Trytokeepup.blog

We left Arizona the first week of June as the weather was starting to heat up (as if it had ever cooled down). The temps were already in the triple digits. Our last night was spent visiting with Brett, Callie, Eric and Rikki. Brett and Callie were so funny. They kept referring to us as their divorced friends and they were going to have to spend more time with their new friends. It’s great to have friends. Our plans were to be on the road for about 3 months and we had plenty on the calendar to stay busy.

Our first stop was in Flagstaff. Black Bart’s RV park is one of our favorites. The Steakhouse is a great place to eat. Delicious food and the serving staff are all entertainers as well. Solos, duets, groups they all take part in non-stop singing while taking excellent care of the diners. We met with my sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Bill, for dinner and had a great evening.

One of the challenges of living full-time on the road is being able to take care of the things that would be quite simple if we were stationary but create logistical challenges when traveling. In this case, the Jeep windshield had been hit with a rock on the Phoenix freeways just a day or 2 before we left. In this case, I was able to get an appointment with Safelite Auto Glass in Flagstaff and had the windshield repaired while we were there. No stopover is complete without a bike ride and hike.

Our destination at this time was Rock Springs, WY to participate in the Escapees RV Club Escapade. More about this in the next couple of paragraphs. Along the way, we stopped to take in the sights. Glendale, UT was the next stop. This town is north of Kanab, UT and west of St George, UT. We stayed at the Bauer’s Canyon Ranch RV Park. A family run RV park. Upon checking in we were greeted by a high school aged young lady and her younger brother. They provided us with all the information we required to get set up and gave us information on a hike near the area. So we loaded up in the Jeep and drove about 15 minutes south of town to the Belly of the Dragon cave. This is a short hike. It is a cave that has been worn by wind and water with the highway built above it. As you stand at the entrance to the cave, you can’t see the light from the other end and the large swirls on the walls look like you are about to go spiraling into the belly. As you walk through, you start to see light at the other end. As you exit you find yourself in a sandy wash. We continued up the wash until we reached a dry waterfall about 50 ft high. We climbed to the top of the waterfall and could have continued up the wash but decided we had seen enough.

We drove back into town to get refreshments. The main highway runs through the center of town with small businesses facing the highway. We stopped in at a small cafe to grab a bite to eat. A young man about 7 years old took our pie and ice cream order. His older brother about 12ish showed him how to ring it up on the register. The pies were homemade and delicious. While we sat and ate, I noticed a lot of paintings on the rock wall above the town. I was informed that each graduating class would paint the year of their graduation on the rock face. The numbers went back into the 60’s.

Next we stopped in at the grocery store. 2 high school aged young women checked us out and made small talk. These observations were striking to me. When I left working at the college, I was surprised that college-aged adults had trouble speaking with people (they didn’t know what to say, wouldn’t ask questions) and were afraid to work in a customer service environment without a security guard sitting next to them and certainly couldn’t handle any kind of confrontation, no matter how small. These young people were quite interactive with the customers and were problem solvers. The world needs more young people like these.

The next day we completed a workout in the motorhome and then went for a biking/hiking excursion. I had planned out a route that I could ride and Teri could hike using several mapping tools. What an adventure this turned out to be. On the maps, it looked like we were going to be on forest service type roads. Instead they were 4×4 trails that went through the cow pastures, through the trees all the while climbing up the mountain. At each crest we thought we were at the top only to see the path continuing to climb. Some of the path was so steep, I couldn’t pedal up it and walked with Teri. We finally reached the top and descended back to camp. We only covered 5.5 miles but it took us 2.5 hours to do it. Normally, this would be about an hour bike ride. We were worn out. Teri said she would never follow one of my routes again. Hahaha.

As we drove out of town, I was amazed at the valley we were driving through. The valley was formed between tall rock faces over 100 ft high and was anywhere from 1/4 mile to 1 mile wide and the road ran through the middle. The area was largely agricultural with cows grazing in fields and other fields of hay.

Our next stop was Draper, UT. This is a town/city about 1/2 way between Provo and Salt Lake City. The park is in the center of the city along the freeway. The park streets were narrow as were the spaces. The one thing we noticed as we traveled through Utah was the lack of trash along the city streets and highways. We also didn’t see any panhandlers on street corners. We didn’t sit around though. We took the time to hike up to the Bear Canyon Suspension Bridge. The bridge is located on one of the hills that overlooks Draper and spans a deep gorge that had a beautiful river running through it.

We finally arrived in Rock Springs, WY where we intended to spend the week. The Escapade event was being held at the Sweetwater Events Complex and RV park. The complex is the county fairgrounds, rodeo arena, auto racing, jamborees and any number of other events that might be held in the area. It was huge. We checked in and were escorted to our parking site. We had plenty of room for the RV and Jeep and we watched as other attendees parked their rigs as well. We made our way to the Hospitality Room to obtain our goody bags and confirm our reservations for the Flaming Gorge tour at the end of the week. As we walked into the room we were greeted by a number of vendor tables all designed to entice us to be involved with other events. Next we stopped in at the Marketplace. This was a room filled with vendors selling everything from kitchen utensils to Alaska RV trips to coach cleaning supplies. It was an RV festival. As we checked the schedule of events, we noticed that each day was filled with seminars about RVing. Topics included washing your RV, maintaining, repairing the RV, necessities and gadgets for an RV, cruises and tours. There were pickleball lessons each day for an hour that they had to expand the time for the lessons which reduced the amount of court time for free play. We were unable to take advantage of this. Of course, the majority of the seminars were being presented by the vendors. (You can make your own conclusions from here). Of course throughout the day on the schedule were social times as well. Each of these were focused on food, drinks, alcohol and evening music. Nowhere in the schedule were there events for doing things fun and exciting. We felt very out of our element. We had hoped there would be time for fising, biking, hiking, exploring, etc with others. All we saw were people sitting around talking about things that could be done, but no one was doing anything. Travel around the event center was conducted by walking (very few people were doing this), hopping on the golf cart shuttles or riding bicycles. Of course they were eBikes and nobody was pedaling. The throttles got plenty of use. We arrived on Saturday and planned to stay until the following Sunday. I got out for 2 bike rides and we got in a workout. Then we decided this just wasn’t fun for us and we checked out. The Flaming Gorge tour that we signed up for? They were going to load us all onto tour buses, drive us to the Flaming Gorge, let us off to eat our sack lunch and look into a large canyon and drive us back. It had the feel of a high school field trip. We decided if we wanted to see the Flaming Gorge we could do it at our leisure at another time. This decision made room for 2 others from the waiting list to attend.
One of the things we noted about this area was that it was windy and cold. The winds were 20-40 mph on Tuesday and the morning temp was 34 degrees. Quite a change from Arizona and even Utah. We were on the road on Wednesday morning at 7am with 43 degrees.

However, even though the event wasn’t our style, we didn’t sit around while there and made the most of our personal time. While driving through the town of Rock Springs, we stumbled on a car show. There were cars of all shapes, styles, colors and one car could be heard for blocks. And he liked to rev the engine! The street had been closed for 2 blocks for the cars to be lined up on either side of the street. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the food trucks.
On one of my rides, I discovered a very unhappy red tailed hawk sitting in her nest. She was very unhappy with my proximity. I also noticed couple other hawks flying overhead as though they were ready to strafe me. The folks in Rock Springs are very daring in their bike route designs as one of the trails I was on was precariously close to the edge of a 75 ft drop off. It was so narrow, I didn’t even try to ride it. As I walked it, the right side of the handlebars were hanging over air.

**** We later learned that the whole purpose of the Escapade is about education, networking and socializing and not about activities. There is a different program for activities called the Escapees Hangouts. See the upcoming August Blog *****

Throughout our travels we like to take our time while driving and stop and smell the roses, so to speak. In this case after we left Rock Springs we stopped at the Echo Canyon Rest Area in northern Utah. There is a tribute to President Dwight D Eisenhower for his foresight in developing a freeway system. There is also a nice tribute to the settlers and developers of the area. The folks who built the roads, the railroad, the telegraph and even the oxen that carried them. As we wandered the rest area, we found it was littered with ground squirrels who were eager to grab up any food lying on the ground. They wouldn’t eat from our hands (how did we figure that out?) but they weren’t afraid of humans.

Snowville, UT is the last town before the Idaho border. No stoplights, 2 stop signs (1 north, 1 south) at Main St along with a truck stop, gas station, 2 diners and an RV park. The area was primarily rolling hills with hay fields, cattle and horses spotting the hillsides. This is also the home of the Golden Spike Historical Park. This is where the Central Pacific RR from Sacramento,CA met up with the Union Pacific RR from Omaha, NE. There is an interpretive trail that allows you to walk along the rail beds where trains once traveled that are now just walking trails. They story of the RR in this area is one of a waste of resources, time and money. There had not been any oversight of the project and each of the RR had surveyed their own route toward the meeting point only to learn they had overlapped each other by a lot of miles. Then they had to decide which route to eventually complete in order to complete the RR. I learned that the federal mandate is that no RR grade can exceed 2%. Along the walk we saw the Big Fill and the remains of the Trestle. The Trestle was built by the Central Pacific RR to span a wide gorge. The story is that it was so hastily built and not the most secure that the trestle would sway when the train crossed over. The Big Fill was the Union Pacific RR’s answer to the same gorge. They brought in loads of dirt to fill the gorge. The Big Fill was the eventual winner and where the RR tracks were run. We also came across a shelter cave. This is a cave where men might have sheltered during a storm, spent the night, and/or supplies were stored to include dynamite.

This area is also the home of the Northrop Grumman Space Rocket facility. We did not tour this facility, but did stop at the entrance to view and photograph the rockets on display. Driving along the highway it is possible to see all the bunkers littering the hill landscape.

Mountain Home, ID was a bike ride through the rolling hills. Man, was it hot.

If Pendleton strikes a bell with you, you are probably familiar with the Pendleton Wool products. Pendleton, OR is the home of Pendleton Woolen Mills. We stopped to walk through the store with all the intricately designed and woven products and even bought some clothes. We were unable to schedule a tour. Our stay at the KOA was pleasant but found the sites were a bit on the small size for our outfit. The grass at the site was watered every afternoon so we couldn’t leave the chairs out but we had a wonderful view of the valley.
We spent some time in town even embarking on the Underground Tour. We have done other underground tours of other cities and found this one as interesting in comparison. It was an interesting history lesson. The underground had served as a place for folks to play cards and drink and socialize, especially during prohibition. It was also used to house Chinese laborers, a Chinese laundry and Speakeasy’s. Dinner that night was at a newly opened Flying X Speakeasy Lounge. The owners had built part of the underground into a very luxurious looking restaurant and the food was delicious. We also learned that every year the City will contract with local ranchers to graze their goats along the river bank to they keep the grass mowed.

