B.W. and Carols Happy Trails,Tales, and Tails

Using Photoshop Elements v10

2012-01-28T14:58:00.001-06:00

In our last post, I mentioned that I’d designed a website ( www.westforklanding.com ) for the owner of the Resort here and I was so pleased with the picture/logo I made, that I used it in our current header. I thought I’d show the steps I went through using Adobe Photoshop Elements v10 to show what I started with and ended up with. Photoshop Elements is an amazing photo editing program with no limits to what you can do to a photo.
In my first draft of the West Fork Landing website, I used a photo of an actual sunset on Lake Fork for the background of the site. In the photo it also showed a nice fishing pier & boat dock.

This is the original

I then added accent stripes that faded into black along the outer edges.

I then created a transparent Logo for the site and embedded it on top of the background image.

Well, unfortunately the owner didn’t care for this image as he was afraid it projected the idea that such a dock existed here at West Fork Landing when there’s not one. Even with all the work I put into editing and creating it, he’s absolutely right. He said he’d rather have a picture of a Bass. So, I went to Google and did a search in the Images Category for “Bass”. I must have looked at over 200 different images of Largemouth Bass. I finally found the one I liked and felt certain he’d like. The only problem was it had a large watermark/advertising right across the image.

This is the original image. Note the straight sharp edges all the way around the image.

I always like to spice things up and make changes to make it different and not so ordinary. So I got the idea to do some painting on my own and make it look more alive and appear the image is 3 dimensional and coming off the page. My first step was to do something about the advertising. I couldn’t just remove it, so I had to paint over it using all the colors involved and make it look like it was never there. The hardest part was re-creating the small perch that can barely be seen under the ad.

This is how it looked after painting over the layer of text and painting the perch back into it.

The next step, I copied the above image onto a new larger transparent/invisible background so I could paint out beyond the edges of the original and to be able to add drop shadows. I was hoping this would make the image appear to be lifting off the main background layer.

I had to visualize what the Lilly Pads and the pad stems should look like, then painted them onto the invisible background to get this finished image.

From This To This

Just a Lookin’ For A Home

2012-01-25T14:35:00.001-06:00

First, our apologies for our long lapse in posting. There has been a lot going on and happening since our arrival back in Texas in October. Here’s a brief recap: In our last Post, we mentioned that we were looking for a place to set up as our Home Base and had pretty well decided on the Lake Fork area east of Dallas. We also mentioned that we were in the process of moving all our storage (boat & personal stuff) away from Del Rio and the Mexican Border. Also mentioned the pain in my left shoulder that started when we were in Llano, TX when I let the buffer I was using to wax the front cap of our 5th Wheel, get away from me while on a ladder, jerking my left arm.

We are now at Lake Fork after getting everything moved from Del Rio to Bandera, from Bandera to Crockett, from Crockett to Lake Fork (Lots of Miles, Lots of Diesel). We spent almost a month here in the Lake Fork area looking at every available RV Park and RV Resort for a place with a year’s lease to use as our Home Base to travel out of and to return to. We’ve decided to do this as a result of the increasing costs of diesel fuel and RV Parks. For 5 years we’ve been going full blast seeing as much as possible. We’re still going to travel a lot but are slowing down just a little. We decided on West Fork Landing RV Resort & Launch for our annual lease. It’s without a doubt, one of the nicer places on the entire lake. The owner and the people already here are extremely nice and friendly and we all have one thing in common, “We Like To Go Fishing”. Miss Carol and I both agree, the longer we’re here, the more we like it.

Panoramic View of West Fork Landing from the FM 2946 Bridge (stitched 7 photos together using Windows Live Photo Gallery

We’ve been busy making plans on ways to make it even more comfortable here and plan to build a 10’ x 30’ split level wood deck along side our trailer. We bought a storage building from Lowe’s and put it together, so now we don’t have the monthly expense of renting storage. We have a really large site that is at least 40’ x 100’ with lots of space between our neighboring RV’s.

Our Site at West Fork Landing

Our 8’ x 10’ Storage Shed

Last week I had surgery on my left shoulder. Turned out I had a torn rotator cuff, bone spur, tendon torn away from bone, and some arthritis. I was in surgery a little over an hour and the Doctor said he was able to repair it all. So with my bad shoulder, I had lots of down time since to get caught up on all my computer stuff. I used Microsoft Paint program to design the layout of our site and how everything will be arranged. I also used the Paint Program to design our proposed deck.

Our Site Layout (drawn using Windows Paint Program)

What our proposed Deck will look like. It has a drive thru boat & truck port that will be covered also. (Drawn using Microsoft Paint Program)

We hope to start construction on the Deck and Boat/Truck Port in the next couple of months so we’ll be able to use it this Spring prior to leaving out north during the hottest summer months. It will have electric plugs spaced around the deck and a couple of ceiling fans. Miss Carol is looking forward to it so she can lounge around (while I’m fishing) and read her books and let Joe & Sophie have some free space.

During my convalescing (being bored) I designed an Excel program for the owner of West Fork Landing to help with organizing and running the park and getting all his information/record keeping organized. Since he didn’t have a website for the park, I designed one for him and it’s in the final stages of design. I took a picture of a bass and edited it and added to it for the Home Page. It turned out so good, I decided to use it in our Header above. If you like, you can check it out at: www.westforklanding.com

I hope Miss Carol and I can get out and do some fishing in the next month or two. I’ve been getting as much information as possible from the locals about the fishing, restaurants, and shopping around here.

Merry Christmas to All

2011-12-24T14:35:00.001-06:00

We’re Still Here

2011-11-22T16:10:00.001-06:00

It’s been about 4 weeks since our last post, so I thought we’d bring everyone up to date. Since our Retired FireFighters Reunion in Santo, we’ve been pretty busy. From Santo we went to Llano, Tx. for a week while waiting for an appointment. We had a service repair appointment in Kyle, Tx. to replace our Grey Holding Tank that had a crack in it and 2 shocks that needed replacing. When we were in Amarillo a while back having electrical repairs done, the service tech had extended our bedroom wardrobe slide out while testing receptacles and when he went to put the slide back in, he failed to raise the end of the bed. While trying to forcibly bring it in further, he stripped the gears in the mechanism. We didn’t have time to wait on the parts to be made and ordered and replaced and make it to the Reunion on time so we opted to take care of it ourselves later and send them the bill. I know this sounds like a lot of stuff going wrong, and it is more than you’d like to happen, but you have to remember driving these RV’s down the road 65 mph, bouncing over RR tracks and bridges that things are going to come loose or go wrong. We got our parts in yesterday afternoon and Miss Carol and I did the repairs this morning. Finally, everything is back to normal as far as our 5th Wheel is concerned.

1. Del Rio 2. Bandera 4. Crockett 5. Lake Fork

This past Saturday we drove the truck over to Del Rio ( 3 hour drive) from here in Bandera and worked on condensing our storage down into as few containers as possible. We loaded as much of the stuff into our Bass Boat as possible and put the cover on it and strapped it down and put the remaining stuff on our small utility trailer. We wanted to make it as water proof as possible because we’re having to move it and the boat in 3 stages to get them to our new home base area in N.E. Texas (around Lake Fork). Miss Carol and I wrapped it up with tarps and straps and headed back to Bandera. We only had to stop 3 times (ha ha) to retie and secure everything on the utility trailer. Yesterday we went back to Del Rio (3 hour drive – one way) and got the boat and brought it back to Bandera. Next week we plan to make two trips to Crockett, Tx. (6 hour drive – one way) where my brother lives and back, for Stage 2 of the process. Then the first week of December we plan to move the 5th Wheel from here in Bandera all the way to Lake Fork ( 9 hour drive) and locate us a home base. Once we get that established, we have to make two trips to Crockett and back (2 hour drive – one way) to get the boat and utility trailer. So in the next 3 weeks we’ll be doing lots of driving.
Today after Miss Carol and I finished repairing the wardrobe slide we took a break in the afternoon. My left shoulder has been hurting for two weeks now and I’m beginning to think I’ve torn the Rotator Cuff (common injury to baseball pitchers). So while I was sitting in my recliner with the heating pad, Miss Carol turned on the TV and tuned into the BIO Channel. It just so happened they were showing the Biography for Andy Griffith. Now I know all of you know who Andy Griffith is. Well, they were showing several excerpts from several of the segments of “The Andy Griffith Show” and they showed one that has to be an “All Time” favorite. Miss Carol and I laughed so hard and sooooo long, we had tears flowing from our eyes and headaches from laughing so hard. You know what its like when you have that un-controllable laughing and you can’t stop and the more the other person laughs, the more you laugh an it’s totally out of control???? Well, that was Miss Carol and I.
It was so funny, we want to share it with all of you. I scoured the Internet shortly after the show on BIO and found the video clip. We hope you get as much laughter and pleasure out of watching this as we did!!!!!!! But you can’t possibly laugh as much as we did .

Now I don’t care what you say, that was FUNNY !!!

RFWFF 2011 Fall Funigan–Day 4

2011-10-29T20:39:00.001-05:00

Remember and Support your Local FireFighters

They run into buildings when others are running out.

Thursday was our last full day together. It pretty much rained all day but the Ladies got together during the morning for a shopping trip to the outlet mall just east of Mineral Wells. The guys gathered in the Club House and visited and around lunch time decided to drive to a Bar-B-Que place for lunch. We struck out in the direction of Mineral Wells which was about 15 miles north of our RV Park. We had split up into two vehicles. There were a couple of the guys in the lead truck that remembered there being a couple of Bar-B-Que Restaurants there. It turns out that it had been quite some time since they’d visited them and after taking a criss-cross tour of Mineral Wells, we discovered that they’d all closed and gone out of business. George Allison spoke up and said there was a place just south of where our RV Park was and south of I-20. So we drove back past the RV Park (15 miles back) and drove another 10 miles to a small community called Natty Flat and the Natty Flat Smokehouse.

