Six months on the Road

We did it. Six months on the road, 15 National Parks, a bunch of State Parks, and countless attractions. We live in one beautiful country. I wish we could have learned more about each place but time kept pressing us forward. There are places we missed that we will visit another time, places that we will re-visit when we can, and there are place that should only be visited once.

If you dream of traveling........make the time, take the vacation, whether it's 5 star traveling or camping in a tent, it is an experience of a life time and remember not all those who wander are lost.

as Nike says........................................................JUST DO IT.

San Fransisco and Muir Wood National Monument

We drove to Muir Woods to see the great red wood trees. Dean & Morgan did the Junior Ranger program. We had lunch at the park and walked around learning about the Red Woods.

We spent our last night in San Fransisco. We drove through the city in the RV I know there are hills but HOLLY COW we had to detach the car the hills were so steep. It's hard to believe some of the most challenging driving happened in a city.

We went to fisherman's wharf, watch some street performers (Joe was part of the show), and had dinner. We stayed by the airport and Joe dropped us off to fly home. Joe drove the RV back home it only took him 4 and a half days.h

Santa Rosa CA

We traveled to wine country to see some friends we knew in Key West 8 years ago. They have an awesome place. They live on a very unique farm. They grow all kinds of veggies and have 2 dogs but the neighbors have a bunch of dogs. The kids were in heaven. The dogs were Morgan size. In the evenings we would sit around a little fire and hang out under the stars, I even saw a shooting star.

The other neighbor has 8 horses, 2 pigs, a few peacocks, a bunch of Dog, a bunch of cats, a parrot, and probably some animals I forgot to mention. Well she was so kind and let Dean and Morgan ride her horse. They rode around for about an hour. It was an experience they nor I will ever forget.

This was one of the last days of the trip. Thank you guys for making it so special.

Old Friends

We went to visit with an old friend from NJ. They live in a beautiful home in Walnut Creek CA. Her kids are the same age as Dean & Morgan. What a perfect match. The kids swam, played, ate sushi, played and played some more. We were able to catch up, there lots to talk about after nine years. Next time won't be so long.

Marysville, CA

We drove past Crater Lake National Park. The northern entrance road was closed :(
On to Marysville. We arrived just before dark. I was glad it was still light getting our RV in the drive way was like putting 12 lbs of potatoes in a 10 lb bag. We held our breath and squeezed in.
My Uncle has the sweetest farm. The kids loved it they could ride bikes, play ball, and run free.

There is a Swan and a Duck that live on the farm. We were warned about the swan, and The duck is called Jose . There was a very sweet black cat and 1 other nasty one. I think the farm is very ying and yang.

Dean was very interested in the Swan, he was down by the pond checking him out. I scolded Dean because I didn't want him to get hurt. Dean said "But I connected with him". So Dean named the Swan, Willy.

Halloween in Bend

We stayed with friends in Bend. They have a almost 3 year old son. The kids had a blast. We didn't plan on staying more than a night or two but they invited us to go trick or treating so we stayed a little longer. It was fun they dressed up as the bat family, "super hero's rock". Dean was an awesome avatar and Morgan was a mini vampire. Joe & I, well we couldn't resist, vampires.

Down the Oregon Coast

We Headed down the Oregon Coast. We had dinner with an old high school friend of Joe's. It's always so nice to catch up with old friends

He hooked us up in a really nice RV park for the evening. And then down the coast some more.

Did I mention we had the breaks done in the motor home? They are not working right. Well they work but squeak and smell something awful. On our way over to Bend to visit ours friends daughter Joe got an appointment with a different Freightliner dealer to look at the brakes. I took the car to Bend and he headed to Freightliner. Long story short they re-did the breaks and they are perfect. Either the brakes were faulty or the labor was faulty no way to tell.

More Olympic Peninsula

After leaving the beach we took a wrong turn and ended up in La Push, yes Twilight fans the reservation La Push. We turned around and headed to Forks for lunch. No vampires out today it was a sunny day.

On to the the rain forest. The visitor center was closed but we decided to do a little hike called Mossy trail. I think this is one of my most favorite places on earth, at least in the top five. The trees are so old and covered in moss. I felt so peaceful, so at home like I'd been there before. Joe Dean & Morgan all thought it was very cool too.

Our next stop in the park was the hot springs. But we were a day late. They closed the day before and wouldn't even let us get a peek. Oh well... We got to see a deer family up close. They weren't intimidated by us at all.