We took a short drive to La Grande where we hiked biked. The area was amazing with green grass, trees, and steep fun trails. While I had been riding in the area, I came across a gentleman who was doing trail maintenance. He suggested I stop in and see Marc, so we did. We stopped in at Mountain Works bicyles where we met the manager Marc and had a great visit discussing mountain biking in Oregon and Arizona. On the way back to Pendleton we came across an historic bridge, the Upper Perry Bridge. The architecture was one of the more innovative designs of the era and spans the river and the railroad.

This summer trip had a few priorities. One priority was to ride all the race courses I plan to race next spring. The first race course was in Echo, OR, a small, historical town along the OR trail located in rolling hills of grass. Much of the trail had not been maintained recently so it was overgrown with grass 3+ ft high. The trail was barely visible through the grass. Then the trail led up onto the ridge lines with views of grass for miles. The trail builders had seen it prudent to build a crossover bridge where 2 of the trails intersected.

Next stop was Redmond, OR. There’s not much in Redmond, but it was close to Bend and Sisters where I rode 2 race courses. One was a 50 miler and it took me all day to complete and yes, the white stuff is snow. Sisters is a very welcoming community with lots of small diners, bar & grills and places to just hang out and socialize with friends. On one of our travels we stopped off at the Peter Skeen Ogden Viewpoint which had a spectacular view of the canyon and the bridges that span the gorge.

Our next stop was Westfir, OR near Oakridge, and yes, another race venue. We stayed at Caseys Riverside RV Park and it was excellent. We were camped right on the rivers edge. We had a chance to do some fishing but didn’t land anything. I had 1 on the line that got off and another nibble.
The race venue starts at an historic covered bridge and the course climbs the service road to the top of the mountain where you can then ‘bomb’ down the singetrack. I met up with John from California on the trail and we rode down the mountain together. A fun time. I forgot to mention that although we were headed down the mountain, there was still 1000 ft of climbing while descending. Go figure.

This brings us to the end of the month. So much going on and next month is no different that I don’t know where the time went. Stay tuned!
You may be aware that we started our full-time adventure 2 1/2 years ago with goals of seeing the country but also identifying where we might want to relocate. Oregon has always been at the top of the list and the first part of this trip has not changed that priority. So, here we are at the end of June and reminiscing as to where we were a year ago (Georgia with Mike and Marie) and still contemplating where to set roots. Thanks for traveling with us. We hope you’ve enjoyed the journey. Next month is just around the corner.

Stay Safe.

If you read last month’s blog, you know we finished off the month visiting Rob and Bridget in Deer River, MN. I met them back in 2007ish when I started off-roading and met them through the jeep club. As with many, we drifted apart until he called me one day when I was the Commander at GateWay Community College. He started working for me as non-sworn safety officer until I retired and then they moved to MN to realize their dreams. They have a really nice piece of property and large visions of what it will be in the future. We had a wonderful visit and then we were off to our next stop.

The drive to the next stop, Detroit Lakes, MN was a rough day. We had winds averaging 12-22 mph with gusts up to 30 mph from the south. Of course our journey had us going west and south so we had crosswinds and headwinds the whole day. It was a bit of a white knuckle day as we got pushed around on the road. Fortunately it was a short day of only about 4 hours driving.

We noticed as we continued west through Minnesota that the dense forest started to give way to large open areas of agriculture where there were large corn fields and hay fields and another crop that we were unable to identify. The landscape was primarily rolling hills with no significant climbs or hills.

We spent a day walking through the downtown area of Detroit Lakes. This is a very cute downtown with 2-3 story buildings that rise above the 2 lane road with parking on either side of the road. The stores range from boutique clothing and keepsakes to coffee shops and a hardware store, a bicycle store and a couple bars. Yes, I spent some time in the bicycle shop. Another day saw us touring the countryside scouting fishing holes. We drove about 100+ miles checking out locations that had been identified for us however their current dry climate has left the rivers low on water and just not suitable for trout this time of year. There are a multitude of lakes in the area which seem to be great for bass fishing from a boat and water sports but not for fly fishing.

One morning Teri took off for a 6 mile walk that had her scouring through a swap meet at the half way point while I went to the local ski area for a mountain bike ride. There are 2 types of trails at the ski area, cross country trails with natural terrain (my style) and downhill/gravity which has numerous man made obstacles and features that are beyond my ability and willingness to test. It was fun to try out new types of trails however. We stopped in the downtown area of Rapid Falls for lunch. Another quaint little town with a wonderful looking downtown. In this case, the center turn lane of Main St had been turned into a parking lot as cars were parked angled on either side of the road and double parked side by side in the center turn lane for a 1/2 mile leaving 1 narrow lane to drive each direction. Those shops were very similar to the shops in Detroit Lakes downtown.

One morning we woke to rain but it stopped early so I headed to Maplelag Ski resort to ride. A couple of days earlier we had met the Johnson’s at the RV park. Tracy, Kayla and their daughter. They were there to race at Maplelag. I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t known about the race previously. I didn’t feel comfortable racing without having had the opportunity to pre-ride the course. So, I made it a point to go ride the race course a couple of days after the race. The markers, directional tape and signs were still in place so it was easy to navigate the course. It was an amazing ride. I hit the course between rain storms so the trail was sticky dirt and the tree canopy blocked any rain. It was so much different than riding in AZ. I compared my riding time to the race results. I would have finished 44 of 49 overall and 4th of 5 riders in my age group even riding it blind. The other interesting fact of Maplelag is that it is a winter play area. They provide lodging in cabins and train cars that have been moved onto the property and converted to condos. The trails are open for cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the snowy winter. This is not a downhill ski area as there is no mountain nor a ski lift. They are in the process of rebuilding from a devastating fire which destroyed some of the main buildings about a year ago.

We learned of the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion going on in the area so we had to check it out. This was much like a county fair with a huge display of tractors and agricultural equipment (threshers). There must have been 100 tractors of all shapes and sizes in the parade through the grounds. The drivers of these tractors appeared to range from about 10 years old to 80ish. There was a huge steam powered locomotive that pulled several remodeled cattle cars around the perimeter of the event and we jumped on that just to see the entire event. The side of the cattle car had been cut off and there was football stadium style bench seating along the length of the car. Throughout the venue there were steam powered tools and equipment. The ingenuity employed to build the various machines was astounding. Log splitters, table saws, butter churns, you name it, you could probably find it and all were steam powered. We grabbed some lunch at one of the food vendors. Teri had a hot dog and potato salad. I had a hot dog, hamburger and baked beans. The distinction of the foods we ate will become apparent. We sat on picnic tables along with about 50+ other people all enjoying the activities and the sunshine. Soon it was time to leave and continue west. The sun was shining on the day we left. As we reviewed the stopover, we realized we had stayed a bit too long. There wasn’t enough to do to keep us occupied as we don’t do well just sitting still. Sarge liked to wander so we were constantly tracking him down but we got tired of the flies and bees. Next stop, South Dakota.

As we pulled into Sioux Falls, SD our first stop after parking the motorhome was Urgent Care. Teri had developed some intestinal pain that had progressed over several days along with some other symptoms we’d rather not talk about. Suffice it to say, she was in pain. After a couple of hours at Urgent Care, they strongly recommended we go to the Emergency Room. We did. Several hours later she was released with instructions to monitor various bodily functions. This was on Thursday. On Saturday we were back in the ER and they strongly advised that she be admitted for observation, tests and IV. She had become extremely dehydrated as she was unable to eat or drink and anything she did consume was evacuated. The hospital staff and specialists determined she had a type of e-coli and colitis but they weren’t sure what strain it was. What they knew was that this was releasing a toxin in her body and if they had tried to treat with antibiotics, the toxin would have entered her blood stream and severely impacted her kidneys, possibly shutting them down. A very nervous and scary time for us. While Teri was in the hospital, I stayed busy. Before you get all bent out of shape, I was acting on Teri’s instructions. I took care of Sarge, kept the coach cleaned up, fixed meals and rode my bike when I wasn’t at the hospital. I toured the city by bike riding the Sioux Falls Bike Path which encircles the city and I also tried out their singletrack park. It was very disappointing that we weren’t able to see the sights and engage in the activities we had planned even though Teri suggested I go see some of it. It just isn’t as fun without her. We’ll get back at another time to do the sightseeing. The nursing staff assigned to Teri were fantastic. Sierra was her RN who was also training Jade as a new RN. Madi was a tech who was attending college and studying to be an RN. The hospital was a University Health Hospital and also a teaching facility. As I said, her staff were amazing. Dr Nick Daane was the Gastroenterologist who was also very friendly and very informative. Unlike so many doctors we have known he introduced himself as Nick and he took the time to explain what was happening in terms we could understand. Teri was released on Monday, again with instructions to monitor various symptoms. On Tuesday we were back on the road.

As we rumbled west the trees of Sioux Falls gave way to flat grass and agricultural lands. We could see the foot high brown grass bending in the wind with not a tree in sight for hours. That’s not completely true as there were a few trees, but it appeared they had been planted and grown up around homes and ranch homes and appeared as oasis’. As we cruised along I-90 we saw a huge horse and the head of a bull in the distance. There were totally out of place in this flatland. We decided we had to see what it was. It was the Porter Sculpture Park. Gary Porter had worked with his dad in the blacksmith shop for many years and then he put his skills to another adventure. The horse and the bull are made of 30# plates welded together. The horse weighs 25 tons. I don’t remember all that he had to go through to get the horse moved to its current location. Suffice it to say he had to use a huge crane and an oversized truck to haul it to it’s current location. He has built a walking path through all his sculptures and has placed signs with poems to describe the sculpture. As my hip was particularly bothersome this day, he offered us the use of a golf cart to tour the property. That was a wonderful hour marveling at his skilled work. We arrived in Wall, SD ready to take on the Badlands.