I have to say that it was worth the drive as this turned out to be some of the best Bar-B-Que I’d ever eaten. By this time, it was well after lunch time so none of us ordered too much to eat as we all had plans to drive to the Brazos River Catfish Café for dinner that night. While there, everyone was raving about the Natty Flat Smokehouse Fried Pies. They only make 200 at a time and make them on Tuesdays and Fridays and they are so good, you have to call in advance to reserve the flavor and quantity you want. I called back as soon as we got back to the RV Park and reserved 3 Apricot and 3 Cherry Fried Pies for Miss Carol and I to pick up on Friday morning on our way to Llano, TX. Miss Carol and I couldn’t stand it and had to eat one as we were driving down the road. I must say, they lived up to their reputation. DELICIOUS!!!

Click on any image to enlarge it for better viewing

This is a photo of the interior of the Brazos River Catfish Café

On left side of table:

Alton & Clarice Bostick, Roy & Toni Knight, Don & Jan Ridlehoover, Linda & James Stutt

On right side of table:

Mary & Jerry Richards, Rodney & Nancy Swan, Miss Carol, Linda & George Allison

Why my Goodness, even Elvis was there!!!!

The Brazos River Catfish Café is uniquely decorated in Elvis and 50’s memorabilia with old Rock & Roll songs playing from the Juke Box. Great atmosphere and great food with great friends.

The next morning (Friday) was our departure day and we were all sent off with a Pancake Breakfast prepared and served by Jan & Don Ridlehoover. Everyone else contributed side dishes of bacon, sausage, fruit, butter, syrup, and juice.

Here’s Jan flipping those pancakes like a professional. Alton preparing some sausage I think.

Roy & Toni preparing the table. There’s Don helping Jan with his hands in his pockets. ha ha

James & Linda Stutt. Looks like James is ready, he has his plate in hand.

George and Rodney & Nancy. Looks like George is looking for coins that someone may have dropped on the floor. ha ha

Mary Richards and Linda Stutt.

Come and Get It!!!

Shortly after breakfast was over and the clean-up chores were done, Miss Carol and I pulled out with our rig as we had a pretty good drive ahead of us to Llano. Plus we had to stop at Natty Flat and pickup our Fried Pies!

Natty Flat is the home of “The Star of Texas Rocking Chair” built out back in the saw mill.

Click on any image to enlarge it for better viewing

Now that’s a BIG Rocking Chair

Want to give a big THANK YOU to Roy & Toni Knight for organizing and preparing our Retired FireFighter gatherings. It takes a lot of hard work and planning to put one of these together like you do.

GREAT JOB, Roy & Toni !!!

We all look forward to the next one.

RFWFF Fall Funigan–Days 2 & 3

2011-10-27T16:57:00.001-05:00

Retired Ft. Worth FireFighters

Fall Funigan 2011 Rally

Day 2 – Day of Visiting & Italian Dinner Night:

Tuesday, Day 2 of our Rally, was a day of visiting. Throughout the day most of us sat around and told and listened to our old tales and experiences during our Fire Dept. careers. Firefighters are notorious for pranks and practical jokes on one another around the Fire Station, so there was a lot of laughter and reminiscing as the day went on.

Later in the afternoon we all gathered in the Club House for our Italian Night Dinner. The Ladies outdid themselves with some very delicious dishes.

Click on any image to enlarge it for better viewing

Alton Bostick and Roy Knight getting one more tale in

while standing in the food line.

Day 3 – Day trip to Historic Thurber:

Wednesday, our agenda was a trip to the Historic Town of Thurber. From the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, Thurber was a thriving industrial town with over 10,000 inhabitants. It became popular for it’s coal mining, then later for its crude oil discovery and production. We took a tour mid-morning of the W.K. Gordon Center/Museum for the Industrial History of Texas.

After our tour of the Museum, it was time for lunch at the New York Hill Restaurant in Thurber. They had a very extensive menu with very reasonable prices. The service was outstanding as well as the meals.

Left to Right:

James & Linda Stutt, Alton & Clarice Bostick, Mary & Jerry Richards, Nancy & Rodney Swan, Toni & Roy Knight, Don & Jan Ridlehoover, Linda & George Allison, and my Miss Carol. I’m the one taking the picture.

After our meal we headed back to the RV Park where everyone took it easy recovering from the large servings of food. Our afternoon agenda was meeting in the Club House for some really good snacks and games.

Another good day with great friends.

Retired Ft. Worth FireFighters Fall Funigan

2011-10-25T17:00:00.001-05:00

2011 Retired Fort Worth

FireFighters Fall Funigan’s Rally

Click on any image to enlarge it for better viewing.

Monday was the start of our bi-annual campout gathering. One is held in the Spring and one in the Fall. This one is being held at Coffee Creek RV Resort in Santo, Texas. This is a four day event lasting thru Thursday 27th. Coffee Creek Resort is two years old and is a very nice, clean, and friendly run Resort.

This is our Club Room where we’re holding our meetings and meals.

It has a nice kitchen facility

This is an outside view of the Club House

Yesterday, after everyone had arrived and got their rigs all set up and settled in, we had our “Hobo Stew” Dinner. We started it around 5:30 in the afternoon and everyone contributed food to be mixed into the huge pot. Some of the ladies brought cornbread and lots of great desserts as side dishes. After dinner and the cleaning chores were done, most of us guys hung around and watched the Texas Rangers in the World Series. The game ended a little after 10:00 pm and with the Ranger’s WIN, was a great ending to a great day with old friends.

Left to Right:

Toni Knight, Nancy & Rodney Swan, Jerry & Mary Richards. Roy Knight was probably up getting another bowl of stew. Ha Ha

Yep!!! There he is. Caught him in the act.

My better half: Miss Carol, Don & Jan Ridlehoover, George & Linda Allison

Starting the clean-up

Looks like the guys got roped into doing the dishes.

Roy Knight, Toni Knight, and Alton Bostick

Below is our section of the RV Resort where our rigs are parked nearby to each other. Today we took it easy for the most part. Miss Carol and I rode over to Strawn with George and Linda Allison for lunch at a well-known local favorite called “Mary’s Café”. I had the “Medium” size chicken fried steak and it was as big as a platter. I brought over half of it home for later. Can’t imagine trying to eat a large one. Tonight is our “Italian Night” dinner and everyone is bringing something Italian. Can’t wait.

Time to Move South

2011-10-08T16:44:00.001-05:00

We’ve been here at Green Mountain Falls, Colorado for a week now and the weather has been absolutely beautiful. Low’s in the 40’s and High’s in the 70’s. Well, this morning that has changed. The Low Pressure System that hit the Sierra Madre’s in Northern California earlier this week has moved in here and at this upper elevation above Colorado Springs (8000’), this is what we woke up to this morning !!!

I just checked with the online Weather Channel Website for the hour by hour forecast for the next 24 hours and it’s supposed to let up at 1:00pm for 2 hours. That’s when I plan to go out and fill up our reserve fresh water tank (100 gals.) and shut the water off and drain the water hose before it starts freezing up. At 6:00pm it’s supposed to start snowing again and then snow all night tonight, ending early in the morning.

I just slapped my boots on and ran out and took the above picture. Right at 8” already and we still have a long ways to go until in the morning.

Miss Carol has gone over to our daughter’s house to visit with Heather and Granddaughter Claire. Heather has a four-wheel drive Jeep Cherokee and was kind enough to offer to come over and pick up Miss Carol and take her back to their house for the afternoon. Of course I’m stuck here to take Miss Sophie and Mister Joe Cocker out to pee and poop every two hours. What an ordeal, in this stuff. Have to block them off onto the linoleum in the kitchen and wash and dry off their bellies and all eight feet. Sure hope I don’t lose one of them in the snow!!!

We sure had a great stay at Yellowstone National Park this year. We were there for a total of 4 weeks. We got to see some magnificent wildlife. Our last day there we were honored to have our last visit from a herd of elk. In the video below, the bull put on quite a display of bugling as they are coming into the rutting season. We left Yellowstone on the morning of Sept. 27th before daylight. That morning as we were leaving and driving out of the park through Hayden Valley, we saw a wolf running full out along the bank of one of the beautiful lakes there. It was an awesome site with the sun just breaking over the horizon with a pink and gold reflection off the thin clouds, a light foggy steam rising up off the waters surface, surrounded by mountains.

What a wonderful way for Yellowstone to say goodbye.

Our destination from Yellowstone was Cody, Wyoming. We’ve always been told and always wanted to see the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. Wow, what an experience. Our big mistake was to only allow one full day there to tour it. It’s so massive, it would take at least two full days to see it all and that would probably not be enough. Besides the museum, we were really impressed at the number of bronze sculptures scattered throughout Cody.

Click on Images to Enlarge them for better view.

Yellowstone Update & Close Encounters of the Third Kind

2011-09-17T14:49:00.001-05:00

Just thought we’d give everyone an update on our Yellowstone Adventures. We’ve been here in Yellowstone twelve days now and almost a week here at Mammoth Campground near the North Entrance. Tomorrow Miss Carol is going up to the gate office and extend our stay here another week. Our campsite is perfect for visiting the north half of the park, satellite reception, cell phone reception, and solar system and the $7 a day is a whole lot better than $30 + a day in an RV Park.

Our campsite at Mammoth Campground.

