here are the views we had from our RV park.

We took a drive on the road to Mt. Whitney but decided to turn around before we started to get far up the mountain.  The road becomes very narrow as it climbs the mountain plus there was snow a few miles up.  I was concerned that we would not have a place to turn the big red truck around.

We stopped because the road looked like it may be a problem for the truck.  You can see the road as the two lines on the mountain.

Mt. Whitney is the rock towards the middle of the picture.

This area was used for filming of many movies and TV shows over the years. Mainly westerns were filmed here, the last one being Django Unchained.  With this film history the town has created a little film museum that is a must see.  It has to have one of the largest movie poster collections I have ever seen.  It has great merchandising items from the Hop-a-long Cassidy movies and the Lone Ranger.

Some of the movie posters

Lone Ranger exhibit

Wagon from Django Unchained

Our next stop was the Manzanar War Relocation Center.  This is one of the camps set up to house Japanese Americans on the west coast that were relocated after Pearl Harbor.  Only the auditorium building and a watch tower remain, but they do have a great museum in the auditorium and have created a driving route showing you the layout of the entire camp.

Original watch tower for the camp

Auditorium building that houses the museum

Entrance to the original camp

Recreation of a barrack from the camp

Memorial at the camp cemetery

Next up, Death Valley.

 

Route:  From Bakersfield we took Highway 58 east to Highway 14 north  to US 395 north to Lone Pine.

Bakersfield, California

 

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post, a good time to catch up.

Last we were in the San Diego area.  From there we drove north to Lake Cachuma, California.  This is a county recreation area near Santa Barbara and Solvang.  We had last been there around 35 years ago to do some tent camping.  It was sad to see how the drought has impacted this lake.  The water level is way down.  The water used to be very close to the campsites but now you have to go a substantial distance to get to the shore.  We took a drive into the Solvang/Buellton area to have lunch at Anderson’s Pea Soup, walk around Solvang and, of course, do some wine tasting. 

On a recommendation from one of our wine group friends we stopped at Lincourt Winery and were very impressed with their wines.  We joined their club as they are part of a larger wine company that will give us some good benefits when we visit the Napa area later this year. 

Lake Cachuma

From Lake Cachuma we drove towards the coast for a stop in Morro Bay, California.  We have never stopped here before but visited the area many times over the years.  We stayed at a very nice RV park near the ocean with the famous Morro Rock in our view.  The RV park was a little tight as they use every available part of land for an RV space.  Fortunately we had requested a nice pull through site so it was easy to get into.  I would not want to have tried backing into the other spaces.  We had nice time walking on the ocean and walking the waterfront with its many shops and restaurants.

View from our RV park

From Morro Bay we drove a short 30 miles to Lake Lopez which is a county recreation area near the town of Arroyo Grande, California.  Here we met up with Fran’s aunt and uncle and their family.  They all have RV’s and a couple of boats.  All together we took up 5 spaces in row.  We had a great weekend catching up with them and going out on the lake in their boats.  However, we did encounter some stressful moments trying to get into our space.  We arrived a day early, Thursday.  We had selected the largest of the sites in the loop we were staying in as a group.  The problem is the site was on a curve and the road in front of it was very narrow.  It was a back in spot and there was dip at the front of the site and a big tree on one side.  I kept trying to back our rig in but the dip was causing the bike rack on the back to hit the ground and I was just not getting the right angle to get the trailer into the spot.  After discussion and analyzing the situation we decided to take the bikes and bike rack off the trailer and to try backing from a closer angle.  This worked but it was close as the back of the trailer came very close to hitting the roadway.  It took about 30 minutes and is probably the hardest backing job I have done.

Deer roaming the park

Each day a couple of times a group of wild turkeys would walk through the RV sites.  They obviously have been fed by campers as they come right up to you expecting to be fed.  They are fairly big and very noisy, especially early in the morning.  It is really cool when they fluff their feathers.

After spending the holiday weekend at Lake Lopez we left Tuesday for Bakersfield, California to spend a week. 

Route: From Santee, California we took Highway 52 west to Interstate 805 north to Interstate 5 north to Interstate 405 north to US 101 north Highway 154 to Lake Cachuma.  From Lake Cachuma we took Highway 154 to US 101 north to Morro Bay, California.  From Morro Bay we took US 101 south to Grand Ave and followed that to Lake Lopez.  From Lake Lopez we got back on US 101 south to Highway 166 east to Highway 99 north to Highway 58 east to Fairfax Road in Bakersfield.

San Diego California

 

We are finishing up our two week stay here in the San Diego area.  We are staying just outside the city in a town called Santee.  It is a very nice RV park that is part of a large regional park.  We stayed here a couple of years ago and really enjoyed our stay.  The park is great for walking and biking and is close to all the San Diego things to see and do.  The weather, during this stay, was typical Southern California, 70’s during the day and 40’s at night.