We camped one more night went to the ranger station in the AM and the kids got their ranger bagdes. The last stop in the park was the largest sruce tree. And man it was ...BIG, again at a loss for words.

Olympic National Park

We found our way to the Olympic Peninsula, and the National Park. The first stop was the Visitor Center and found out the places to see and things to do. We made it to Mora Beach campground. We pulled in after dark we tried to get our rig in a site but after pulling the air horn off with a tree branch we decided to park in the regular daily parking area.

In the morning I took a walk around and could see that we were trying to park a RV in a tent site, not a good fit.

We fixed the air horns and headed to the beach. Realto Beach is like nothing we have ever seen before. The Pacific Ocean is ........ (I don't have words to describe its power). There were the huge down trees strewn across the beach, Joe measured one at 190 feet. The question is how did they get there? And there is no sand but these small round stones. All my senses were alive, the smell of the ocean, the beauty I could see, the cool damp air on my skin, the loud crashing waves, well I couldn't taste anything but I didn't want sea water in my mouth either.

This is only the begining of the Park.

Thanks Rich & Gloria

Thanks for the great week in WA.

We had a blast.

Mount Rainer National Park

We had to bring the RV in for work on the breaks and decided to test the new brakes out with a drive through Mt Rainer National Park. The visitor center was closed but we drove up toward the glaciers. The weather was a little cloudy but it was beautiful. Joe & I had been there 12 years ago on our first motor home trip but it was hard to remember where we were and what we saw. We sounded like an old married couple trying to piece together the last trip.

Port Townsend WA

Out tour guides took us to visit a friends sister in Port Townsend WA. As we pulled up in the drive way Joe said "did you guys see that?" we all said what? He said "A whale" No.., no.... unhugh..., are you sure? He was sure. We went in to visit and asked if it was common to see whales in the sound. No she said that is so rare you probably saw a seal or a dolphin. But Joe was sure of what he saw and you know......... about a half hour later we saw it, all of us, an Orca. It was incredible. No pictures but it was spectacular.

Ok now a little information. The question is an Orca a whale or dolphin? Scientifically it is a dolphin. But all dolphins are a sub-category of whales. So all dolphins are whales but not all whales are dolphin. I heard it explained like all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares. Anyway...

Whether or not it was a whale or dolphin our friend confirmed it is rare to see an Orca in the Sound.

Back in Seattle WA

We made it back to the west coast after a 2 month break at home. We are staying at a friends house in Kent. They are great tour guides they took us to the Boeing Factory, where they make 747's, 767's ,777's and the new dream liner 787. Morgan was to short to take the tour. The next day the guys went back for a tour and the girls went to Pike's Place Market. Did I mention the weather was perfect and sunny?

Yellowstone Part I

We made it to Fishing Bridge. We are all sung in our camp site for 2 nights. We explored the visitor center and got the jr ranger booklets for the kids and found out about a few different hikes.

The next morning we meet the ranger at Storm Point and took a fantasic hike along the shore of Yellowstone Lake, throught dried up hot springs, past some marmots, throught an awsomely old pine forest, and ended walking in a medow. It was about 2.5 miles and the kids were awsome.

This was just the beging of our awsome 7 days in Yellowstone.

Almost Yellowstone

We drove to to Yellowstone but it was to late and we couldn't get a camp site. All the first come were full and the reservation campgrounds were full too so we got a reservation for Saturday and headed to Cody WY.

We spent 2 days in Cody. It was a pretty fun town. The first night we went to the Irma Hotel (named after Buffalo Bill's daughter) and watched to hookiest western gun fight in the street with Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp and just some savory western cowboys. The kids loved it and it was totally entertaining.

The next day we went to the Buffalo Bill museum. It was fantastic, stuff for the kids and adults. There are 5 wings. One is largest gun collection in the country, one of Buffalo Bills Show, One on Yellowstone, one on the people of the plains and Western Art. We only saw the first three and ran out of time.

Grand Tetons National Park

Each park is so spectacular, with their own unique attribute. We spent 4 days here. The kids are really into the Jr. Ranger program and we learn so much from helping them complete their booklets. One of the high lights was hiking to Phelps Lake. It was so peaceful and quiet. We didn't really see to many people which was odd considering we got one of the last camp sites in the park. Whew...