Every day we have about 30 to 40 Elk migrate through the park going from the river nearby to bed down in Mammoth for the nights. We had some, including a huge Bull Elk come right into our campsite which you can see in the video below. We had one Elk start chewing on my flags we had set out. Then one day the Bull Elk was across the road from us at about 40 yards away with spectators crowding in on it and it kept looking our way and suddenly charged us as we scrambled inside the camper for safety. It ended up about 10 feet from us and the only reason it stopped was our sun-screen we had hanging from our awning. As it charged up the hill towards us, it went between some brush and our screen-room we had set up. I had guy ropes extending out and staked down to hold the screen-room in the wind and he severed the nylon guy rope as if he had razor blades on his hooves. Would loved to have had pictures or video of the incident but we had other things on our minds besides the camera as Miss Carol and I were tripping over each other to get inside the door.

Bison Close Encounters

Elk Close Encounters

Hayden Valley–More Bison & Bald Eagle

2011-09-09T21:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Miss Carol and I took the truck over to the Hayden Valley area in hopes of just sitting out in our lawn chairs and possibly spotting some Grey Wolves. We never did see any of the wolves but we sat for a couple of hours in our truck in one of the roadside pull-outs just watching the Bison and Spectators. We’re not sure which was more entertaining. There had to have been at least 300 in the herd that we watched. We took our truck so Joe Cocker & Miss Sophie could go along and enjoy the day out of the trailer.

This bull bison walked out of the timber and onto the road right in front of our truck. We followed along until he was ready to move off the road.

They were constantly wallowing in the dirt to dust themselves to help keep the large flies from biting them.

We stopped at an area later in the afternoon where it is a common area for the bison to ford the river and were able to get this shot.

After we left the bison, we drove back into the Upper Hayden Valley area and set out our chairs to see if we could see any wildlife come out of the tree line. After about 15 minutes, I spotted a Bald Eagle perched on a log jam near the waters edge. It appeared he had a vantage point for perhaps spotting trout as they swam by him.

Sorry for the not-so-clear pic but this eagle was about a 1/2 mile away and I had to use our largest zoom lens and we didn’t have our tri-pod with us so it was hard to hold steady.

Today, Miss Carol and I took the scooter and drove up to the Mud Volcano area and the Fishing Bridge area and across the north end of Yellowstone Lake towards the East Entrance and where a large wild fire is burning. There are about 8 wild fires burning inside the park at this time.

This is the wild fire towards the East Entrance. We can see the plumes of smoke from our campground and tonight it appears that it has worsened.

Tomorrow we plan to stay in camp and prepare things for our move to Mammoth Springs Campground up by the North Entrance. If we can get in and find a good vacant spot with plenty of sunshine and view of southern sky, we plan to stay there for 2 weeks and explore all of the north half of Yellowstone.

Buffalo Back Up

2011-09-07T20:37:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, we left Bozeman and headed into Yellowstone National Park. It was about a 140 mile drive to the Bridge Bay Campground located on the edge of Yellowstone Lake. What we thought was going to be about a three hour drive turned into a 5 1/2 hour drive as we forgot about the 35mph speed limit inside most of the park. There were a few stretches of 45mph limits. We didn’t really mind since the views were awesome.

After we made the turn south from Grant Village area we headed into Hayden Valley where the Mary Mountain Trail is. This is the trail where the most recent fatal Grizzly attack took place less than a couple of weeks ago. The trail and surrounding area has been completely closed until they can locate and isolate and hopefully capture the Grizzly involved. The last we heard, they’d captured one in a trap and are awaiting DNA testing results to see if it was the one.

Shortly after leaving the Mary Mountain Trail area we topped a slight hill and right in front of us was a large herd of Buffalo on both sides and middle of the road.

As you can see in the picture, this just started as there are not that many cars backed up.

By the time the bison had decided which side of the road they wanted to be on, and we were able to start moving, the traffic had backed up in both directions as far as you could see.

What a magnificent majestic bull bison watching over his herd. It’s hard to imagine these beautiful animals were almost extinct.

Even though we were able to move, the buffalo were still close to the vehicles and walking on what little bit of shoulder there was along the road. When we finally arrived at the campground, we checked in and got our assigned campsite from our previous reservations. We had specifically stated in our reservations we wanted an open site for our satellite and solar system. When we got to our site, it was completely surrounded by trees. We drove around all the loops writing down site numbers that would work for us. We picked a pull-thru site that looked like it would be big enough and open enough. We started setting up and the site was so un-level, our Big Foot Leveling System couldn’t get the nose of the trailer high enough to get to level. So we lowered the trailer back onto the truck and put 4” x 4” blocks under the front jacks in hope of being just enough to get level. No luck. We had to lower the trailer on the truck again and move to another site that was still not level but just enough that it would work for us. WOW!!! What an ordeal. By the time we got set up Miss Carol and I both were worn out. We managed to get part of our solar system set up, did dinner, and hit the sack early.

Today we got up early, had a great breakfast of huevos rancheros, finished setting up the solar system, then hopped on the scooter and headed for Old Faithful Village and the new multi-million dollar Visitor’s Center.

After that 38 mile ride on the scooter, I needed a hot cup of coffee to thaw out.

After visiting the Old Faithful area it was close to 2:00 pm and needed to get back and check on the pups. On the way, we pulled in at Kepler Cascades and snapped a few quick pics.

Picture doesn’t do it justice. Awesome in person. This is looking upstream.

This is looking down stream.

The days scooter ride ended up being an 80 mile trip. Before we got back to camp we encountered some sprinkles as afternoon scattered showers are forecasted thru tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow’s plans are to go up to Hayden Valley and to Grant Village.

Bridge Bay Campground with showers moving in.

Our campsite at Bridge Bay.

Lewis & Clark State Park, Montana

2011-09-02T19:10:00.001-05:00

On Monday, Miss Carol and I arrived at the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park for a one night stay before heading on to Bozeman, Montana. This is a very nice State Park with Electric hook-ups only and a dump station. The Caverns appear to be similar to Carlsbad Caverns in appearance and the tour is 2 miles in length. We arrived too late in the afternoon to be able to take the tour. The campground sits in a valley with a real pretty fishing stream running through it and completely surrounded by mountains.

Lewis & Clark panoramic video

We are now in Bozeman, Montana just north of Yellowstone Nat. Park. We will be here for a week then on Tuesday morning we’ll be moving inside Yellowstone to the Bridge Bay Campground located on Yellowstone Lake. Bridge Bay Campground closes for the winter on the 11th so we’ll be moving from there up to Mammoth Campground near the North Entrance. We plan to spend the whole month of September at Yellowstone. We hope to be able to see some snowfall while there and take some good pictures. We also hope to use our new solar-system while there.

Glacier National Park Day Trip

2011-08-29T21:12:00.001-05:00

Last Wednesday Miss Carol and I took a day-trip into Glacier National Park. From where we are camped, it is a 35 mile drive to the West Entrance. We wanted to visit the area called Many Glaciers that is north of the East Entrance. Our overall day-trip took 9 hours to do and not sure how many miles were driven. In order to get from the West to East Entrance (or vice-versa) you have to go over what is called “The Going To The Sun” road. There is a limit on vehicle length and anything over 21’ long is not permitted. This road was built so long ago when cars and trucks were much smaller. There were times when meeting oncoming traffic, we had to fold our mirrors in order to clear.

The road actually gets narrower than this.

This river runs along side the main road through the park. It is from snow and glacier melt. At the current rate the Glaciers are melting, they will only last another decade or two.

Tunnel along the “Going To The Sun Road”.

The road is a constant 6% grade all the way up to Logan Pass at 6600 feet of elevation then all the way down to the East Entrance. As we approached Logan Pass we spotted 3 long-horn sheep grazing just off the road. We pulled on into the Logan Pass Visitors Center and parked, grabbed the camera, and Miss Carol told me to go on ahead and get some pictures before they move away while she tended to Joe & Miss Sophie. I managed to get there just in time to get some good pictures before some other photo hungry tourists kept trying to get as close to them as possible and ended up spooking them away. Miss Carol and the dogs got there too late. The sheep moved off in the direction of the Visitors Center so I told Miss Carol we’d walk back over there and around behind the building and see if we could see them. Sure enough, they were there and Miss Carol got to see them also.

After our Sheep Encounter we headed on for the East Entrance. We were taking in more beautiful scenery than our brains could absorb. Every few feet we traveled, it looked like a new post card picture. Do they still make Post Cards???

After we dropped out of the mountains and into more level ground, we drove along side a beautiful lake that was 9 miles in length along a lazily winding road with thick brush and lush green trees. We came around a gentle curve and suddenly right in front of us standing in the middle of the road, was the largest BEAR that Miss Carol or I had ever seen. I’m not a good judge of size and weight but I’m guessing this to be a Black Bear weighing at least 600 to 700 lbs. We had our camera laying on the console between us (what we thought was ready for taking pics) and before Miss Carol could grab it and snap a picture, it was gone. I immediately pulled forward to where the bear moved off the road and into the brush and it was totally out of sight. Miss Carol rolled down her window and could hear it crashing through the brush but could see nothing. It’s amazing how they blend in with their surrounding. That absolutely made the whole trip worth while.

After we departed the East Entrance and headed north to Many Glaciers, you have to drive on public land/highway for about 8 miles then turn off back west to the Many Glaciers Entrance. On our way in, we spotted another Black Bear grazing on berries right on the road. We stopped and snapped pictures of this one until he too disappeared into the brush.