We did take some excursions while here.  First was a drive into the mountains to see the towns of Alpine (nothing to really see) and Julian (great little town for a stop).  The weather that day was a little cold with some rain so our stay in Julian was short.  We did have a great lunch at an old café and took a couple of slices of famous Julian pie home (apple/blueberry and apple crunch). 

We met up with some friends who are fellow full timers who we follow on Facebook.  We met them a couple or years ago while in Lake of the Ozarks and have followed each others travels since.  They are staying up the Interstate in Menifee so they came down to catch up and have lunch.

We took a drive out to Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument as we had never stopped to see this area before.  It was a gorgeous day so it made for great viewing from the point.  From here you can see all the naval operations on North Island, downtown San Diego and Coronado. 

The lighthouse on the point

View of North Island (Naval base)

From there we drove over to Shelter Island and had a nice lunch at the Blue Wave grill.

Our next excursion was to see the Mission Basilica of San Diego.  This was the first mission founded by Father Junipero Serra in California.  Most of the mission had been destroyed over the years but they were able to use part of the original façade, some of the bells, the tile for the mission floor and some wood beams.

Inside the mission

The façade and bells

Statue of Father Serra.  He was only 5 foot 2 inches tall

From there we drove into San Diego and walked around the downtown area.  We visited the Gaslamp District which is a 16 block area that has numerous bars and restaurants.  We had lunch, outdoors, at Café 21.  Very nice lunch.

One of the neat old buildings in the Gaslamp Quarter

We leave on Thursday for the Santa Barbara area to spend the weekend then Morro Bay, Lake Lopez (meet up with Fran’s cousins) and then Bakersfield.

We are coming up our four year anniversary of “Life on the Road”.  Look for my next post regarding this milestone.

Time to get caught up

 

I see that my last post was just before Christmas so two months has passed and we are on the move.  Time to get caught up.

We had a nice Christmas with my parents.  For New Years, Fran’s brother had just moved back to Southern California for his job so he spent some time with us while waiting for his apartment to be ready and then we helped him move in and set up his apartment.

We took a couple of day trips into Los Angeles.  The first trip was to stop at Olvera Street, see the Disney Concert Hall and the Catholic Cathedral.  It was a beautiful day and we had a nice time walking around the city.  The second trip was to see the Watts Towers and then into Los Angeles to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art.  Again, it was a great day and we had a nice time.

Next up was to get all the repairs completed on the trailer.  The parts finally came in so the repairs started.  It ended up taking 3 days as they did not have all the parts and the repair of the heater was a little more involved.  It all turned out good and everything is working fine, so far….

We had nice get together for the football playoffs with Fran’s brother’s family.  His two daughters and their significant others came for a BBQ at our trailer.  It was a fun day.

Another excursion, while the trailer was in the shop, was to go (wait for it)…………………………. WINE TASTING!  Imagine us, going wine tasting.  We went to Temecula, an area we have not been to before.  They are a little pricey on their tastings and do not not waive the fee if you buy a bottle of wine.  I hate that!  I had picked out 5 wineries to stop at but we only made it to 2 as the second one, Leoness, was so good and fun that we stopped there, bought a bunch of wine and joined their club.  We were at that winery for about 2 hours so that pretty much finished off the day after tasting so many of their wines and then having a glass while we ate lunch on their patio.  We plan on making another stop at Leoness while we are here in Santee.  We have one more club coupon to use, plus we get 8 free glasses of wine per month when we visit.  We have to take them up on that!

On the 22nd of January we left Anaheim and drove about 100 miles south to Santee, California.  This is where we are at now.  We have been at this park before and really liked it as it is fairly close to San Diego and the park is very nice with lakes and walking trails.

We did have a meet up with another full time RV family that we have been with friends with for a couple of years through Facebook.  They were up the interstate about 70 miles so they came to our place for a visit.  We had a great time comparing our stories of living on the road.

That gets you caught up for now.  Hopefully I will get back into my regular schedule of making blog posts.

Merry Christmas - 2014

 

Backstory: Some of our long time friends and family will remember that we would prepare a newsletter each year at Christmas time and send that out to let everybody know what had happened with our family during the year.  As the kids got older and moved out on their own the newsletters went by the wayside.  We then would send out some Christmas cards to friends and family but….(not so much).  In 2011 we began our “Life on the Road” and have had the blessing to see many of our friends and family as we travel around the country.  With our nomadic lifestyle Christmas cards fell by the wayside, but we would recognize those of you that tracked us down and sent us a card.  This year I thought I would resurrect my old Newsletter by way of my blog.  I will then place a notification on Facebook so my friends, and other family members, can pass it on so that it will get a wide audience to cover our friends and family.  Social media, the only way to go.  And no postage!