We are no longer talk about rattle snakes but are bear aware. This means do not under any circumstances leave food out or anything that smells like food. It will attract Bears and that means trouble for both people and bears. We did a little research and the chances of being attacked by a bear are really slim I mean you are more likely to be attacked by your dog or bit by a spider than attacked by a bear. Yet we talk about it daily.

Wishing Jackie a speedy recovery.

Your a warrior with unending courage and strength. We love you.

Fossil Butte National Monumnet

We met a family that told us about fish fossiling in Kremmerer WY, about 2 hours from Salt Lake City. You get to go to a quarry and dig for fish fossils. We thought it sounded good but didn't know anything about it. We headed out to Kremmerer to find out how to go fossiling.

We decided to stop at the Fossil Butte National Monument first, where Dean and Morgan became Jr Rangers right away. It was so interesting there is a very large lake bed that has a layer of fish fossil preserved. One of the scientist say it is so unique because they can study the fish, plants, insects, reptiles as a community. Not just one dinosaur here one there. I mean we saw a picture of one fish eating another fossil version. We watched a ranger using a dremmel tool and vacuum cleaning stone away from the bones.

So now we wanted to go fossiling on our own. The place we decided to go was Warfield Fossil Safaris also the one recommend to us. We found their website http://www.fossilsafari.com/ with a map to the quarry. In keeping with our track record we had a really hard time finding the place. But we did and man it was so much fun. We found tons of fossils all fish we kept the best ones. The rock is pretty soft and you just spilt it layer by layer and BAM there are fish.

It will defiantly be one of the highs lights of our trip. We only dug for an hour or so and could have stayed for eight. If your ever in WY or looking for a great out door fossiling trip this is it.

Salt Lake City

We headed out about 6pm for Salt Lake City, it was hot and we wanted to head north. It wasn't much cooler but it was north. We stayed just outside the city. We managed to get a pretty bad crack in the windsheild of the RV and were staying put until it was fixed. We spent a week. We have a little teeny tiny crack in the jeep windsheild too. The camp ground had a pool so the kids were happy, and we were definatly back to civilzation. We got supplies, did a little shopping, worked out at the gym (that was nice, running in 96 degree heat dry or humid is not for me),went out to eat, had a massage, a peticure, and even did some sight seeing.

We went to The Great Salt Lake via Antelope State Park. It was erily beautiful. I know that doesn't make sense. There weren't many people at the beach mabye 10-15 . Once we got by the water the flys swarmed us so we kept walking into the water and out a ways. The just seem to cover the water, erie. They move out of your way as you walk or swim. The water has no movement so the top layer is really warm but when you put your feet down it's cold, erie. I think the only thing that lives in the water are brine shrimp so I thought that was erie too. Beautiful to look at and the fact that it is what is left from a prehistoric lake. Oh and floating its like your on a raft without a raft, that was fun. It has double the salt contect as the ocean. My joke of the day was you don't have to wear a life jacket since you can't sink :)

We also went to the Bingham Canyon Copper mine, largest copper mine. You can see it from space. Who knew? It is very impressive. They have been mining copper since 1906 and going strong. Their by-product is half a billions dollars in gold & silver a year.

Zion National Park

We entered from the east side of the park. We decided to leave the RV in the campground after hearing about the road construction and the mile long tunnel that would require an escort and a $13.00 fee (our RV would only fit if we drove down the center of the tunnel). The jeep was the way to go. Once we got to the visitor center we did the shuttle bus. Way better for sight seeing. We stopped at the museum had a picnic and heard a very informative talk about dessert plants. After we went to the river walk hike. It leads into the narrows of the canyon, if you desire you can hike another 5 miles up the river. It was perfect, we hiked in the water and on the path. It was 106 degrees so it was great to be able to get in the water. Did I mention the kids are great hikers.

I find it incredible that 5 national parks (Canyon reef national park - we drove through with out stopping) in one state, shaped by the same forces are so distinctly different.

Bryce Canyon

We parked outside the park and took a shuttle. I liked the part when myself or Joe didn't have to drive and sight see at the same time. We could both enjoy the scenery together. We got on and off at the different scenic views had a picnic lunch. It was the whirl wind tour.

A Fork in the Road

We woke this morning and said lets get to some place cooler. Our destination Salt Lake City (not really cooler) but north. As we were driving and I was relived to be going to a more populated place we came to a fork in the road. If we continues straight we go to Salt Lake City if we go left we see Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, which we were going to see on the our way back home. I was warring with myself wanting to see these National Parks or getting to a city. Practicality won and we went left to Bryce Canyon. It was a good decision.