Wall Drug is advertised for hours on billboards prior to arriving in Wall, SD. Folks had told us it was a must do. It was less than we expected. It is a tourist haven, again all souvenirs and that just isn’t our style. The main street is cute but loaded with cars during the day. Our on-board computer directed us down Main St to get to the RV park. That was a huge mistake. There was about 1 ft of clearance on each side of the motorhome from the cars that were diagonally parked on the street as we inched our way through and the people walking on the wood sidewalks gaped at us. We noticed that most of the shops are food or tourist items. Wall Drug has almost anything you would need from clothes to trinkets, jewelry, and shoes but it appeared to us that it caters to the tourist. We took a day to drive through the Badlands NP. We started on the paved Badlands Loop Rd and ended up on the Sage Creek Rim Rd which is gravel. We were so glad we had selected a Jeep to be our towed vehicle for our travels. Along the way we sighted numerous bison on the plains within the park. Then we stopped at the Prairie Dog Town. Prairie Dogs galore. They were standing up near their holes ready to dive in, others were playing tag and just running around. We finished off the day by walking through the downtown area of Wall which is the time we experienced Wall Drug. Later that afternoon I headed out for a bicycle ride on the gravel bike. I retraced our driving route but going in the opposite direction. The wind had kicked up and I was headed into the wind for the 1st 1/2 of the ride. The gravel road had so much washboard that at times I thought the handlebars were going to shake out of my hands or the bike was going to rattle apart. As I rode past Prairie Dog Town I kept hearing a whistle that sounded like birds chirping. I kept my eyes on the sky as I looked for the birds. There weren’t any. Then I realized it was the prairie dogs announcing my arrival. As I approached the entry/exit ranger station I saw a line of cars stopped at the exit. There was a bison positioned on the right side of the road, near the road. At first it appeared to be a statue, but then I saw its head bob. I stopped about 100 ft away then started looking to see where I was going to shelter if it decided to charge. There was nowhere for me to go. It was all open. I saw it moving forward and back while it’s legs remained still. I couldn’t figure out what it was doing. Then I saw the short poles standing vertically about 3 ft high nearby. I realized it was rubbing it’s belly and side against the pole. Finally it moved away from me and the cars moving down the road and stopped in an open clearing on the other side of the Ranger stations a bit further off the road. Finally some of the cars started to drive past and it showed no interest in them. As a car came alongside me, I asked the driver if I could ride alongside for a short time. He looked at me as if I was crazy. I asked if he had seen the bison and he said “No. Oh my gawd”. His wife quickly pulled her camera out. I used the car as a shield as we moved past this little fella then I started pedaling to get clear. What a rush that was. As I rode, I looked to my left and saw about 20 bison just hanging out on the prairie. There was no fencing to keep them from the road. I’m just glad they didn’t have any interest in me. I finished the 27 mile loop and found the largest wood carved sculpture I’ve ever seen in downtown Wall. The Badlands are an interesting and amazing sight. I find it hard to describe. The land has been carved by wind and rain creating deep canyons across the plains is the only way I can describe it. It is a must see if you are in the area.

Since Wall turned out be less than we had expected we packed up 2 days early and moved on to Rapid City, SD. Teri is slowly recovering but she is weak and constantly cold and still struggling to eat. We’re concerned about the outcome. She can’t hike or walk for long and becomes fatigued very quickly. We did make it to Mt Rushmore and Custer SP. Mt Rushmore was truly an amazing sight. Reading about the design, architecture and eventually the work involved to create this piece of art is astounding. We skipped the Crazy Horse monument and worked our way into Custer State Park. The road from Mt Rushmore into Custer SP is one of the most narrow, twisting roads with amazing views as we have ever driven. Don’t take your RV. The wood bridges are low and the tunnels that are cut through the rock are only 9 ft tall and 9 ft wide and only handle one vehicle at a time. At one of the tunnels some folks decided to walk through the tunnel toward us. I had to come to a complete stop to ensure I didn’t hit one of them the tunnel was so narrow. Throughout the park there are historical signs to provide the history of the building of the road. If you know me, you know what I had to do before we left the Rapid City area. I headed to the Hanson-Larsen Memorial Park for a mtb ride. The trails climb to the top of the hill that overlooks the entire city. On my way down, I rolled into a bike park area with jumps and berms. There were a group of people riding and I met Zack and Steven who were riding. Zack is local and has participated in many trail work days to maintain the trails and the bike park. Steven is military assigned to the base in the area with his family. We all had a great meeting before it was time for me to mosey home.

Spearfish, SD was next on the agenda and Chris’ Camp and RV Park is one of my favorite RV parks since we hit the road last year. It is family owned by Bryce and Lanna Christensen. Lanna explained that Bryce’s ancestors had immigrated to the US and homesteaded on the property in the late 1800’s. They had brought tree seedlings with them and planted an orchard, hence the property (I don’t know how big) is terraced on the sloping hill. They provided fruit for the gold miners who were working the mines up through Spearfish Canyon. Bryce’s grandfather had decided to build a bath house with showers and toilets to support the miners and eventually visitors. The building still stands today. It then developed into the park that it is today. One of the original trees is still standing behind the office as well. We had several packages mailed to the park prior to our arrival (with Lanna’s permission) to stock up on things we couldn’t get locally. By this time we had traveled 8,000 miles and it was time for an oil change on the motorhome. We contacted Carter, the owner of Black Hills Mobile Mechanic who came out to the park to do a preventative maintenance oil and filter service. We have had some amazing service from mobile repair businesses since we’ve been on the road. Lanna and Bryce are so friendly and accommodating and the camping spots have nice tree canopies that make this park so inviting.

We arrived on Sunday and again our first stop after parking was at Urgent Care as Teri still wasn’t feeling well. They said it would take a couple of weeks for her to start feeling normal and they didn’t find anything wrong with the tests. Monday was a workout day and grocery day. Tuesday we spent the morning fishing but just couldn’t find a good spot and we struck out, again. We did take a drive into Sturgis and walked through the downtown. Biker gear is the name of the game along with bars and restaurants. It’s a cute downtown but again, not up our alley. I can only imagine what this town looks like during the Sturgis Rally or any other bike event. I got out for a long mountain bike ride on the Big Hill trails and we discussed our options. Our original plan was to continue west into Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon before returning to AZ. Due to Teri’s illness, we made the disappointing decision to cut the rest of our travels and head back to AZ a month earlier than planned. It was important for Teri to get some consistent care and be sure that there aren’t any other issues going on. I think I forgot to mention that the specialist doctor from Sioux Falls had followed up with Teri. He said most likely her illness was food poisoning and most likely from something such as mayonnaise being left out or something of that sort. We concluded that most likely it was the potato salad she had at the festival as her symptoms started soon after that and generally we eat the same food. AZ Dept of Health Svcs had contacted Teri as they had initially thought she contracted the symptoms in AZ. When they learned it had been in MN, they were in touch with MN DHS. We have learned that there have been multiple reports of people getting sick after attending the same festival and it is being investigated by MN DHS.

As we ambled south through Nebraska we noticed all the rolling hills of grass, cows, farms and not a single tree for miles. We stopped for the night at Walmart in Chadron, NE. During the night we endured a severe thunderstorm with lightning lighting up the interior of the coach and thunder that rocked us. The wind was howling and I could hear noises banging on the sides of the motorhome, at least that’s what I thought it was. At one point I was dreaming that the wind had blown the metal steps up against the side of the door, which is impossible, then I realized that Teri was up and had closed a door. It’s amazing what your mind can do. We woke to clear skies and a slight wind and wet roads. The drive to Sterling, CO was without mishap. Except for a detour around a small town. I didn’t even see the name of the town. The Sheriff’s Dept had closed US 385 and detoured all traffic onto a dirt road around the town. As we drove past, we saw that there was a parade rolling down Main St (US 385). It looked like the entire town of several hundred people had turned out for the festival. After about 2 miles we were routed back onto the highway. US 385 is also known as the Gold Rush Byway and the Heartland Expressway. There are several Historic Markers along the route, but none of the pullouts were large enough for us to stop. I had to look it up on Google to find out why it’s called the Gold Rush Byway. At it’s peak, more than $200,000 worth of gold were transported by this road daily. The Heartland Expressway is easy to understand as it is rolling hills, large corn and hay fields, some tobacco fields and lots of ranching with cows and horses. It has it’s own beauty, much like the desert. It seems the wind blows all the time. Another night spent in the Walmart parking lot was quiet and uneventful. We don’t do a lot of parking lot boondocking, but it works at times. We make sure to patronize the store before we move on.

We stopped in La Junta (The Junction), CO for a couple of days. We were too early for the Tarantula Festival but we got in a workout and a trip to Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site. Our America The Beautiful pass saved us the entry fee again. This fort was a major stopping point for folks traveling the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to Santa Fe. The fort was built of adobe and was run by the Bent brothers in 1833 and was built along the banks of the Arkansas River. The fort was abandoned and destroyed in 1849. This fort is call the Old Fort because one of the Bent brothers had built a new fort several miles east after this one was abandoned. The fort was reconstructed in 1976 based on drawings and measurements made back in the 1800’s taken by a Cavalry officer. As we rambled out of La Junta moving south, we found ourselves driving on the Historic Santa Fe Trail. As we drove, I looked out over the landscape. It was flat with brown grass for hundreds of miles. Off in the west I could see a very faint shadow of the mountains off toward Denver (I think it was Denver). The shadow had to be several hundred miles away. I could not fathom the thought of traveling across those plains in a wagon or on horseback. The 8 hours of driving was boring enough and I could only try to imagine what it was like back in the days of the settlers who would travel for days, weeks and months.

Our next stop was Las Cruces, NM. It felt like deja vu as this was one of our first stops when we started our summer trip. We had a pull-in site with the nose of the motorhome looking out over the Las Cruces valley. The lights at night and the morning sunrise were mesmerizing. We caught up on our groceries, I took a ride to the Dona Ana Trailhead and we spent an afternoon in Old Mesilla. We are definitely not acclimated to the 95+ degree heat of the desert. The morning I went out for my bike ride, I pulled into the trailhead parking lot as 1 of the 3 other cars parked there. A car pulled in next to me with a fat bike mounted to the roof. As the driver and I each exited our cars, we said hi and made small talk. He introduced himself as Rick Wellborn and offered to guide me around. It turned out to be a great hour ride. Thanks Rick. After an hour, he had to head to work but I went out for another hour on a different loop. The trails were crushed granite or crushed volcanic rock. The area reminded me of Lake Havasu as the trails dropped in and out of arroyos and Estrella Mtn Park as the longish steep climbs loomed ahead along with some rock step ups. The trails are high enough that you can look out over the Las Cruces valley in the daylight. Old Mesilla was a fun stop, again. Old Mesilla is a small Mexican historical town that was once a stop on the Butterfield Stage route. There were more shops open this time as it was Friday and not during the middle of the week as we had on our previous stop. We enjoyed some nice small talk with the shop owners as we perused their wares. The stores cater to tourists but have quality items, jewelry, hand made clothing and homemade fudge. We had an amazingly satisfying lunch at La Posta. The portions are huge and delicious.

After 2 days of activities and sightseeing we were back on the road and rambled in to our winter home in Apache Junction. If you can recall, I had seen Dr Adele Dixon, chiropractor, in Iowa back in June for my hip. The discomfort with my hip has not improved in spite of my workouts and the corrective exercises Kevin has prescribed. It has not severely increased however I have found that I cannot hike without severe discomfort or walk for long periods of time. I have no problem riding my bikes. I have been in touch with my Dr and will be evaluating the options.

Again, we thank you for traveling with us. We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have. As we settle in for the winter, we are busy planning next years adventures. Stay tuned, as we won’t be sitting idle in AZ.