We then proceeded on to the huge Lodge on a gorgeous lake with huge beautiful jagged mountains in the background. This was around lunch time so we decided to drive on to the end of the road and see if we could find a picnic area to have our lunch that Miss Carol had packed for us that morning. We had cheese & crackers, tuna fish, and vienna sausages, and Flathead cherries for dessert. It’s amazing how good those little wieners can taste when you’re out in the outdoors.

After lunch we decided to head back as we had a long drive ahead of us backtracking all the way back to West Glacier. On our way out of Many Glaciers, I spotted another Black Bear on the side of the road pilfering around. We managed to get stopped and backed the truck up and snapped a few pics of him. He was in such thick brush, in the pics you can only see a brown/black area hidden in the brush.

All in all, it turned out to be a really good day-trip seeing lots of beautiful scenery, 3 big horn sheep, and 3 bears. By the end of our 9 hour journey, we were pretty much exhausted. We managed to eat some dinner then to bed early.

Big Mountain Day-Trip

2011-08-20T19:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Miss Carol and I took a Scooter Ride up past Whitefish, Montana to Big Mountain Lodge & Ski Resort (Whitefish Mountain Resort). This is a neat place to visit if you’re ever in the area. You can easily spend a full day there with all the summer activities they offer.

They offer: Scenic Lift Rides, Alpine Slide, Walk in the Tree-Tops, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Rafting, Fly-Fishing, Horseback Riding, and Zip Line Tours. Matter of fact, we overheard one of the attendants on the Scenic Lift Ride say that just earlier, a group of Zip Liners came in contact with a Grizzly and it growled at them, then walked away. Miss Carol and I opted for the scenic lift ride.

Next is a Slideshow with Audio. The length has been adjusted to fit the whole song into the Slideshow so each slide’s duration is longer.

Our Scooter day trip to Whitefish Big Mountain Resort

Today, we went to the local Farmer’s Market here in Kalispell. There was fresh home grown produce, arts & crafts, baked goods, and food vendors. Sure hard to go to these things when you’re on a diet. Lots of temptations.

Lots of Cherry Orchards around the Flathead Lake area.

Today Was a Fairly Good Day

2011-08-18T22:42:00.001-05:00

Today Miss Carol and I decided to go to the Montana State Fair in Kalispell.

Miss Carol (middle waving) waiting for me to get back in for a ride on the Train Tram into the Fair Grounds.

Miss Carol admiring one of the Draft Horses in the Livestock Barns. They were grooming them for a show in the arena.

One of the Clydesdale Teams showing in the arena.

One of many La La Lama’s we looked at.

We ventured off of our diet a little and ate a couple of corny dogs and a big Pepsi. I’m saying, how can you go to the Fair and not eat a corny dog????????

Short Trip to Glacier Nat. Park

2011-08-17T22:29:00.002-05:00

Yesterday afternoon we took a short trip into Glacier Nat. Park. Since we got a late start, we just drove around the lower parts of the West Entrance. We’re saving the “Going To The Sun Road” for a later day.

This is the view from the West Lodge of McDonald Lake. We drove around both sides of the lake as far as we could go.

This is looking back toward the Lodge from where the first picture was taken.

Getting a late start, we didn’t take time to eat lunch before we left. Everywhere we drove people were taking their lunch breaks from sight-seeing and having their little picnics. Miss Carol and I have been on a diet for 3 weeks now and watching everybody else eating was driving us crazy. Driving to the Park, Miss Carol spotted a Taco/Burrito stand on the side of the road. Miss Carol said since we’ve done so good on our diet, we deserved a treat, and that she wanted to go back to the Taco Stand on our way home.

So, whatever Miss Carol wants, Miss Carol gets. We each had one taco and one burrito. The burrito was so big we saved half of it and had it for dinner later.

Well, GOOD NEWS, We were able to get Humpty Dumpty (our dryer) back together again. The new belt arrived today by U.P.S. and Miss Carol and I got busy and put on the new belt and got everything back to normal. Miss Carol is a Happy Camper again!!!

Tomorrow or Friday we plan to go north of the town of Whitefish and take a ski-lift ride to the top of a mountain and do some sight-seeing up there. We’re having some magnetic signs made for the truck advertising our distributing of the Super Seal Products: The Solution, Piranha, Amaze, Monitor Lizard, and Micro-Fiber Cloths &amp; Chamois. The signs are being made by Fast Signs in Whitefish and will try to do it all in one trip. We might even be scootering.

Our Dear Dryer in Dire Need

2011-08-16T22:11:00.001-05:00

On Saturday morning we made our move from Spruce On The River RV Park to Rocky Mountain High RV Park. A drive of a whopping 2 miles. We have a much nicer and prettier site here.

On Sunday we started getting everything cleaned up from our trip from Missoula. We hit a short section of road construction and a very brief shower at the same time only to really mess up the truck, trailer, and scooter on back. While I was out cleaning the sides of the trailer, Miss Carol came out and asked me if I wanted to hear the good news. FLASH!!! RED FLAG!!! went up immediately. I asked, “Are you sure this is GOOD news?” She said: “The dryer has quit working!!!, It’s making a horrible racket and it’s quit tumbling”. Not good news anytime but the reason we’re here in Kalispell is for repairs/adjustments to our slides. The ol’ saying: When it Rains it Pours” comes to mind.

So after finishing up with cleaning the trailer, I spent the rest of the afternoon breaking down the dryer to see what all was wrong with it.

Our Splendide stacked Washer/Dryer sits in a very confined closet in which they barely fit. There is less than a 1/4” clearance on both sides of the door frame. Bare with me on the following. Above them is a shelf where our wireless router, satellite modem & receiver resides. When Miss Carol first mentioned the drum not turning, I immediately figured the drive belt had broken. In order to get to the area to replace the belt, the front of the dryer has to come off. In order to take the front off, you have to remove the top. In order to remove the top, you have to have access to the rear of the dryer to remove two screws from the back. In order to get the washer & dryer to move through the door, I had to remove the shelf so I could grab the rear of both units (they are attached to each other) and start walking them back and forth through the door opening 1/4” at a time. Once I had it out into the middle of the floor, I went ahead and removed the back panel where the heat elements and the blower blades are located. I spotted what was causing the horrible noise. Evidently the drive belt had stretched enough over the last 4 years to allow the dryer drum to drop just slightly allowing the blades of the blower to start scraping against the back housing. The belt then stretched just enough to allow the belt to slip that eventually heated the belt in one spot until it heated it enough to burn through the belt. I found the belt laying in the bottom of the dryer.

It being Sunday, I figured I’d have to wait until the next morning to find an Appliance Parts & Service Center. After a little research, we discovered there was only one here in Kalispell. So we drove the belt there and inquired about a replacement. Bad News: didn’t have one, couldn’t get one. Our next effort was to go to the RV Repair place where we’re having our slides adjusted later. More Bad News: They didn’t have one, could order us one but would take at least 3 weeks to get it. More Bad News: It would be a “Special Order” item and the belt would be $116.00. Now folks, this belt is only 1/2” wide and only 1/8” thick. Sort of like a big Rubber Band on Steroids. This thing couldn’t cost more than $5.00 to make so I said no way. I told them I’d go back and get online and locate the manufacturer and try ordering it direct from them. I did, More Bad News: It still cost us $45.00 plus $12 shipping. Finally, Good News: It will be here in 3 days and we can get the washer/dryer out of the middle of the floor and back into the closet.

Now, I just hope when the new belt arrives I can put Humpty Dumpty back together again!!!

Back at Kalispell, Montana

2011-08-14T17:44:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday the 10th, we left Missoula after having some final touches to the Solar System. The reason we’ve installed a Solar System is because RV Parks are going up on their rates practically each year. A lot of them have changed their name from “RV Park” to “RV Resort” and increase their prices. It’s gotten where being on a fixed income and with the cost of everything increasing, we had to look for means to save on our expenses. So we hope with the money we’ll save on some of the nightly RV space rentals, we’ll be able to stay afloat a little longer. Plus by installing a Solar System, Uncle Sam gives you a 30% rebate of your total cost back on your Income Tax Return.
We had to stop by a local RV Dealer to have a circuit board replaced on our Norcold Refrigerator that got knocked out during the solar install. We got to the dealer at 10:30am and by the time they worked us in and did the 15 minute repair we were on the road to Kalispell at 3:00pm. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive here and by the time we got set up and had dinner, we were pretty much done in.
We have 3 days here at the Spruce RV Park On The River. All that was available was in their overflow area. We leave here in the morning for Rocky Mountain High RV Park that we already had reservations for. It’s about 3 miles from here. It will be a much better place to stay. We stayed there two years ago.

Site at Spruce RV Park On The River.

Our view from our trailer of the mountains of Glacier National Park in the distance.

While here for 3 days, it gave us the opportunity to do some more re-arranging of our main basement to accommodate our solar frame and solar panels. I had to build a rack that is suspended from the ceiling and notched 1” x 4” boards for support from the floor of the basement.

Miss Sophie and Miss Carol watching to make sure I do it right.

Preparing for Our Solar System Install

2011-08-12T18:31:00.001-05:00

On Monday, August 1st, we arrived in Missoula, Montana after leaving Yellowstone National Park area. I’d been communicating with two Solar Installation companies in the Missoula area for a couple of weeks and this was our reason for going to Missoula. After consulting with both companies, we decided to go with Oasis Montana since they had more experience with RV installation.

We stayed a week at The Square Dance Center & RV Park in Lolo, MT. just 12 miles south of Missoula. A fairly nice RV Park that catered to weekly Square Dancing events. Our accommodations weren’t the best in the world as the only sites they had available were 30amp electric, no sewer, weren’t allowed to use our Porta-Potty on wheels for dumping (you had to pay them $10 for their Honey Wagon), but fortunately our holding tanks were large enough that we made the whole week without needing to dump.