 

Life on the Road:

 

We started the year as we end the year, in Anaheim, California.  We find this a nice place to spend the winter (weather wise) and it allows us to spend some time with my parents who live nearby.

This past year we really took an unusual route as we decided to buy a new trailer which meant changing our travel plans and heading to Chicago to pick it up.  For the year we covered 23 individual states, many of those twice.  Our main destinations were the Midwest and the South before we headed back to the west coast.  We attended three weddings (Las Vegas, Palm Springs and Kansas City).  Let’s start from the beginning to give you some highlights.

We left Anaheim in January to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle in Quartzite, Arizona.  We did this to get the Quartzite experience (see my blog entry on this post).  We had a great time with my Aunt, uncle and cousin while we were in Quartzite.  The actual Quartzite experience was OK but nothing we will be rushing back to enjoy.

Me, my aunt and cousin playing Monopoly.  I think I lost!

From Quartzite we moved to Las Vegas to attend the wedding of the daughter of our friends the Sherwood’s.  This was a black tie event so we really dressed up nice.

Looking good!!

While in Las Vegas we had some issues with our trailer and had some discussions with our dealer in Chicago.  This led to a discussion about a new 2015 model that had everything we wanted.  We were able to put the deal together over the phone and email.  We agreed on a delivery date of March 3rd, which meant we had to get to the Chicago area in about three weeks, DURING THE WINTER!  We skirted some storms and made it into the Chicago area just before a snowstorm hit.  We picked up our new trailer and then quickly got out of town to find warmer weather.

We headed south and then did a loop through the southern states before heading back to our dealer in Chicago (when it was warmer) to get some warranty work done.  The highlight of this southern loop was meeting up with my niece and her family in Crystal Beach, Texas.  They have an RV so it made for a very nice weekend, except for the weather (a little cold).

Leaving Texas we headed up to Knoxville for a month long stop to attend the high school graduation of my grandniece at which point one of the air conditioners in our trailer failed.  Fortunately we had an appointment set up with our dealer in Chicago to handle some other issues, so this was added to the list.  We made it back to Chicago where everything was repaired.  We then headed north to Wisconsin to meet up with our wine group friends.  We had a fun filled weekend with all our friends with a special thanks to our hosts the Coleman’s. 

Quick summary, so you don’t get to bored – we then went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and worked our way to Knoxville, Tennessee to spend the summer and do our annual visits with our doctors.  A highlight of this part of the year was celebrating our daughter’s Kelly 30th birthday.  We surprised her by showing up at her party in Knoxville then the following week her and our daughter Kim came to spend the weekend with us in Asheville where we did a craft brewery tour and a tour of the Biltmore estate.

Enjoying sunset at the Grove Hotel in Asheville.

Another highlight of this part of the trip was a week long stop in Pinehurst, North Carolina to visit with Fran’s former boss and some office mates who came in for the 4th of July weekend.  We had a great weekend.

The group

From Knoxville it was now two weddings in two weeks.  First up was Fran’s nephew, and our Godson, Casey.  This was in the Kansas City area. 

We then had two weeks to make it to Palm Springs for the wedding of Fran’s niece, Amanda.  We made it but not without issues, three tire blowouts in three days.  As of this newsletter we are still waiting to get the repairs done from the tire damage. 

From that wedding we then arrived in Anaheim.  Here the big event was my stepfather’s 90th birthday party.  My mom threw a party for him at their condo complex and his two sisters from Rhode Island surprised him by flying in to attend the party.

My mom and stepfather dancing at the party.

Side trips:  We took two side trips this past year, without the RV.  The first was to Portland, Oregon to visit with our daughter Katie and her husband Tyler.  We had a great time seeing the city of Portland and spending time with both of them.

Yeah, she is special!

The next side trip was to Hawaii.  This was a family trip to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary and to finish our quest to visit all 50 states (Hawaii was the last).  We had a great 8 days visiting Honolulu and then Maui.

That was a whirlwind trip with us through the year but it brings you up to date.  As for our family, Tyler and Katie, and their dog Layla, are in Portland, OR doing great.  Our daughters Kim and Kelly, and their cats Elsie and Chase, live together in Knoxville, TN and are having a great time.

As for us we are in good health and have our travel plans for 2015 on the books.  This year we are going to Alaska.  First we will be hitting some western states that we have not visited with our RV then heading to Canada for the summer and up to Alaska in July through September.  We will be in Knoxville as fall begins and most likely spending the winter in Florida.  If everything goes as planned we will have visited all 49 states (Hawaii not included) with our RV since we started our “Life on the Road” in February of 2011.

Fran and I would wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Hopefully we will see “on the road”.