Observations and revelations. We found we really enjoy living in the trees close to mountain biking trails and fly fishing (trout) streams. We severely dislike big city living. The small town RV parks/campgrounds were our favorite type of glamping, away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the people are genuinely friendly, but close enough to a city to be able to get the groceries we need. The travel this year wasn’t the greatest for my training as much of our time was spent in flat areas with little elevation for climbing. We will use all this information to guide us on the next adventure.

Until next month.

Stay Safe.

This month’s blog is brought to you by Teri. John’s notes will be in italics.

          We spent most all of August in part of the Western Great Lakes region of the US.  A Michigander (Michigan native) Marie Colvin, couldn’t say enough about all the great things Michigan has to offer so that’s where we headed after our visit with the Colvins in Georgia. The thing that stood out everywhere we went in this region is it’s all about the iron. Iron is mined and shipped across the Great Lakes from the area since about before time and everything is named for Iron.  You’ll see what I mean when you read this months blog. We were in both Iron River and Iron Mountain and there were Iron River, Lake and Stream. There was Iron Café and all kinds of Iron namesakes from Michigan to the other side of Minnesota. Nowhere else did we see more reverence for the mining industry and union activity. For people we talked to, it tended to be no more than two degrees of separation between someone who mined, manufactured, or depended on iron. It’s part of everyone’s culture here.

Pine Ridge Birch Run, MI 8.2-8.7

We began the month in Birch Run, at the Pine Ridge RV Park.  We were excited to see the town of Frankenmuth for all of it’s German  themed sights and activites.  Yeah, I know, we just did a Bavarian village last month.  Frankenmuth is more stunning in my opinion. I was less intrigued with the town of Helen because the shops were more tourist driven without a lot of content beyond souvenirs. The town of Helen was beautiful and the flower gardens were outrageous but I didn’t care for the shopping of all the dozens of trinkets in every store. Still, I enjoyed the Grist Mill near town and the river where we caught several trout.

Day one, we decided we needed a day to burn calories. We got up early and explored,-John on his bike into Frankenmuch and me on a hike into Birch Run. The rest of the day was walking WAY too much through the Outlet stores which weren’t very exciting. So we went to Frankenmuth next.

Entering  Frankenmuth you get a winter wonderland experience right off the bat. They have a whole village on this theme named Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland so if you like Christmas, you’ll find your mecca here. We didn’t stop there because we wanted to begin at the best guide locale first, the Visitors Center. As Visitors Centers go, this one was classy and SO helpful.  We first heard all about the river tour where we’d learn about the town history, what to see and do and have a nice respite from all the tourist traffic. We got right to it.

 It was a short stroll across a covered bridge and we got there just in time to board. We learned about the ship itself and what to do should we sink. Then sure enough, the narrator told us all about the origin and growth of this charming town. I’m sparing the details so you can hear all about it on your river tour when you get there. Hint: Ice Cream shops are EVERYwhere! We toured a few shops and had some excellent treats and even had dinner at a German style restaurant.

Frankenmuth was founded by German settlers in the 1800’s who were bringing Christianity to the Indians. Today the buildings sport a Bavarian facade. It is similar to Helen, GA as it caters to tourists with souvenir stores, restaurants, hotels, pubs, fudge and ice cream shops galore. The Michigan Heroes Museum is a tribute to the service men and women from MI who have served gallantly since the Spanish-American war. It was interesting to note that many of the soldiers who were highlighted returned home from the early wars but not so from Viet Nam forward. Too many of the stories told of the soldiers heroic fights but eventually lost their lives in battle. It was very sobering.

Indian River, MI is a jumping off point for our exploration of Cheboygan, Mackinaw city and Mackinac Island. We’d hoped to be closer to the area but everything was booked weeks out.  Apparently, it’s a bit popular. As it turned out, the location was perfect for the other places we also ended up visiting.

We were craving some trout fishing, so we headed to the Fly Shop in Boyne, MI on the Western shore of Lake Michigan.  We met Drew who’s a wonderful guide/storekeeper who shared a lot of information about several local trout streams.  Of course we had to buy some more flys too. He told us about a great little spot near the Dept of Natural Resources office on the Pigeon River.   The Pigeon River also flows about a mile from our campground. At any rate, we headed out to a couple places near the DNR that seemed promising. We also fished near the campground and on the Boyne River which was a beautiful spot.  None of the gorgeous places were yielding any fish for us.  John often told me, there’s no fish in these rivers.  Throughout our travels this year, water levels are low and fish aren’t easy to find with the hot summer. So we decided we would book a charter for our last day. But first we had some fun activities to experience.

We went back to Boyne City because we had noticed a really cool feature when we were there before, and we wanted to check it out.  They have an enormous suspension bridge that spans across the ski area called Skywalk. It’s a little wobbly but a nice stroll after the ski lift you take to get to it. I cannot begin to describe the views from up there.  Pictures just don’t do it justice. The volunteers who were admitting people on and off were advising folks (children) not to jump while crossing. On our return crossing, we stopped for ice cream before heading down again.

We drove to Mackinaw city.  This is the town you go to to get to Mackinac Island because that’s where all the really big attractions are. But for this particular day, we focused on Mackinaw. We took a tour of the USCGC Mackinaw which is a 290-foot former Coast Guard icebreaker on exhibit as a museum ship at the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum. She was built during World War II to meet the heavy demands of war materials and transportation during the winter months across The Great Lakes and decommissioned in 2006. Imagine, a lake as big as Lake Huron frozen solid all winter!

Upon leaving the ship, we saw the Ironworkers parade go by so stopped to watch. The International Ironworkers Festival is held every year to recognize the men and women who constructed the Mackinaw Bridge.

We toured the Mackinaw Bridge Museum which is in the upstairs area of a restaurant amongst souvenir shops.  It felt like a museum garage sale but it was literally packed with mementos and relics related to the iron industry and the construction of the bridge.  There were videos running both in the downstairs shop window and on an old tv in one of the museum rooms. It was so cool!  After that, we ordered  a sign for our RV and headed to Cheboygan.

We found the fishing charter we wanted that was recommended by the marina manager there who gave us a business card. We would call them later to schedule.  Then we went to the Cheboygan Lock and Dam. Now this little place was cool because I had only seen a big lock in the Seattle area. This was a mini lock for river traffic.  We watched as party boats and fishing groups moved in and out of the locks. The two older gentlemen let us get close enough for the best views for pictures. The 2 men were the lock handlers and allowed us into the Employee’s Only area to watch and take photos.

We finally decided to visit Mackinac Island since the weather was fine and we had a whole day to goof off. We boarded the ferry to cross to the island and enjoyed the captain making jokes. When we got to the island, we wanted to find our friend Nick Hedrick.  When John first started bike riding, Nick worked in the bike shop he went to and since has shared some of his adventures bike packing around the country. Now Nick works on the island in the summers and then has winters off to do what he wants. Anyway, we found him and he told us a few things about the island. John and he arranged for a bike ride before we left the island. Then we hit the tours. Nick was the mechanic at Performance Bicycles in Peoria when Teri persuaded me to start riding. He left the store before it closed and moved to Mackinac Island. Now he is the manager of the largest bicycle rental shop on the Island. The shop does about 1,000 rentals per day. Nick has the responsibility of keeping them all in sound working order.

After a quick breakfast we boarded a two horse drawn carriage that took us to a few attractions with stops for as long as we needed.  Of course the drivers were full of interesting stories and humor but the first driver we had was really funny. We rode through downtown first and saw many quaint boutiques and shops.  Then we went up hill into a more wooded section where we stopped at the Surrey Hills Museum. There are several beautiful carriages from the turn of the century that were used when the wealthy families traveled the island. There is a butterfly conservatory there on the same grounds.  The tour continued to Arch Rock. Arch Rock is a beautiful natural limestone formation and one of the most photographed spots on Mackinac Island. Finally, we got off at Fort Mackinaw to end our carriage ride.  We were met at the gate by a boy scout who welcomed us politely. The boy scouts stay in barracks during the summer at the fort and are assigned to various duties. We walked back to town and found our ferry berth almost ready to depart for the return trip to Mackinaw City. Once we pulled into port, we stopped by the shop we ordered our sign from and picked it up.

Before we left the area Nick and I rode at the Boyne Highlands Bike Park. This is a ski area in the winter and bike trails in the summer. We rode the ski lift up the mountain numerous times and rolled down the trails. Nick was much more of a daredevil than I was as he was taking jumps that I won’t do even in my dreams. A 5 minute lift ride and a 10 minute ride down and repeat. This was not my favorite style of riding. I much prefer the cross country style.

On another day, Teri and I had stopped off at the Bod B Banwell Family Nature Preserve. There are trails cut through the Preserve suitable for hiking and biking. She hiked, I biked. The west end of the trails overlook the Pigeon River which we had tried fishing. I bumped into a young couple with their dog. Arron is testing for the Michigan State Police. He and his wife Alex were very friendly and their 8 mo old German Shepherd just wanted to play. It was interesting that the pup wanted attention from me but when another couple had come walking up the trail she barked non-stop at them in a warning bark which Alex called her ‘big girl bark’. She didn’t hurt anyone but never barked at me.

On John’s previous bike day, I had opted for a walk through the town of Petoskey. Man, that is one cute harbor town!  It has a ferry dock, lots of historic buildings, lovely boutiques and a bike path running between Bay Harbor, Petoskey and Harbor Springs.  And it just so happens so does the ferry. So I thought it would be cool to take the ferry from one town, John would ride the  bike trail there and then we’d both ferry back.  I could walk around Harbor Springs while John rides before I took the ferry. 

The only problem was that when we arrived in Harbor Springs to board, we couldn’t get a booking because it was fully booked.  So we did some sightseeing.  Harbor Springs is smaller than Petoskey but they had a nice farmers market that morning and the stroll around was nice.  John took the bike trail  over to Petoskey and I drove the car when I was done with shopping.  Then we drove back to Harbor Springs because we found out about the Tunnel of Trees.

The tunnel is a tree canopied driving route through nature parks and rustic towns. It was a little hard to find the point of origin.  So as we wandered several wrong directions, we found a really old church with the neatest signage.  Then we discovered there was a public beach lookout a short path behind the church.  We discovered one more gem along our route that was a pleasant surprise. In  the nature preserve area there was a small event and farm stand venue like no other.  Pond Hill Farm, at first sight, is just stunning with flowers everywhere and acres of gardens and green houses.  It also offers some wonderful pizza, wine and some great hiking spaces.  There are curious animals to visit and wonderful quirky things to see.  We took the tunnel of trees back to town and then called it a day.                       

We saved the best for last on our last day in Upper Michigan.  We got up in the dark and watching vigilantly for deer in the headlights, made the hour drive to Cheboygan to charter our fishing boat.  Our objective, to catch REALLY big fish.  Of course, we’d have to find room in the freezer so maybe not too big. Our captain Jack and his first mate, also Jack, met us at the dock and took no time getting on the water.  They spent some time rigging the poles and then just so quick, the first salmon hit the line.  By noon we each had our limit in both salmon and lake trout. Clearly the crew, not us, were doing all the work and had all the skills. I decided, I want to learn how to catch a salmon on my own on one of our future river fishing trips in Montana or even Alaska. Hey, a girl has to have a dream.