Our campsite at Square Dance Center & RV. A small trout stream running right behind the trailer.

The Office & Large Hall for square dancing.

Huge dance floor. They were conducting square dance lessons in this photo.

Prior to us coming to Missoula I did a computer design of how I wanted to use our Solar Panels. I wanted them to be portable and not permanently mounted to our roof. I wasn’t real fond of putting holes for mounting plates in our roof. Plus I wanted the Solar Panel Rack/Stand I designed to be able to pivot in order to track the suns course during the day and take full advantage of the solar energy making the system more efficient. I’d done quite a bit of research online and read a lot of comments on several solar forums & groups and pretty well figured out what we needed in the way of materials in order run our equipment when boon docking (without shore power). I decided that two 180 watt panels (total 360 watts) and a battery bank consisting of four Golf Cart Batteries along with other components would do the trick.

2 - Trina 180watt solar modules
1 - Magnum ME 2012 inverter/charger
1 - Magnum RC25 controller
1 – Tri-Star 45 MPPT solar controller
1 – Tri-Star remote meter
1 – Mid-Nite Mini-DC disconnect panel
1 - 30' Panel output cable
1 - Custom Array combiner/j-box
1 – Out-put cable quick connect plug
2 - DC breakers
1 - Lightning Protection
1 – Set 4/0 battery cables/interconnects
4 - T-105 Trojan 225amp Golf Cart Batteries

This is my computer design of the Solar Panel Rack/Stand using a aluminum square tubing frame to mount the panels to and a PVC Pipe design to hold the aluminum frame and solar panels allowing them to swivel and lock into 3 tracking positions.

I took a 3/4” flat aluminum and drilled 3/8” holes to make my guy rope locks with.

I cut the flat alum. into 8 short pieces each with 3 holes to run my braided guy rope thru.

I pieced together my PVC frame, attached 4 eye bolts at top and 4 eye bolts at the bottom for attaching the rope.

2 – 5’ upright pieces 2” PVC Pipe (2 – 2’, 2 – 3’)
2 – 2” Tee’s
2 – 2” 90’s
2 – 2” PVC Pipe 3’ long. Top one notched 1” deep to hold aluminum frame.

Notched top bar, eye bolts, guy ropes staked out in 45 degree angles to hold frame in all directions.

Rack & alum. frame in 45 degree angle for morning & afternoon sun.

Rack & alum. frame in flat position for sun at 11:00am to 2:00pm position.

New 180 watt solar panels still in package next to the picnic table work bench.

Installation of all the components for the system in the front basement area w/batteries on left side.

Back At Yellowstone

2011-07-29T19:15:00.001-05:00

One week ago today we rolled into the Yellowstone area. We had reservations at Red Cliff Campground along Hwy. 191. It was right next to the Gallatin River but turned out to be a campground we didn’t care for too much so we only stayed there 3 days. Before leaving there, we met up with my brother Don and Judy and their grandson Peyton. They came into West Yellowstone by way of Cody (East) and we came up from the South. They were staying at a campground just outside of West Yellowstone (about 9 miles west) which was 50 miles from where we were camped at Red Cliff. So we decided to move in closer in order to be able to visit more easily. We ended up 5 miles further west at River View RV Park. Driving 5 miles as opposed to 50 miles was a whole lot better considering our gas mileage.

Our campsite at River View

Our first day together, we took a day trip and drove up to Bozeman, Montana to visit the Grizzly Encounter Exhibit that has been featured on the National Geographic's Channel. They have within their exhibit some Grizzly’s that they’ve been caring for since they were cubs. The one featured on NGC is Brutus but we didn’t get to see him since his appearance time didn’t start until 2:00 pm and we arrived there when they opened at 9:00 am. We were very disappointed about not seeing Brutus but were still impressed with the others.

Massive Claws

Massive Jaws and Teeth

Left to Right: Me, Peyton, Judy, and Don

We went into West Yellowstone to a small Mexican Restaurant for lunch.

The next day we all rode into Yellowstone National Park. Don, Judy, and Peyton took their car and Miss Carol and I followed on our Scooter. What an AWESOME way to see Yellowstone. Being on the scooter with full vision of everything made you feel like you were part of the park.

This picture is for my Niece Cheryl (Mother of Peyton). Our first excursion was down a narrow one-way back road with steep sharp drop-offs on the side. It ran along some beautiful water cascades and waterfalls.

Peyton with the Upper Falls in the background.

The Upper Falls.

Twice as much water flowing over the falls as there was when we were here in 2009.

The Wild Bunch

We stopped nearby the Lower Falls and had our picnic lunch we’d packed while sitting on an old log. Our scooter in the background.

An old bump on a log.

Just Us Guy’s

Miss Carol and I decided to head back early on the scooter while Don, Judy, and Peyton went on over to Artist Point. On our way back we happened upon this magnificent Bull Elk. When we first saw him he was standing in the middle of the stream and was the perfect photo shoot. By the time we got stopped and got the camera ready, he’d moved out of the stream and started grazing. Still a good pic.

It’s now Friday and Don, Judy, and Peyton have moved on down to The Grand Teton’s and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Last night we had a hamburger cook-out and said our good-bye’s. We had a really good visit and it seems harder and harder to say good-bye. Don was not looking forward to heading back to Texas and those Triple Digit Days of August.

We will be here at Yellowstone until Monday morning when we’ll be heading to Missoula, Montana to see about having a Solar System installed on the 5th Wheel. If all goes well, we’ll be energy independent and will be able to do some boon-docking out in secluded areas. Our plan is to hang out in Northern Montana until September when the tourist crowds start to thin and come back to Yellowstone to do some serious sight-seeing.

Three Days near Idaho Falls

2011-07-25T17:55:00.001-05:00

We stayed just south of Idaho Falls in the small town of Shelley. This was a back to civilization break for us after spending two weeks in Federal Campgrounds sort of out in the boonies. We stayed at a very nice City/County Campground in Shelley. It was very clean, neat, quiet and appeared to be relatively new. It was located right on the Snake River and when looking east over the first mountain tops, you could see the majestic jagged peaks of The Great Tetons. It was nice to get back to Wal-Marts, Targets, Sams, Lowes, Home Depots, and Best Buys.

While there I was able to get caught up on some of my chores that had stacked up on me. I also started and finished a new RV Project that I’ll show later in the Post. The first day we drove into Idaho Falls (9 miles) and after finishing up on some shopping, we were headed back to Shelley when Miss Carol spotted a very interesting looking sculpture in the distance. It was running late and we needed to get back to the trailer so we saved the sculpture for the next day.

We interpreted this as being a male & female eagle both guarding their nest of two small eagles. You can see the one on the left perched just above the nest with the two little ones right below it. The other one is circling from above about to attack a predator on the other side of the rocks.

The cougar/mountain lion was climbing the rocks towards the nest and looks back to see the other eagle attacking from behind and above.

My RV Project was that I wanted to take advantage of all the space provided in our main basement storage area. I came up with the idea to use the plastic shelving that is sold in all home improvement stores. I ended up with one size from Lowe’s and another size from Home Depot.

This is a drawing I did on Microsoft Paint program of what I wanted to achieve. I had only so much space in depth & width.

The space on the left is what I had to work with. Our slide-out storage tray is on the right. It’s pulled out the opposite side to give me more working room.

Since I only had so much height to work with and I wanted 3 shelves, I had to cut all the legs in order to make it work.

I used my jig saw with a metal cutting blade to cut the plastic tube legs.

On the top shelf I used 1 inch angle aluminum strips along the edges to prevent contents from sliding off the shelves. I also used the feet that were supposed to be on the bottom on all the top corners to help hold contents.

We placed the shelves inside the space and anchored it to the walls to keep it from dumping over while going down the road.

The finished project. Loaded with our Coleman Screen Room, assorted tools, plastic containers, and some of our yard games. Our basement slide-out tray can slide out either side without interfering with the shelves.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

2011-07-09T19:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Miss Carol and I just chilled out as scattered thunder-showers were predicted all day. Sure enough it rained off and on all day with occasional lightning and thundering. Late in the afternoon as the clouds started dissipating and the sun was setting low on the horizon, the most spectacular pair of rainbows, one appeared to be a reflection of the other, formed right above the lake. It appeared you could see each end of the main one and it looked like it went right into the water. It was really an awesome site and the pictures and video don’t really do it justice but here they are. Just below is a media player for you to click on the “Play” button and enjoy one of Miss Carol’s favorite artist and song while you view the pics and video.

Trisha Yearwood - Songbook: A Collection of Hits - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Our Rainbow just before sunset 07/08/2011 at Flaming Gorge Reservoir

HOPE YOU ENJOYED

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Thursday - Stayed in Camp

2011-07-09T14:50:00.001-05:00

Thursday, Miss Carol and I stayed close to home and just enjoyed the day sitting outside and looking at the mountains that surround the campground and lake. In the afternoon, Miss Carol went on a photo-shoot taking pictures of our regular residents, a newly Mother & Father Osprey nested just north of our campsite, and a Buck Pronghorn that visits the campground every day to feed.

Campground Residents

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Male & Female Osprey on nest. Pronghorn Buck feeding in campground at Flaming Gorge Reservoir Lucerne Park.

In the evening Miss Carol started to prepare dinner. We had some left-over Ribs from my birthday dinner at Famous Dave’s back in Grand Junction and a brisket I fixed in our slow cooker. She boiled some fresh corn-on-the-cob that is just now coming into season here. Miss Carol had also whipped up some deviled eggs. She brought out her electric griddle and we warmed everything up right on the picnic table. For some left over’s it turned out really good and the fresh corn was delicious.