Glen Canyon Recreational Area

aka Lake Powell. So far this is the most remote place we've been. We drove into Halls Crossing. The roads were so quiet I thought for sure we were going the wrong way, again. We were going the right way and found our way to the Ferry. The Ferry took us to Bullfrog, which has camp grounds, visitor center, a marina, a lodge, a restaurant and a gas station. There may be other things but I didn't see them. There are no hook ups at the camp ground but so far it has been the biggest and nicest site. I think they made them extra big since people bring all kinds of water crafts. Oh, did I mention it was over 100 degrees every day.

Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point State Park

We went to Canyonlands National Park. We were comparing it to the Grand Canyon and I heard other people talking in different languages and referring to the Grand Canyon. We were going to camp in the back country but decided against it because only 2 sites were booked (we figured it probably wasn't the best time of year to camp) and it is hotter in the canyon that on the rim.

We also stop at Dead Horse Point State Park it has a very dramatic view of the Colorado River from 2000 feet down sheer cliffs, Defiantly one of the top ten places in my book. The name is a little sad, there are different ledgends to why it got it's name ....

Arches National Park

I don't know how to describe the beauty in these rock.

They are breath taking.

They are fun.

We climbed togehter to this really cool .... I don't know what its called.

Look at balanced rock.

How long do you think before it tumbles down?





Arches National Park is Magical.

Moab UT

We left Telluride for Moab it was supposed to be a 3 hour trip. We took a wrong turn and ventured down a dirt/gravel road. After too long we met up with another truck and asked the old rancher if we were headed in the right direction. "Nope" We then asked where we might turn around and he said (get this) "open the red gate and turn around in the pasture". If we hadn't run into him we would have ended up back in Montorse, CO. The whole time we were on the dirt road we saw 2 cars (one of them gave us help) and a guy on an ATV.

It took us 5 hours to get to Moab.

4th of July

We were in Telluride for the 4th of July. What a spectacular celebration. We had our chairs set up right on Main Street for the parade.

First came the Veterans for whom we can thank for our freedom.

The floats, cool cars, horses and finally the Jet fighters that fly 200 feet about our heads. ZOOM They fly right down Main St and toward the mountains. It seems like they are going to crash into the and pull up last minute.

It's heart stopping and we are just standing on the ground.

Later in the day we enjoyed the festivities at Town Park. The kids played shoe toss (you can use your imagination) and tried to catch trout with their bare hands. Morgan almost got one but she said "it slipped out of my hands".

To end the day we watched a spectacular display of fire works. The echo in the Valley was the icing on the cake.

Are we there yet?

We finally reached Montrose the largest city near Telluride (about 50 miles away). We decided to stay the night and decompress we had driven about 650 miles the past few days. After a relaxing night we drove to Telluride. Since we didn't have phone service aka GPS I was reading a map. Not so well I might add.

This next stretch of road was the thinnest, scariest, most sheer cliff road I have ever seen. Believe me I've seen my share of mountain roads. We drove all the way to San Juan County past Silverton (an old mining town), to Red pass (that's where I think we were). Fortunately we were able to turn around. The way back was better since we were next to the mountain not the cliff. We found the right turn drove back up the mountain on the right side this time. This road was a lot better drive. I don't know how anyone drives these roads in the winter.

We made it to Doug and Katie's house. The picture is the view from Doug's living room. Isn't it awesome?

Traveling to Telluride

We are traveling to Telluride CO via Rocky Mountain National Park. We had stopped in Fort Collins to get supplies and take a driving break. Our brake was almost a whole day. We went food shopping, got some camping supplies and had a pretty good Sushi dinner. Our waitress told me just to follow the main road to Estes Park that would bring us through Rocky Mountain National Park too.

I should have checked her information. After driving for too many hours I discovered we were north of Rocky Mountain National Park on "the other side of the Mountain" only 10 miles away if we could fly, but no roads. There is an upside to the story, we found a fish hatchery. We stopped talked to one of the guys there and he let the kids feed the fish. They have cut throat trout and some rainbow trout. There are about 12 hatcheries in CO and they stock most of the rivers and lakes.

As we continues on our way we saw 3 Bull Moose on the side of the road. Joe got some great video footage and pictures.

All was forgiven for taking the wrong road.