Top O the Morn, Iron River, WI 8.22-8.29

After a pitstop in Iron Mountain, MI, Summer Breeze Campground, we arrived in Iron River, WI at Top O’ the Morning RV and Campground.  Ever optimistic, we were going to try fishing again on a highly regarded river, the Bois Brule. Fly casting practice on the river provided other points of interest for us though. We drove out to where Lake Superior receives the Bois Brule and it was a very windy day.  The water on the lake was choppy but the mouth of the river was smooth as glass. John discovered an antique water spigot and played with it for a while.  Then we saw a quirky war memorial that someone had constructed.   Since it’s a sportsmans paradise and the park was fully booked, we had to agree to move the coach twice because of other reservations coming and going. 

What a great park! It has beautiful quiet roads for hiking which I did often and a lovely lake with lots of places for Sarge to explore.  John found terrific bike trails in the area and Sarge got lost every time he had the chance.  We didn’t catch any fish but boy we tried every spot DNR told us about.  Still, in such gorgeous country, it was worth the effort.

We drove into Duluth, MN for a train ride.  Duluth is an industrial city but they managed to carve out a pretty decent route to offer a slow train for tourists. We listened to a recorded history and praise of all things Duluth along the way.  The hosts made conversation with guests to encourage enthusiasm and it was an enjoyable trip. 

Our final excursion in the area was to Ashland.  Our energy was a little low but we made the best of it.  After a quick breakfast, we started at the visitor’s center which was an incredibly well-designed facility. It featured a gift shop and a museum of the natural and physical features of the area on two levels of the building.  It also has a rooftop lookout to view the surrounding nature preserve.  You can look down on the pond and see the fish at the water’s edge.  Then we drove into Ashland to see the 21 murals throughout the city. The community began in the 1950’s contracting with local artists to design images that reflected community values, industry and commercial interests. The downtown historic buildings were a neat addition to the journey through.

Here are some interesting things I have noted while traveling. Folks in the south (GA, TN, AR) tended to be more friendly. In the park, people would walk by and say high and strike up a conversation. As we moved north, there was less and less of that. At one park, there was a family camped next to us. As I was setting up, the dad/husband was sitting in his chair on the patio with his head in his phone. I said Hi and he looked up, said hi and buried his head again. We never spoke again for the several days we were there. One morning, they were all sitting at the picnic table on their patio. I looked to them several times trying to make eye contact and they completely ignored me. This is not what I’m used to in campgrounds. If you own a vehicle more than about 10 years old, it has rust damage to the rocker panels, the wheel wells and fenders. And lastly, there are so many cities in this country with duplicate names: Superior, AZ/WI. Cleveland OH/GA. Iron River MI/WI. Phoenix AZ/OR. Grand Rapids MI, MN. That is just a short list that I can recall. As we drove through Michigan we were rarely on an Interstate. Usually we were on a US or state highway. There are no truck stops such as Loves, Pilot, Flying J as you would see on the interstate. However many of the gas stations had truck diesel bays separate from the car gas pumps as you would see in a typical truck stop.

Blueberry Hills, Deer River, MN 8.29-8.31

Our final stop for the month was to visit friends from John’s past, Rob and Bridget Marble. As it turns out, it’s now Rob, Bridget and four adopted kids.  As if they don’t already have their hands full. They have a nice little homestead in Deer River, MN with lots of projects to keep Rob busy.  The man has so many irons in the fire and lots of property to play with on 60 or so acres. He’s living his dream. I met Rob and Bridget around 2007 when we were both members of the AZXJ Association. An XJ is the old school Jeep Cherokee. We had many a fun 4×4 trip together with lots of other folks. Years later, Rob came to work for me at GateWay Community College before he and Bridget moved to MN. They are doing well for themselves. Teri fell in love with the vegetable gardens as she can’t wait to start growing her own when we settle down.

We managed to get in some sightseeing in the town and a hike/bike day that was invigorating. We shared a nice dinner in town with the Marble’s on our second day there then said our goodbyes to the them and to our August adventures.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this months travels as much as we did. Stay Safe. See you next month.

John & Teri

Welcome to Georgia. You may remember Mike and Marie Colvin from last years visit to Georgia. Mike and I worked together at Chandler PD. They moved to Georgia from California a little over a year ago. A week before July 4th, Mike had called and asked for assistance. He along with his friend Casey were tasked with providing the town’s fireworks display to celebrate Independence Day. They needed an extra hand and he asked if I’d be willing to help out. Of course I would. Mike explained that he and Casey along with 2 others had provided a fireworks display for the Church last year. They were approached by the Town officials and were asked to provide this years display for the entire town as the Church display was better than the town display. Mike and Casey enthusiastically said yes. Casey obtained all the fireworks and they were ready. Teri and I arrived in Claxton, GA on Monday afternoon and set up camp in Mike and Marie’s front yard. On Tuesday, July 4, we all fished in their pond and that night we blew things up. There were bottle rocket launcher tubes set up on a flatbed trailer and were screwed in so they wouldn’t fall. My job was to load the tubes with the fuses visible and Mike and Casey would go down the line lighting the fuses. The goal was to have a constant display of fireworks. Everything worked well, for the most part. I had to be mindful of which fuses had been lit so my hand wasn’t near a lit fuse when it went off. I’m partial to keeping all my fingers. I couldn’t keep up with them so Mike started loading tubes as well. In the end, we had set off 710 bottle rockets for about 15 minutes of continuous fireworks. We were approached by numerous people that evening and days later who professed their thanks and appreciation for a great fireworks display. We experienced heavy rain in the afternoon of each day but it was a pleasant rain that took the heat out of the day. Over the course of a week I took the jeep to Statesboro to have it serviced, we went to Jekyll Island where we hung out on the beach then took a drive to St Simon Island. I joined Mike for his standing Saturday morning breakfast with his pals and we talked about the fireworks and various other goings-on in the area. They each welcomed me back and hoped we’d visit again. The waitress knew what everyone wanted for breakfast, except me. Everyone in the small diner were friendly and it was a very friendly, relaxing atmosphere. I had to call John Baker (John & Son Mobile Camper Repair) again for another RV repair. Last year John had to fix a slide-out motor. John and his wife arrived on Saturday to fix a non-responsive co-pilot chair. Teri likes to ride with the footrest extended for her comfort and this is also where Sarge likes to ride. On our previous stop, the power had quit at the chair so the footrest would not retract. This is a problem because the footrest blocks the entry door. Neither I nor the previous mechanic nor Mike could identify the solution. The problem was that there was no electrical power to the chair. John located a fuse box that I was unaware of, reset the circuit breaker and the chair was fixed. We had a great relaxing week.

The next stop was Helen, GA. We stayed at the Hearthstone Cabins and RV Park. This park was not what we were expecting. It was more of a national forest service campground than an RV park. Our motorhome was a bit big for the park. We arrived from what we later determined was the wrong direction. The road from downtown to the park was a very winding and narrow road. Fortunately we didn’t experience any oncoming traffic as this road was about 1 1/2 lanes wide. I don’t know how we would have maneuvered past any other vehicles. Finally we reached the entrance to the park. The road had a slight downward curve to the right and the turn into the park was less than 90 degrees. The short version is that I blocked the entire road, had to unhook the jeep while blocking the road and had to do a 4 point turn to get the motorhome into the park lane and off the road. Then we had to wait for the owners to show up and guide us in. Liz is one of the owners and she did an amazing job of making sure we were comfortably parked in our spot. This took some maneuvering to get backed into our spot but we got it done. The back 4 ft of the motorhome was hanging off the edge of a bank. When the stabilizer jacks were lowered, they just sank into the ground about a foot. You might remember the same problem last month if you read the previous post. Liz said she would get some rocks to fill the holes and she returned shortly with several buckets full of river rocks to fill the holes. Then we lowered the jacks again and all was well. This park seemed to have a lot of long term campers but everyone we saw were friendly. We spent a week in the area. We visited Unicoi State Park for some mtb riding and hiking and fishing. While riding the South trail I came across a stream that I decided not to cross after looking for an easy crossing. The water was shin deep and I didn’t feel like riding in wet shoes and socks. The north trail was just as scenic but provided some excitement. This day I was the nail and not the hammer. I was cruising along downhill stretch until I wasn’t. The trail was part of a creek bed that was rocky and sandy. As I bounced along, the front tire buried itself into some soft sand and stopped abruptly on a rock. The front wheel and handlebars turned sharply to the right and I was airborne. I landed on my left side. First thing I did was check the bike. If you know, you know. The bike was ok. I had some scrapes on my leg but otherwise I was ok. I finished the ride without further mishap. The next day I found and felt the bruising on the hip and legs. We fished the river running through the park and Teri had some success. We took a drive into Cleveland, GA for groceries and stopped for lunch. There were a lot of fast food joints but few diners.

I have probably mentioned it before, but we continue to workout while we are traveling. We do 2 days of strength work per week and one of those days we have a Zoom workout with Kevin. We setup the iPad on a stand and he can see the entire front interior area of the motorhome. That is where we set up our workout mats, weights, TRX straps, Bosu Ball, Stability Ball and elastic bands. He is a slave driver. He makes sure we get the reps but also critiques our form. Kevin is great for providing positive reinforcement which helps keep us motivated.

We took several day trips while in the area as well as some fishing trips. Anna Ruby Falls is an amazing site. There is a 1/2 mile hike on paved trail to the falls, with some steep inclines but the views are worth the effort. Watching the water cascading off the cliffs was spell binding. There are actually 2 rivers that make up the falls and converge into a single river. On one of our day trips we kept seeing signs for Brasstown Bald. We had no idea what this was. As we approached the turnoff, we made a hasty decision to check it out. Hang on as we made a quick turn. As we drove we started climbing a steep grade and above us, on the top of the mountain, we could see a large round structure. We found out this is the top of a mountain in which you can see 4 states (GA, TN, NC, SC). The top of the mountain is the highest point in Georgia at just under 4800 ft. The round structure is a fire watch tower. We did not have the opportunity to climb up into the tower.

Helen, GA is a small, tourist attraction town with a strong Bavarian heritage. The shops are tourist souvenir style where you can buy almost anything with Helen printed on it. We did stop for lunch and the Bavarian pretzel and beer were delicious. For a bit of history, we stopped in at Nora Mills. This was a grain grinding mill that was water and wheel powered. Here they would grind up the grain to make cornmeal, grits and whole grains. In the store you had the opportunity to buy much of this. Betty’s Country store is a must see. A log cabin style grocery store is the primary grocery store in Helen. Down the road was the Fly shop. We stopped in to find out the best places to fish and the best type of flies to use. Several times we fished the Chattahoochee River near the RV park with varying success. One day I’d catch some, the next day Teri would. We couldn’t seem to walk away with both of us winning on any particular day. Our last day trip was to Murphy, NC to the Piney Knob Trails for a bike ride and hike.