Fresh Corn on Cob

Almost Ready

4th of July - Road Day to Wyoming

2011-07-04T22:25:00.006-05:00

Yesterday as I began to plan our route for today, I switched my mapping program (Microsoft’s Streets & Trips) from the “Road Map” view to “Terrain” view. I quickly realized we’d be traveling thru some rugged terrain as well as what appeared to be a couple of mountain passes with pretty good elevation. Sure enough, the first pass we went over was Douglas Pass on Hwy. 139 (8400’ elev.) about 60 miles out of Grand Junction. There were a couple of sharp switchbacks with 7% and 8% grades. The second one actually doesn’t have a name as well as I can tell. It was just south of the Ashley National Forest on Hwy. 191. It’s elevation was around 86oo’. It had several switchbacks and had a continuous 8% grade for miles both up and down. It was a pretty good pull averaging only 30mph. We drove a total of 210 miles today and I believe this was the prettiest drive we’ve had in our 4 1/2 years of full-time traveling. You can check out our 2011 Travel Map on our Map Page and zoom in and see between location #9 and #10 for our route and switch it to "satellite view".

This was our first view of Flaming Gorge Reservoir when we came over the pass.

This is a huge lake several miles long. It sits right on the border of the N.E. corner of Utah and the S.W. corner of Wyoming.

Here are some more pics of Flaming Gorge.

This is from our campsite. Just shortly after arriving and getting set up, thunder storms & showers started rolling in.

We will be at this campground for at least a week. We hope to be able to dodge the thunderstorms that are forecast all week, and get some scooter riding in.

Happy 4th Everyone!!!

Farmers Market Festival Downtown Grand Junction

2011-07-02T16:53:00.001-05:00

Thursday evening Miss Carol and I drove to downtown Grand Junction to the Farmers Market Festival on Main Street. It should have been named the Arts & Crafts Festival as it had very few Produce Vendors and the ones that were there maybe one had home grown vegetable. Even with that, it was still a fun experience. There were lots of Sculptured Art on every city corner. There were lots of food vendors as well. Miss Carol and I enjoyed a crepe wrap from a booth that appeared to be run by Amish or Mennonites. The crepe wrap had green chili’s, tomatoes, onions, shredded cheese, and sour crème. It appeared to be the most popular food vendor as the line was half a block long. It was worth the wait.

The following is a short video clip of a singer entertainer that we thought had a good unique sound. He had a pretty good audience watching and listening to him.

Grand Junction Farmers Market Festival

The 4th will be a Road Day for us. We’ll either end up in Utah, Wyoming, or Idaho.

Happy 4th of July Everyone ! ! !

Day Trip through the Colorado National Monument

2011-07-01T22:45:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, Miss Carol and I decided to take a day trip through the Colorado National Monument. It was only about an eight mile drive from the RV Park to the East Gate Entrance. Earlier that morning around 9:00 I passed the kidney stone so I wasn’t too afraid to venture out and us do some exploring. The stone was every bit of the 5mm estimation. In appearance, it was the largest one I’d ever passed. I quit counting the number of kidney stones I’ve passed when I reached 200 two years ago.

This is a very pretty park with a lot of resemblance to the Moab, Utah area. We drove the 23 mile Rim Rock Road all the way to the west entrance over by Fruita, CO.

As you can see on the map (click on map to enlarge it), all along the Rim Rock Road, there are lots of scenic pull-outs with very picturesque overlooks.

This view is above the Devils Kitchen area looking back towards Grand Junction. That trail used to be a road!!!

Miss Carol at Cold Shivers Point. Grand Junction in the valley in the background.

That would be me with Miss Carol.

This is Miss Carol being cute and trying to make me nervous.

It worked.

We continued driving along the Rim Rock Road stopping at all the turn-outs and taking pictures.

I think this one is my favorite.

All day we had thunderstorms blowing in from the west over the mountains and we managed to dodge most of them. We did have a brief hail storm and thank goodness it was only pea size.

After driving about 18 of the 23 miles, Carol and I both needed a potty break so we stepped up our pace for the Visitors Center. While there, I passed another kidney stone. It wasn’t quite as big as the first one.

This is Independence Monument for which the park is named. It is a tradition every 4th of July for climbers to scale the Rock and plant U.S. Flags at the top followed by a large fireworks display.

Another great view with the rain storm moving in on the valley.

After about 4 hours we decided to head back to the trailer. We did this on a whim and didn’t take anything for lunch and both of us were starting to get hungry. Shortly after arriving back at the trailer and having lunch, I passed another kidney stone. I hope this is all for a while or better yet, the last one forever. But I know that ain’t going to happen.

The Rolling Stones

2011-06-27T18:26:00.001-05:00

NO !!! Not the Rock Band.

We’re talking about Kidney Stones. The tiny little jagged pieces of rock that forms in the kidneys from eating too much Blue Bell ice cream. If you can imagine trying to force a basketball through the eye of a needle, then you’ve got some idea of what the stone feels like passing through the Ureter Tube to the bladder.

Our plans were to leave Blue Mesa Lake by Gunnison this morning and drive 360+ miles to Flaming Gorge, Wyoming by this afternoon. Well, things don’t always go according to plan. All day yesterday, I felt the nagging irritating pain in the left kidney area. I struggled with it all day until about 8:00 pm when I finally told Miss Carol I was going to have to go to the emergency room at the Hospital in Gunnison. We got there in about 20 minutes and I have to say, the emergency room staff got me checked in and hooked up to an I.V. and shot some REALLY GOOD pain medicine into my arm in record time. I told Miss Carol that I don’t ever remember being taken care of that quick. That pain medicine had me feeling soooo goooood, I didn’t care how much of that gravel was coming down.

They did a C-Scan, x-rays, lab work, etc. and determined that there was a 5mm stone trying to make its way through. The doctor wanted us to stay close by and get with a urologist and do a follow-up in 3 to 4 days and monitor the stones movement until it passed. After explaining to him our situation that our reservation was up, at the current campground and no further room at the inn, we were having to leave this morning. So, he got on the phone and made arrangements with a urology clinic here in Grand Junction. So when we arrived here today, Miss Carol got in contact with them and made all the necessary arrangements. We’re going to be here a week and see what happens.

Here is an interesting experience that happened last night at the emergency room. They took me in for the C Scan and recorded it. It being a Sunday, they didn’t have a Radiologist on staff 24-7 and one wasn’t available that night. So, they transmitted my C Scan imagery all the way to Australia by means of a program called Night Hawk for a Radiologist there to read and diagnose my images. So this was sent half way around the world (there, it was middle of the day) with lots of help standing around and sent back to Gunnison Colorado with results in less than 30 minutes. Isn’t Technology great????

So, now here we sit in Grand Junction just waiting to see what happens. Hey, it’s not that bad, tomorrow’s my birthday and Miss Carol told me she is taking me to “Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que” for rib dinner tomorrow night. We also just found out there is a “Which Wich” here and we’ll be visiting it a couple of times before we leave here. If you haven’t had a Which Wich Sandwich yet, you’re missing out.

Our Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Trip

2011-06-25T21:36:00.001-05:00

Thursday we drove 50 miles west of our campground to the Black Canyon National Park. It’s located west of Gunnison about 70 miles and east of Montrose about 20 miles just off Hwy. 50.

We drove the truck instead of the scooter because the wind has been getting up in the afternoons and we didn’t want to have to fight that all the way back. It’s a good thing we did because after driving the rim road we were able to go down the River Access Road all the way to the bottom and it was mostly 16% grade and I’m not sure the scooter would have handled that.

Miss Carol and I both had the same opinion that Black Canyon is just as spectacular as the Grand Canyon on the first view of it. Just not on a “Grand” scale. Get it? Grand (Grand Canyon). Ha Ha. Black Canyon is not quite as deep and definitely not as wide as the Grand Canyon. But its narrow sheer cliff walls in excess of 2000’ makes it very impressive.

Upon arrival we stopped at the Visitor Center and watered and walked the dogs before exploring the area. We looked at all the souvenir tourist trap stuff then proceeded on out the back door to an observation deck. WOW!!! what a first impression it has on you.

Visitors Center from observation deck.

Observation deck from Visitors Center

Don’t be deceived by this picture!!! It’s over 2000’ from the tops of these cliffs to the river below. That is the Gunnison River and it’s larger than it appears and it’s white rapids all the way through.

The Painted Wall is the highest cliff in Colorado. From river to rim it stands 2250 feet (685 meters), and is 1000 feet (304 meters) taller than the Empire State Building.

This is a shot of the Painted Wall from the top. The veins of coloration you see are called “Fissures”. They were originally cracks in the rock over 2 billion years ago and molten lava seeped upward through the cracks filling in between the rocks forming this appearance.

Just about every turn of the Rim Road were views similar to this. If you’ve never been to Black Canyon of the Gunnison Nat. Park, you need to. It’s an awesome experience.

“Miss Carol”

“Boywonder”

After exploring all along the Rim Road and experiencing all the scenic pull-outs we headed down the River Access Road to the bottom.

The River Access Road was a series of switchback turns and 16% grade going down and back up. That tiny spec on the road in the center of the pic is an full-size SUV just to put things into perspective.

This is the view from the Canyon Floor (river) looking back up the top of the canyon.

Just For Grins !!!

I just had to put in this next picture just for the fun of it. When we got up this morning and walked outside we had new neighbors. When we first saw this, we thought we’d been magically transported back into the 70’s. What a COOL set up. Vintage Airstream trailer & Chrysler Town & Country Station Wagon.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison Boat Tour

2011-06-23T19:16:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Miss Carol and I participated in the Black Canyon Boat Tour that takes place twice a day with a morning or afternoon departure. We opted for the morning one and cooler temps. We took the scooter down to the trailhead from our campground last week to gauge how long it would take us to get there and walk down the long trail to the launch area and determined we needed to leave at least an hour before launch time of 10:00. It ended up we needed the whole hour as the trail was not an easy navigation.

Miss Carol at trailhead. This part wasn’t too bad with some easy concrete steps.

A beautiful stream followed us all the way down the trail to bottom of the Canyon. 260+ steps along the way.

This was our first glimpse of the bottom of the Canyon. About 1/2 way down.

Once we reached the bottom, we had about a 3/4 mile hike along this narrow trail to the launch area. This trail was originally where the narrow gauge railroad ran along the Gunnison River.

Our tour boat was a 42 passenger pontoon boat. We had a Captain of the boat and a Park Ranger that narrated the tour.

The Black Canyon contains some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth. Precambrian, or “basement” rock, is nearly 2 billion years old.

Black Canyon is home to the fastest bird in the world, the Peregrine falcon. Scientists estimate that Peregrines can reach speeds of over 200 mph in an aerial dive.

The Gunnison River through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park drops at an average of 95 feet per mile. By comparison, the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park drops an average of 7.5 feet per mile.

The Great Rocky Mountains, Great Friends, Great Food, Great Day

2011-06-20T20:53:00.001-05:00

Saturday, Miss Carol and I had made arrangements to meet up with a couple of old friends, George and Linda Allison from back when I was on the Fire Dept. in Ft. Worth. I had worked with George (Baby George) several years at Station 17 and have been friends ever since. You might ask, Baby George???? , what does that mean? Well, on the Fire Dept. I’d say at least 50% of us (me included, “boywonder”) had nick names pinned on us usually while we were still rookies. I’m not real sure when Baby George got his nickname because he had it when I met him when I was transferred to Station 17 from Station 10. I was a little younger than him and he sort of “took me under his wing”. At the time, there were two George’s and two Charles’s at 17’s. There was an old lieutenant there, George Henderson, so to keep down on the confusion, George got crowned as “Baby George”.

The two Charles’s were Charles Edwards and myself. We were both on the same shift and every time one of us would get a phone call, they’d yell out, “Charles, phone!” and inevitably, both of us would go to the phone. So it was determined, something had to change. So it did, my name. I was crowned as Wonder Boy which was shortly changed to Boy Wonder, then quickly changed to B.W. Over the years, I got to where I didn’t even answer to my real name. Matter of fact, the Chief of the Fire Dept. only knew me as B.W.

Enough on nicknames, now back to our visit with Baby George and Linda. We got to their place around 11:00am and when we arrived, I realized I didn’t know what site number they were in. So we stopped at the office and the manager asked me if he could help me. I said, “yes, I’m looking for George Allison”. His reply was, “What do you want with that ol’ fart?” My reply was, “Sounds like you know him pretty well.” We found their site and we visited and chatted for a while. Then George fired up his grill and Linda started bringing out the fixin’s. We had grilled hamburgers with all the trimmings. I’ve got to say, those may very well be the best hamburgers we’ve ever eaten. Those burgers hadn’t even settled yet when George broke out a freezer of homemade fresh strawberry ice cream. Now it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Left to Right: Linda, Miss Carol, Baby George

Miss Carol sitting, waiting on the burgers

George & Linda’s motorhome and jeep

This is the view from their front windows.

After all the food settled George wanted to know if we wanted to go on a sight-seeing trip in the jeep so off we went. He took us over a road that I think eventually ends up in Silverton, not sure. He said it was an old road that the stagecoaches used long ago. These pics don’t do it justice as you really can’t tell how narrow, rough, and curvy it is along with the steep drop offs to the side.

The following pics are some of the scenery along the way.

This is a pic of a place that was for sale. It had its own private waterfall. You can click on any of the pics to enlarge and zoom in.

The picture on the right down in the beautiful valley is of a beautiful log lodge with natural and man made lakes surrounding it along with the river flowing by from melted snow. This lodge is owned by Bass Pro Shops for the use of corporate meetings and outings. Now I know where all that money I’ve spent on fishing tackle and lures has gone and that it was put to good use. You’d think the least they would do is let us stay there a few days. ha ha.

We drove just a little ways past this camping area and turned around and headed back down the mountain. By the time we got back to George and Linda’s campsite, it was time for us to head back to ours. We had a wonderful time visiting with wonderful friends.

Scooter Ride along Blue Mesa

2011-06-17T15:14:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we took a scooter ride over to the mouth of Black Canyon just below the dam of Blue Mesa Reservoir at Morrow Point. We have an appointment next Wednesday morning for a 1 and 1/2 hour boat tour on the Gunnison River down the Black Canyon leaving from Morrow Point and we wanted to check it out before hand. It was a short trip of only 12 miles one way but very scenic.

We hadn’t ridden much more than a mile when we came around a curve, and standing right in the middle of the highway was a Big Horn sheep. What an awesome surprise. We stopped the scooter as quickly as possible moving onto the shoulder to grab a picture. Before we could get the camera out of the saddlebag an 18 wheeler came blasting by and spooked the Big Horn off the highway and sent it scurrying up the side of a mound out of sight. BUMMER

Here are a few pics along Hwy 50 to and from Morrow Point and at the trail head where we have to go down 260+ steps to the water front next week.

This picture was taken shortly after seeing the Big Horn.

This is one of at least 3 bridges that cross the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

This is the Trail Head for Morrow Point Boat Tour (next week).

Miss Carol at Trail Head

On the way back to the trailer Miss Carol snapped this pretty pic from the back of the scooter while going down the road.

Slideshow of Trip from Lake George to Gunnison

2011-06-15T22:08:00.001-05:00

This is just a few pictures of our trip on Hwy 24 to Hwy 285 to Hwy 50 over Monarch Pass and into Gunnison then onto Elk Creek Campground on Blue Mesa Lake. Blue Mesa Lake is the largest body of water in the State of Colorado.

Unexpected Layover with A Good Ending

2011-06-12T18:18:00.002-05:00

We left Woodland Park, CO. on Friday morning with a destination just west of Gunnison, CO. at the Curecanti National Recreation Area on Blue Mesa Reservoir at the Elk Creek Campground.
Flashback: About 3 weeks ago I took our F-450 into the Ford Dealer in Colorado Springs because it started stalling whenever I’d try to accelerate. The problem was the high pressure oil pump which also helps the fuel injection process somehow. While the service tech was checking me in, he discovered on his computer, that there was a recall for the truck. It took them 2 days to fix the H.P. Oil Pump since it required taking the Cab completely off the chassis. The recall was just a software update. The service tech didn’t really explain what the software update consisted of and I didn’t really ask for details figuring I probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Just as soon as we pulled out onto the highway, the “Cleaning Exhaust Filter” notification lit up on the dash’s information window. Didn’t think anything about it as this is a common occurrence while driving. It normally goes off after about 11 miles. I always monitor my gauges looking for something unusual to occur. We had driven 30 miles and the Exhaust Filter notification was still on as we approached Wilkerson Pass. So we pulled into the Visitor Center there to check things out.

Upon getting out of the truck, Miss Carol and I both became aware of an odor of something overheated. I told Miss Carol we’d just stay here for a while and let things cool down then check to see if the exhaust notice was out once we restart the engine. So she took Sophie and Joe for a walk up along a trail above the visitor center and came upon a spectacular view that we’d not yet seen as we didn’t quite make it over the summit.

When the truck had cooled down we started it up and the light was still on. It was over 100 miles to a Ford Dealer if we continued west so we decided to backtrack towards Woodland Park and try to get it into the dealer in Colorado Springs on Monday. After driving about 6 miles we came back into Lake George and spotted an RV Park ( Travel Port Campground) and decided to check it out for an open spot. They accommodated us with a nice spot, told us about their Saturday Pot Luck Dinner, and were extremely friendly.

Once we got set up and got a satellite connection, I immediately got online and started researching the Ford Powerstroke Forum and the Power Stroke Forum on Yahoo Groups for anything related to the Cleaning Exhaust Filter cycle. It didn’t take me too long to find out that the latest recall that I just had done pertained to the filter cleaning. All the symptoms that we’d experienced were normal and I had either over-reacted or was overly cautious.

So, we decided to stay over the weekend and get a fresh start Monday morning. It’s hard not to be paranoid while towing these big rigs as there are so many things that can go wrong. We don’t mind the delay as we had an awesome Pot Luck dinner and with a view like this out your picture window………….

We’ll be leaving in the morning and will have to go up, over, and down Monarch Pass at 11,200 feet elevation with a long 6% grade up and down. After tomorrow we’ll know for sure if everything is working ok.

Scooter Trip to Cripple Creek

2011-06-06T20:40:00.001-05:00

This morning Miss Carol needed to make a trip to the local Veterinarian for some doggie supplies. The Vet is located about half way between Woodland Park, where we’re staying, and Divide (west of Woodland Park). I told her I was thinking about us making a run over to Cripple Creek before we leave here on Friday. So she started putting things together (small cooler w/soft drinks and peanut-butter crackers). I grabbed the camera and we loaded everything into the saddlebags on the scooter and headed out around 11:00 am. We stopped off at the Vet on the way so as to keep Miss Carol happy. We arrived in Cripple Creek a little after 12:00 noon.