As we left Helen, we wondered how many more countries we would visit without leaving the U.S. So far we have been to Switzerland (Ouray, CO, the Switzerland of America), Holland with the Dutch Heritage in Orange City, IA and now Germany in Helen. Next month you’ll learn of another German stop in Frankenmuth, MI.

As we continued moving northward our next stop was Heiskill, TN north of Knoxville. This stop had some drama to it. One morning we let Sarge out of the motorhome around 7am like we do almost every day. It surprised us that we hadn’t seen him by noon as he normally checks in around 9 or 10am for a snack. We tried to call him to no avail. His tracker was not connecting to Teri’s phone indicating he was out of bluetooth range and had not connected to any other type of wifi or bluetooth device. The campground is surrounded by heavy woods and undergrowth. We figured he was hunkered down as it had been raining with thunder and lightning all morning. We went out into the woods on a trail and called for him with no luck. That night we didn’t sleep well. I hadn’t realized how attached I am to him. We tried to console each other and discussed the various options. The next morning he was still missing. We walked the trail that surrounds the camp calling for him without success. I bushwacked my way through the forest and undergrowth until I came to several homes. I saw a couple in their back yard and approached. I explained why I was bothering them and they couldn’t have been more friendly. They were Ed and Donna Paris. We talked for bit and they said they would keep an eye out for Sarge. Teri had created a missing cat flyer so we drove into Knoxville to have several copies made and laminated. We mentioned to several of our neighbors that he had gone on a walkabout and hadn’t returned. That evening as we were sitting at the dining table about 7pm (Sarge has been gone for 36 hours) I checked Teri’s Find My phone app. It showed Sarge had connected to a wifi an hour earlier. He was about 1 mile away as the crow flies but it was more like 2 miles as he had to climb and descend the ridge. The tracker had connected at a house on the other side of Bullrun Ridge. We excitedly jumped into the Jeep and drove around the ridge to the house. There are no trails, paths, roads, etc over the ridge. We pulled into the driveway and walked up to the front door. Les and Meg answered my knocking on the door. I apologized for bothering them so late but said we were looking for our lost cat. Before I could say another word she asked if it was a white and black cat. I said yes and she said they had seen one in the morning out near their vehicles. They grabbed jackets and we went looking. As soon as we got near their Jeep while calling for Sarge, he started to announce his presence. We were ecstatic. Sarge was excited to see us and buried his face in the small bowl of food I put down for him. Les and Meg Lockhart explained they had seem him that morning near their garage but didn’t check him close as they believed he probably belonged to one of the neighbors. They don’t have a neighbor within sight of their house. We chatted for a bit and were amazed at the amount of country he had traveled. We all slept better that night.

One afternoon as we pulled into our camp, a vehicle pulled up behind us. The driver asked if we were from AZ. I said yes and he said they were too. They were from the “Dirty T” as he put it. He asked if I was Law Enforcement as he had seen my Thin Blue Line flag and Public Safety license plate. I told him I was retired out of Chandler. He said he had retired from Rural Metro in Tucson and they had moved to TN to try something new. They were Eli and Deb. After chatting for a bit they moved on. They are currently living in their RV while looking for a piece of property to install a manufactured home. We wish you luck.

We spent several days fishing in the area. Some mornings were beyond words. The mist coming off the water just made everything seem so surreal. Additionally we scouted several other streams and found some beautiful sights.

There is no way you can drive your home down the highways without minor issues, as you’ve previously read. Well this stop was no different. When we arrived I attempted to extend the awning and noticed it wasn’t extending properly. Without boring you with all the details, there was a tension cord that had become caught on a bracket that hindered the awning extension. I was able to unhook the cord and the awning extended properly. However I found that the tension cord keeps a rod in place, centered on the awning. That rod was no longer centered. Without correcting this problem, the awning would not close properly and we couldn’t have that. I tried for over an hour to figure out how to re-center the rod. A gentleman from another camp stopped over and offered his assistance. He said he didn’t know anything about it, but was willing to help. He did some internet searching while I was fiddling with various options. Neither of us could figure anything out. Later that day, he and his wife moved on in their travels. I certainly appreciated the offer of assistance. I ended up calling Travis, the owner of Lively Mobile RV Repair. He agreed to stop out and work on it once the weather cooperated. A couple days later, he was at the park as agreed and spent an hour working on the awning and had it repaired. I would highly recommend his services if you are in need of mobile repair work.

As part of my workout program I spend time on the bike trainer. I have a smart trainer which replaces the rear wheel of the gravel bike. This allows me to keep spinning my wheels without getting anywhere (pun intended). This allows me to ride at a defined pace or power or I can do a virtual ride in which the power and speed will change upon the change of the virtual geography. I always wanted to ride the Tour De France without actually traveling there. On one of my ‘rides’ one of the other campers approached and asked about the trainer. He had never seen this type. His name was Will. He and his wife Lona were staying in the park for the summer. They are bluegrass musicians and song writers. They spend their time traveling to bluegrass festivals where they compete and participate in the events. Over the course of our stay we visited several times.

One of our side trips was the Museum of Appalachia. This is a replica of a small town that could have been situated in the Appalachian Mountains. Several cabins of historic nature have been relocated to this park along with a hall of memories and the history of the music of the area. We saw 2 woodchucks and we had to ask what they were as we had never seen a woodchuck. How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? I still don’t know. This one was munching on a nut that had fallen out of the tree. Teri had to say hi to the miniature horses and donkeys before we left. There was a motorcycle on display in one of the buildings. Imagine my surprise as I read that it had been carved out of wood with a pocket knife. Amazing.

After arriving in the Georgetown, KY area we took a walk through the historic downtown area. Our initial reaction was not a positive one. We stood on the corner of an uncontrolled intersection with a marked crosswalk. The traffic was steady but not one driver acknowledged we were waiting to cross and it took 5 minutes before we could find a break in traffic. This was not the level of courtesy we had experienced further south. The weather was hot and humid with 86 degree temps 65% humidity that the weather app said felt like 91. There were few trees compared to the Knoxville area. We popped into a small gift shop and while Teri walked through the shop, the young man behind the counter started a polite conversation. As he asked about our travels he commented that he doesn’t drive yet so he couldn’t fully understand some of the nuances of our trip. For being such a young man, I would guess 15ish, he asked very intelligent questions and provided us with some suggestions as to sites to see. It was very refreshing. There was a small orchard store near the campground that we stopped at. It was staffed by 2 middle-aged men. The first was sitting on the porch and didn’t even acknowledge our presence as we approached. As we walked through the store, the second was behind the counter and didn’t say a word until I said hi. We were quite surprised by this as we had experienced a very different level of friendliness in GA and TN.

We had stopped in this area to tour Lexington. There were a lot of amazing historical buildings and historical markers all over. We dropped into the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Park and walked the battle lines seeing the hillside as the armies would have seen it during the Civil War. There were interpretive signs identifying the view and we found a cannon set on a hillside. There were 2 memorial markers on site. One was a memorial to the Confederate Soldiers of which many are buried in a mass grave on the site. The other was for the Union soldiers.

The biking and hiking in this area was disappointing. The roads are very narrow without any shoulder so I felt very uncomfortable just thinking about riding on the road. Teri wouldn’t even consider walking along the road. I did find 1 mountain biking area. I made a mistake at the entrance and found myself on an equestrian trail. About 15 minutes into the ride I was disgusted. The trail was steep, muddy and marked up by horse hoofs. I called Teri and said I quit because the trails are so unmaintained and damaged it wasn’t worth the effort. As I took a side trail to get out of the park, I found a trail that criss-crossed the one I was on. That looked more like a mtb trail. I took a left and continued riding. I’m glad I did. I called Teri and said, I had been on the wrong trail but now I had found the right one. It made all the difference. This trail was well built and maintained and was a lot of fun.

We were disappointed in our visit. We had expected there to be plenty of riding and hiking areas as well as the history. It just didn’t meet our expectations. The weather was hot and humid and we suffered through a rain downpour. This was not one of our favorite stops. The campground, Whispering Hills RV Park, was a nice one and one we would stay at again if we were to visit the area again. We decided to leave a couple days earlier than we had planned due to the lack of interest in the area. As we pulled out of our site and were exiting the park, we drove over a small speed bump. The back end of the coach bounced more than usual and just didn’t feel right. We stopped at the park exit and I got out and walked around the coach. It become obvious right away that the rear airbags had not inflated. After doing some quick checking and not being able to correct it, we pulled back into our camp spot to regroup. One of the camp hosts guided us as we backed into the camp site. I got out of the coach to check to make sure we were situated in the space properly and I noticed that the bags had inflated. I thanked the camp host for backing us in and for correcting the airbag issue and we pulled out and were back on the road. As of this writing, we’ve had no further issues and I don’t know what had caused the problem.

We then zoomed into Wapakoneta, OH. This is the home town of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. We toured the Armstrong Museum which we found fascinating. The roads had changed in that there was now a shoulder that would support bike riding. There were no mtb trails in the area. Each day I rode past the fields of corn and soy beans and marveled at how much farm land there was in the area. On one of my rides I rolled through the center of town. A police officer was parked near the town park with his window rolled down. I pulled up and asked if he had a few minutes. The officer was Joe Welker. We then began to chat about his work in this small town compared to my career. I noticed he was a K9 and we chatted about his dog, Fox. He opened the kennel door which allowed Fox to poke his head into the drivers area. Fox poked his head forward and laid it on Joe’s shoulder. It was obvious this young, large german shepherd loved Joe. Joe let Fox out of the car and Fox eagerly walked up to me to get some attention. Joe displays his dog at various school and community functions on a regular basis. Seeing Fox’s disposition I can see why he would be a great asset for developing community support for the PD. I wouldn’t want to meet Fox in a dark alley however. Joe suggested we stop and see the Temple of Tolerance in downtown before we left the area. We said our goodbye’s and I rode home. About an hour after getting home, there was a knock on the door. It was Joe. He brought over a Wapokoneta PD shoulder patch, cloth badge and some stickers for trading. Of course we had to take another photo. The park owner drove through while we were talking and fearfully asked if everything was ok. He said they don’t see the police in the park very often. We explained we were just comparing stories. The owner invited Joe and other officers to visit anytime. We also stumbled upon a county fair and took a walk through admiring the animals and the food trucks. On one of my morning rides, I couldn’t believe the view of the sun as it rose into the sky.