On our way there we encountered some pretty strong wind gusts as we topped some of the higher peaks. This always makes Miss Carol a nervous rider. I swear, sometimes she squeezes me with her legs so hard, I’m afraid its going to cut off the blood circulation to my brain and cause me to pass out. We rode along a very scenic highway 67 along the mountain sides through dense trees and sometimes we got so much elevation, we were above the tree line. I think the highest we got was around 10,300 ft. above sea level. Every now and then we could see Pikes Peak off to the east of us. It still has snow on it at the upper elevations.

Cripple Creek is an old Gold Mining Town. All the old building of the downtown area are now either a Casino, a Novelty Shop, or a place to eat. A lot of the buildings date back to the 1800’s.

It being a Monday and early in the day, there was not a lot of action going on. We walked back to our scooter and grabbed our snacks and drinks and found us a bench in the shade and chowed down and people watched. After that we walked up to The Brass Ass Casino and I couldn’t resist giving some of my money away on the Crap Table. Miss Carol managed to snap a couple of quick photos of me before the Pit Boss came over and told her not to use the camera inside the Casino. She knew that, but wanted some pics of me on the table anyway. Those of you who know Miss Carol, if you tell her not to do something, she’s gonna do it anyway.

That’s me in the Texas Longhorn cap. If you look close, you can see, there’s not many chips in the rail in front of me. Although, at one time, I had doubled my original investment only to give it all back to them before I left the table.

Since the action was so slow, they were only operating on half the table. We cashed in a few remnant chips at the cashiers cage, got back on the scooter and headed back to Woodland Park.

Picnic at Trout Haven

2011-05-15T14:54:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Miss Carol and I took a day trip with Daughter Heather, her husband Luke, and our youngest Granddaughter Claire. We drove west from Woodland Park out past the small town of Divide, then to an RV Community known as Trout Haven.

Trout Haven sits in mountainous terrain with spacious rv sites sprinkled throughout. From there you can look eastward for a spectacular view of Pikes Peak. Most of the RV sites have electric & water hookups. Further back and higher up, the sites are primitive. As you drive from the lower gated entrance up to the highest point drivable and to the back section of the community, you drive along a long and winding gravel road that runs along a series of stair-stepped lakes that lay between the mountain on both sides. The lakes have been stocked with rainbow trout, brown trout, smallmouth bass, and walleye. Each lake has its own name and has at least two picnic tables provided. I didn’t count the exact number of lakes but I’d guess there to be at least 12 to 15.

Here is a Slideshow of our day at Trout Haven.

We really had a great time enjoying being with family and the outdoors. We knew that the days’ forecast called for afternoon showers and snow flurries and sure enough around 2:00pm we could see the sky changing back to the north and the air getting cooler and cooler. After we caught a few trout, we decided we’d better pack up and head on back before the storms moved in. We got back to the trailer and it began to sprinkle with a few snow flakes mixed in. By late afternoon, it changed totally to light snow and continued through the night. We woke up this morning to about an inch and a half accumulation. Miss Carol and I sat and had our morning coffee and just took in the beautiful view.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2011-05-11T16:32:00.000-05:00

Wow, can things change with just a few thousand feet of elevation. Woke with the sound of light rain in the middle of the night and it suddenly stopped. Miss Carol thought to herself, “Wow, the rain didn’t last long”. When she got up around 6:00am to take Joe & Sophie out for relief, this is what she saw and this explains why she didn’t hear the rain continuing on during the night.

7:00 am

12:00 Noon

The National Weather Service is now predicting accumulations of 8” of snow. It’s supposed to continue through today, tonight, and tomorrow.

The deer in this area are not afraid of humans as they are protected by law and ordinances. They will practically walk right up to you

Small Fishing Lake near Woodland Park

Joe Cocker and Sophie experiencing the snow with Miss Carol.

Helloooo Puebloooo & Slopperz

2011-05-07T14:04:00.004-05:00

Tuesday was a Road Day for us as we left Canyon, Texas and Palo Duro Canyon and headed north then west to Pueblo, CO. We drove a total of 365 miles and my butt felt every mile of it. We got an early start for us leaving at 7:30am and we arrived in Pueblo West, CO. at 3:30pm. Miss Carol and I both were past ready to be here. Joe and Sophie had a nice relaxing trip in their rear seat high-rise condo.

Now, this is (two) toooooo cute !!!!!!

We pre-selected our RV Park sight unseen prior to our trip and that’s what we got…. un-sceanly sight. We are at Pueblo West Campground and we would not recommend this to anyone unless for just an over-night quick in and quick out stay. It’s 99% permanent/long-term residents and it looks like most have been here for years. I’ve discovered that it used to be named Horseman’s RV Park and since changed due to probably bad reviews. It sits right in the middle of Horse boarding stables and a riding arena. Now don’t get me wrong, if smelling horse dung 24 hours a day is your thing, then this is the place for you. Only good things I can say about it is it’s less than a mile to the Wal-Mart Supercenter, the view of Pikes Peak is nice, and the rates are cheap as is the RV Park.

This is our view of Pikes Peak out our large back window. Sort of. I had to do some cropping.

On Thursday, Miss Carol and I drove down to Pueblo about 10 east of Pueblo West to do some sight-seeing, shopping, and to do lunch out. We were told of a “must do” in Pueblo and it’s the “Green Chili’s Slopperz” that all the restaurants in Pueblo compete against one another for the title of “Best Slopperz”. So, we went to the place where it all started, “Gray’s Coors Tavern” on 4th Ave.

“Slopper”

A slopper is a cheeseburger (or hamburger) served smothered in red chile or green chile or chile sauce. Sloppers generally include grilled buns and are often topped with freshly chopped onions and sometimes french fries. Eating a slopper requires using a fork or spoon; a fork and knife, or fork and spoon, combination is recommended.
The slopper is served in restaurants and taverns in the Pueblo and Colorado Springs area of Colorado.

It has been determined that the slopper originated in Pueblo, Colorado in the early to mid-1970s. The first restaurant to serve the slopper is undetermined. Some claim that it was first served in Gray's Coors Tavern, while others insist that it originated at Star Bar. According to a version of Gray's Coors Tavern's website, the slopper originated there in the 1950s. The same site also claims that the name slopper was derived from a comment by a customer stating that the dish looked like slop. The website attributes the creation of the slopper to brothers Johnnie and Joe Greco, who had previously owned the tavern.
Sloppers were featured in a Travel Channel television show Food Wars episode "Pueblo -- The Slopper" (2010). The show interviewed persons involved in restaurants which serve sloppers, as well as Juan Espinosa, a former editor of the Pueblo Chieftain. Espinosa discussed the slopper's origin, attributing it to the Greco brothers who owned Gray's Tavern. Espinosa said that a customer of Gray's Tavern named Herb was dissatisfied with the amount of chili on his chiliburger, and to quell Herb, his burger was covered in chili (probably intended as an exaggerated and exasperated maneuver), and it became a delighted new serving suggestion.

Yesterday Museum, Today the Canyon

2011-05-02T21:17:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, since the weather turned cold/windy on us, we took advantage and toured the PPHM (Panhandle Plains History Museum) in Canyon, TX. What an experience. The building sits on the campus of West Texas A&M University and is three stories in height. Kind of modest looking from the outside, but what a change once you enter the door. I describe it as “The Little Smithsonian”.

You could easily spend a full day in this one building. Since it was Sunday, the museum didn’t open until 1:00pm and closed at 6:00pm, so we had to move through it at a pretty good pace. I don’t think our legs and backs could have stood a whole day anyway.

Once again, I forgot to charge the battery on the camera and shortly after entering the front door and my 3rd picture, the camera quit. I did manage to get a pic of Miss Carol checking out an exhibit.

Since we took somewhere around a 100 pictures of the Palo Duro Canyon aka: Little Grand Canyon just south of Amarillo, TX. We thought we’d just put a short slideshow together of some of the better shots. The pictures say it all. Hope you enjoy.

Great to be Rollin’ Again

2011-05-01T11:37:00.001-05:00

Day before yesterday we left our friends at San Saba after 4 great days of visiting at the Retired Ft. Worth Fire Fighters Spring Thang. The temperatures that week was in the 90’s and winds in the upper 20 mph. We arrived at the Abilene State Park in Buffalo Gap, TX around 2:00pm and set up in the upper 90’s temp. Winds still blowing. I’ve never seen the wind blow like it has this year. It must have something to do with this El Niño’ weather pattern. Yesterday we loaded up early and headed out for Canyon, TX. and Palo Duro Canyon. The temps were somewhat cooler as a cold front had passed through. We drove for about 9 hours including an hour layover in Lubbock at the Wal-Mart Supercenter to stock up some necessities and I went ahead and topped off the two fuel tanks since these prices are going up daily. It’s sad when you pay $3.90 a gallon and you’re glad to get it for that.

When we turned north off of I-20 at Sweetwater (The Wind Capitol of the World), we then had a head wind to battle all the way to Canyon. Sweetwater is covered up with wind turbines. We started seeing them long before we got to Sweetwater and after turning north on Hwy. 84, we had them on both sides of the highway for miles and miles.

I can’t seem to figure out who is benefitting from these generators as I haven’t noticed the electric rates going down any.

When we got to Canyon, it was very pleasant with the temp in the lower 70’s and the wind was only around 10mph. This morning we awoke to thunder, light rain, winds in excess of 30mph and a wind chill of 31 degrees. WOW!!! What a change. As we sat at our dining area table eating our bowl of oatmeal and looking out our windows, we could see tumbling, tumbling, tumbleweeds go by. Sort of reminds me of an old song.

Our plans today were to go out and tour Palo Duro Canyon and leave in the morning, but since the weather soured, we’re going to go into Canyon and visit the Panhandle Plains Museum. We’ll stay an extra day and visit the Canyon tomorrow and leave on Tuesday.