While we were in the area we visited the Bicycle Museum of America. This is a private collection of bicycles spanning the decades. Some of the bikes were the predecessor of e-bikes and shaft drive bikes. PeeWee Herman’s bike was on display as well. Teri entered her very first bicycle race while touring the museum. A machine in which you spin a handle to make the bicycle go around in a circle was on display. There are 2 handles so 2 people can race their bicycle against each other. The Museum was next door to the Canal Lock 1 of the Miami-Erie canal. Boats would reach this lock and would be turned around to head back down the river/canal. One afternoon we found the Temple of Tolerance. A man had turned his enormous back yard into a world of stone art. He had dedicated his “garden” to giving troubled souls a place to decompress and to find solace. His career is that of an archeologist and he has a number a newspaper clippings posted that explain his mission of peace. The path through the yard was lined with stone walls and a tunnel of vegetation. There were artifacts from around the world. The Temple was a mound of rocks that had been piled up about 15 feet high. It was a very relaxing stroll. One of the things I noticed both last year and this year is that the streets of Ohio towns are lined with banners of military service people. The street light poles throughout the towns fly banners commemorating the service men and women from the town and from the area.

As we finished our stay we moved north to Michigan. But as I’ve said previously, that’s a story for next month.

Thanks for riding along.

Stay Safe.

The month of June started with us landing in the Fayetteville, Bentonville, Bella Vista area of Arkansas. We camped at Hog Valley RV & Treehouse Park near Fayetteville which is about 10 minutes south of Bentonville. Our first day there was the 2023 Bike Fest, a mountain bike festival in Bentonville. It was a collection of Bicycle and bike parts vendors galore along with food vendors. There was a jump park setup where riders could exhibit their level of jumping and airborne tricks. There had been a cyclocross race just prior to us arriving along with a short mtb race. Trials riders were practicing their craft on man made obstacles of rocks, tree stumps and tree logs. If you’re not familiar with trials riding, it is very different. The bikes look like small BMX bikes, something your pre teen would ride. There is no seat in most cases or the seat is attached to the frame. The riders do not sit on the seat, they stand the entire time. The object is to navigate the course of obstacles without falling off the obstacle or the bike in the shortest amount of time. These riders would jump their bike from the ground up onto a log that was 4 ft in the air, traverse the log, come to a stop and hop over to a rock, landing on 1 tire, stand there until they had their balance and hop to another obstacle. Their skill is amazing. There was to be an international championship event the following day, but we did not attend.

My first mtb ride in this mountain biking mecca was on Mt Kessler. I consider myself to be an intermediate rider and mainly ride the blue (intermediate) trails. Bentonville takes blue trails to another level. The blue trails on Mt Kessler would have been black diamond trails in the west. It was a great ride and workout. While I was riding, Teri was hiking. She found a turtle that needed some assistance before it got run over on the trail.

As we said previously, life doesn’t stop because we are on the road. My doctor had requested that I get some lab work done so we arranged for that. The windshield on the Jeep had cracked from the cold weather and snow in Colorado, so we got the glass replaced.

The Phat Tire bike shop has 4 different shops in the region. I stopped into the one in Bella Vista. The 2 guys in the shop were super helpful on describing some awesome places to ride. The next day I rode the Back 40 in Bella Vista. This was a 25 mile loop, blue trail that was more in line with the type of blue trails in the west.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include Sarge in the activities. He eats breakfast as soon as we get up which is usually between 5 and 6 am. Then when it’s light outside, we’ll let him out to wander. If we don’t let him out, he whines for half an hour. Typically he will check back in about every 1-2 hours. Sometimes we have to track him down. While we were here, he caught 2 baby bunnies. They did not appear to be injured and we released them into the woods at the park. In the evenings, Sarge will crash on the floor while we watch TV, or work on the blog. When he’s ready for bed, he is a pest. He crawls up into Teri’s arms or crawls across the dining table to put his face in my face. If I’m working on the computer, he will walk across the keyboard so I can’t work. Then it’s bedtime and he curls up on the bed with us.

On another day we hit the trails. Teri completed an 8 mile hike while I was riding. As I was nearing the last couple of miles on this 25 mile loop, I came across a couple who were hiking with their dog. As I started to pass them, I realized that I recognized the male. I stopped and immediately realized it was one of the guys from the shop from the day before. I chatted with him and his wife for several minutes before moving on. (I’m sorry I don’t remember your name if you’re reading this).

This was the 2nd longest stop in our travels as we were there for 2 weeks. What did we do? Well, bike, hike, fish and sightsee. We toured the downtown areas of Bentonville, Fayetteville and Bella Vista. We drove out to Beaver Dam and Beaver Creek. We tried to fish Beaver Lake and got poured on when it started raining. We took a drive to Devils Dam which is a rock dam built by the CCC. There was some amazing architecture to see and we got rained on. We then sought out Natural Dam, again a rock dam which provides a water play area for the locals. Lee Creek was a hike, bike and fish destination. Of course we also got our scheduled workouts done so we could keep Kevin happy. My last mtb ride before we left the area was Centennial Park. The park was designed to increase tourism and was built upon hearing it would be the host for the 2021 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup. The 2022 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup and the 2022 UCI World Cup races were both held at this location as well. Having the opportunity to ride on some internationally acclaimed trails was a treat for me.

Several days before we left the park, we finally met our neighbors. They are very active as we are so our paths did not cross until this time. Kenny, Natalie and 2 daughters and Maggie (their labradoodle) are from Florida but are in the area as Kenny is working here. We had a great time visiting with them our last few days and wished we could have met them sooner.

We decided we really wanted an opportunity to fish before we left the area, so we booked a site at the Town of Beaver RV park located at Table Rock Lake. All the routing maps I use which show RV friendly routes said there was a weight limit and low clearance trying to get to the park and our motorhome was too heavy and too tall. A phone call to the park confirmed that we could get there by following a specific route as the park was before the restricted bridge. As we turned onto the road that led to the park, there was a sign that told trucks and RV’s to turn around due to the restrictions. Confused, we turned around and drove back to the nearest development. I checked the routing maps again and still could not see how to access the park. Another call to the park and they confirmed that the park entrance was prior to the restricted bridge. We turned around and retraced our path. We eventually got to the park but not without some concerning moments. While driving the extremely narrow and twisting road we hit a tree branch that was hanging down into the road. How this had not been knocked off prior to us passing under it, I don’t know. We did not sustain any damage fortunately. Then there was a sign across the road indicating the low clearance of 11 ft 6 inches. Our motorhome is 12’10”. Yep, the sign is the clearance height of the bridge and we hit that with a loud clang. Again, no damage fortunately and we were able to roll into our site for the next several days.

We pulled out our fly fishing rods and waded into the lake/river to fish. The water was surprisingly warm. I was amazed to see some type of building foundation sitting under about 2 feet of water off the bank. I never did learn what had been there. We learned that one of the best places to catch trout was at the Beaver Dam tailwaters. These are the river waters below the Beaver Dam. As the water is coming from several hundred feet below the surface, the water is cold and perfect habitat for trout. We put our waders on and wandered out into the river. After a couple of hours, we had caught several fish but couldn’t keep any. As they are trying to build the trout population, any fish between 13 and 16 inches have to be released back into the river. Can you guess how many of our fish were in the slot? Yep, all of them. But we had fun. Then the warning horn sounded indicating that the TVA (TN Valley Authority) was going to be releasing water out of the dam to generate power and we had about 15 minutes to get out the river before the water started to rise and the CFS increased dramatically. The water will typically rise 4-6 ft when they are generating. As we left, we decided to stop in at the Beaver Dam Store to stock up on some flies and get more local information on fishing. We learned the clerks name was Carl Caso and that he was a guide. On a whim, we asked if he’d be able and willing to take us out. He said if he could find someone to staff the store for him on Sunday, he’d be happy to guide us. It all worked out and we met him at 630am Sunday morning. We loaded into his boat and he took us up river to several places where we got out of the boat and waded in the water to fish. By noon, we had caught our limit (10) of trout and had released almost as many. Carl not only knew the locations to find fish, he provided hands on instruction on casting, tying flies and lots of other instruction. As you’ll recall we had Connor to guide us in NM on the San Juan and we thought he was fantastic. Carl was just as fantastic as a guide and we had a great time.

The height and weight restrictions? That was a single lane bridge with a 10,000 lb weight limit and an 11′ clearance. The ‘road’ was still wood planks set on steel beams. We were a bit nervous driving over it in the Jeep but there were no mishaps. There is no way the motorhome would fit. As I said, the motorhome is over a foot taller than the bridge height and 30,000 lbs heavier than the restrictions. The bridge spans Beaver River and Table Rock Lake.

Eventually it was time to leave. As we drove out of the park to retrace the 5 mile drive back to the highway, we drove very slow. The road was very narrow, twisting with blind corners and no shoulders. Several times Teri thought we were going to drop the tires off the pavement as she looked out the window. As we drove, cars started to pile up behind us and there was no way for them to pass and no place for me to pull over. As we approached the intersection of the state highway, I saw a pull off on the right as we rounded a corner. There had been a lot going on as we approached this corner and I became distracted. As I pulled to the right to pull off the roadway to allow the cars to pass, the passenger rear dipped hard to the right and we felt a hard bump. I looked in the mirror to see the jeep bouncing onto the shoulder. As we stopped, the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) started beeping loudly and continuously. I got out of the motorhome to see what had happened. The rear tires had dropped off the pavement and there was a lip of about 4″ that became a small gully. In coming off the pavement and into the gully, the bead of the outside rear dual tire had broken and now the tire was no longer inflated. Worse, the aluminum wheel was badly bent and no longer usable. 4 hours later, we were back on the road. JD from Natural State Towing was one person we talked to who said he’d be able to help if Josh could not help us. Josh from J&M Mobile Tire Service was able to source a wheel and tire for us and drove out to meet us and fixed everything. This incident really hurt my pride as the entire situation was of my doing and allowing distractions to override my concentration. But as with all of our adventures, everything worked out and we are still traveling and exploring.

Our next stop was at the RiverTime RV Park in Van Buren, MO. A very small community but very welcoming. As we pulled into the park Treva and Terry met us and guided us in. Terry and Treva are the owners of the park. They currently have 15 RV spaces and plans for another 15. I met up with Terry the next morning and he explained that he and Treva had just purchased the property about a year ago and were in the process of building it. He described his vision for the park and Teri and I provided some initial thoughts. The park will be the primary location for the town’s July 4th celebration this year. They told us we needed to check out Big Spring before we left, so we did. I couldn’t believe the amount of water that was flowing from underground and out of the rocks in the side of the hill. The entire river water was supplied by this underground spring. We tried to fish the Current River in the area but it was flowing too fast.

As we rolled eastward, the agriculture and the landscape changed from fields of grass (hay) and soy beans to corn. There were fields of corn as far as the eye could see. We also found ourselves following the Trail of Tears Auto Route. We learned more about this later but knew basically that this was the trail the Cherokee Indians had travelled when they were removed from their homes and marched westward.

As we drove to our next stop, Elk Harbor RV Park in Cumberland City, TN, we established our landmark for the week. 4 towering smoke stacks that are about 1000 ft high with steam coming out of the top of 2 of them. These columns shot the steam exhaust from the Tennessee Valley Authority steam powered power plant. I believe these stacks were the tallest in the state. The TVA provides the power and electricity for the state. There were several signs in the area advising of hot water waste being discharged into the Cumberland River. However, there was a designated fishing area alongside the power plant. We didn’t try it. Our RV space was large but the ground was soft. When I put the stabilizer jacks down, they merely sank into the ground creating a hole about 6 inches deep. I retracted the jacks and put 5 1 inch tall 12×12 inch square plastic blocks under the jacks and tried to level the coach again. It was better, but the blocks sank as well. When it was time to leave, I couldn’t pull the blocks from the ground. There was a small forest of trees behind the coach and Sarge had a great time roaming through it. This park is not on our list of favorites. We fished several areas but didn’t catch any fish. In our travels, we came across the Loretta Lynn Ranch. There was a Jeep event going on that weekend and there were Jeeps all over the place. Topless, doorless, lifted, stock they had everything. Some were covered in mud, others clean. Everyone looked like they were having a grand time. We saw signs for various events, such as hill climbing, mud bog and others. We did not partake. We also toured the Ft Donelson Battlefield. It was interesting that the walls of the fort were a mound of dirt that was 12 ft high on the outside. The Confederate Army decided to save money and time by not building a log fence. The tour was an auto tour, where you drove to the various stations and listened to the narration on your phone. The amount of property that was encompassed by the fort was amazing. The last stop of the tour was the hotel where the Confederate Army surrendered the fort and relinquished possession of the fort to the Union Army. We also took a side trip to Dunbar Cave State Park. A natural cave in the rock provided 60 degree air conditioning going back to the 30’s. This became a hangout for folks on the hot muggy nights to sit, visit and dance in ‘air conditioning’. Some big name acts performed here as well as the Big Bands from that era.

I was able to get a mtb ride completed in nearby Clarksville, TN but found there weren’t a lot of riding in this area. There was not any gravel riding and the roads were not made for safe riding.

Then it was time for our reunion with my cousins. As we made our way into the Sevierville (say severe ville, not seever ville) and Pigeon Forge, TN we were met with a sea of traffic. 3 lanes each direction with cars stacked as far as the eye could see. Along the sides of the road were amusement parks galore. It was sensory overload as you inched your way along the highway with the jungle of amusement parks. It remineded us of the Las Vegas Strip. Only later did we learn that this is an amusement park destination and we were here during summer school break. We spent a lot of time searching for fishing spots and found beautiful scenery but no fish. Are you starting to see a pattern? The cousins rolled into town, Rob and Donna from TN, Aunt Gladys and Teresa from TN and VA, Bethany and Aunt Gloria from NH. We missed those who couldn’t attend. The log house they rented was amazing. It was huge with 3 stories set in the forest. We had a great time visiting, catching up, sightseeing and just enjoy the company. One of the trips we took was the Cades Cove Loop road. This is a one-way road that loops through the forest with opportunities to see wildlife. At one point we stopped and could just see a glimpse of the back of a bear in the distance. We also stopped at a site called The Sinks. The road into this area had once been a railroad for the timber and lumber industry. The Sinks is a spot on the river that had been blasted open to float logs downriver to the mills. In the course of blasting the rock, a waterfall was created and below that a swimming hole. As we watched, folks would jump from the cliff about 20-30 ft above the water into the deep, cold water. Again, we enjoyed watching but no way was I jumping. We also stopped at a historic church. There were several cars in the parking lot and a group of 3 men standing near the door of the church. I asked if there was a private event happening and the one young man said there was a wedding. I asked if it was his and congratulated him when he said it was. He was called away and I was left with another young man who I assumed was the best man. We began talking and found out that he had worked for Mesa PD but after I had left Chandler. He currently works for the state of TN. I didn’t get his name but wished him a safe career in TN. Later, he contacted me through Instagram as I had provided him with our non-business card.

After a long weekend, it was time to say goodbye to the cousins with promises of future meetups. One thing I found disappointing was the fact that there was no bike riding in the area. No mtb, no gravel, no road. I could have gone to the top of Ober Mt to ride the ski trails but it was highly recommended that riders have a full face helmet and full pads (elbow and knee) and a bike with a lot of suspension. I don’t normally ride that style as I am considered a cross country rider (XC) and not a downhill rider so I don’t have any of that equipment and my bike isn’t built with that type of suspension. It was disappointing to be in such a beautiful area and not be able to ride it. But that is what drove us to our next stop, Ellijay, GA.

Part of our drive to Ellijay was along the Ocoee River on US 64. The road is narrow with no shoulders and very twisty. On one side is the mountain and on the other is a drop to the river. There are warning signs that vehicles may cross the centerline. We did see a tractor-trailer that had the rear axles of the trailer in our lane as it wound it’s way along the road. I was nervous as we made our way around the blind corners and was especially cautious when 18 wheelers came our way. Eventually we arrived in Ellijay, GA. Ellijay is considered the mountain biking capital of GA. I stopped in at the Cartecay Bike Shop and the fellows there were extremely helpful in identifying areas to ride mtb. If we’re ever back in the area, I will surely stop in and see them again. We had the opportunity to ride and hike several trails in the area and really enjoyed our time there. We jumped on a train for a 1 hour ride from Blue Ridge to McCaysville,GA/Copperhill, TN. These 2 towns are separated by a blue line through the center of town. Teri and I tested out a long distance, multi-state relationship for a short time as we were separated by the state line. Copperhill was established to support the copper mining industry in the area. We expected a town full of history but instead found a tourist attraction. Bars, restaurants, boutique and souvenir shops galore. We did stop into the Taccoa River Outfitters. As we entered the store, I heard a voice welcome us in. I didn’t see anyone. Then the young man stood up from behind the counter. As I stepped closer I saw what he was doing and asked if he was tying flies. He said yes he was. We told him we were just there to look through the store so he sat down to work on the fly. I asked if he minded if I watched and he graciously allowed me that pleasure. I asked several questions as he finished tying this fly. I could see a fly box on the counter and asked if he was a guide and he said he was. I presumed he ties his own flies for his guiding trips and he confirmed that. He then handed me the fly he had just finishing tying. It was exquisite. I asked if he sold them and he pointed to the display of flies in the store. I asked if he sold any such as the one he had just made and he said “No, but that one is for you”. After our 2 hour layover in town we boarded the train back to Blue Ridge. Another side trip had us on the Taccoa River Swinging bridge. This is a steel cabled suspension bridge over the Taccoa River. Across the bridge is a local favorite swimming hole. Our last stop of the day was at Expedition Bigfoot. Teri is a huge fan of Sasquatch so we had to check this out. Much like our stop in Roswell, NM where the stories of aliens make you think about other inhabited planets, the research and stories of a Sasquatch also make you think about creatures here. It was quite an interesting tour.

Before we left the area we drove to Collegedale near Chattanooga for a bike ride and hike. Afterwards we met my cousin Rob and his wife Donna for lunch before returning “home”. The drive home was on the Trail of Tears and also the Georgia Federal Highway which was used during the Civil War. As we returned back to the coach, the skies opened up and dropped buckets of water.

The Ellijay and Blue Ridge and southern Tennessee areas are ones we want to return to and spend more time. We drove out of Ellijay further south to Claxton, GA but that is a story for next month.

Stay Safe.

May is the month of mays: It may rain, it may snow, it may be sunny, it may be cloudy but we knew it was going to be an adventure. Hang on for the ride.

We got up in the morning all set to roll out of Peacock Meadows RV park in South Fork, CO with resolution to return. It was a great visit. Everything was put away and locked up, the slides were retracted, the leveling jacks were in the travel position, the Jeep was connected, Teri was in her seat and I was in mine, the only thing missing was Sarge. He was too far away for the tracker to register his location or for us to hear the musical tune it plays. 2 hours later, we found him. He had wandered further than normal and we think he was a bit anxious because when he saw me and realized it was me, he came running. Finally on the road. We took the San Juan Skyway into Silverton and then the Million Dollar Highway into Ouray as our next stop. Both of these have some amazing views but as the driver, you had better keep your eyes on the road. The road is a narrow 2 lane road with tight switchbacks. We could not find a definitive source for how the Million Dollar Highway was named although there are several suggestions such as the cost to build, the amount of gold found in the hills are just 2 of them. As we came around 1 particular corner, there was a CO State Patrol vehicle on the right shoulder with emergency lights flashing. We slowed and rounded the corner. A passenger car had veered into the canyon wall on the opposite side of the road. How it missed any oncoming traffic and didn’t flip over is a miracle. I didn’t see anything in the way of tire marks, debris or other marks on the road to suggest what happened, the old traffic/motor cop in me coming out, but then I wasn’t able to study it as there was oncoming traffic and the road was down to 1 lane at this point. The damage to the car didn’t seem severe so I am of the assumption there were no serious injuries and the Trooper was just waiting for the tow truck.

As we dropped into Ouray we were presented with a beautiful sight although I couldn’t look much, remember what I said about switchbacks. Yeah, there are several just as you come off the mountain into town. The town sits in a valley with the canyon walls towering several hundred feet above. The canyon can’t be more than a mile wide at this point. As you look through the valley you can see the snow capped mountains in the distance. Ouray is called the Switzerland of America for the way it sits in the valley. As there had been a late snow melt, there were waterfalls cascading off the canyon walls to feed into the Uncompaghre river that flows through the town and the valley. Our campsite was within 100 feet of the river in downtown.

We took a day drive into Telluride. Again, a wonderful little town that has grown from when I visited as a high schooler to ski there. As we drove into town, I could see the ski slopes dropping off the mountain into town. It used to be called The Plunge and as I recall was a black diamond run. I never skied it and haven’t been on skis since high school. It was obvious the town is built for tourism as many of the shops were closed since it was a weekday. We found this to be the norm in many small tourist driven towns. They gear up for the weekend and then take Monday and Tuesday to recover.

Back in Ouray we walked the town. We tried to hike to Box Canyon Falls, but it was closed for maintenance. Again, they are gearing up for the summer stampede. As we were standing in one of the stores, we heard a loud siren emitting from the center of town. It reminded me of an avalanche warning that I’ve seen/heard in tv movies. The business owner smiled and said it was just the 12 noon notification and test. He then proceeded to tell us that 1 siren was 12 noon and a test. 3 sirens were an indication of a traffic collision. I don’t remember what 2 sirens were. This was the emergency paging system for the volunteer fire department. We learned that cell coverage can be spotty so the siren is used along with more current technology to summon emergency services. We heard the 3 siren a couple more times during the days we stayed. Before we left we took a drive to the Ridgway Reservoir and spent a couple hours fishing. We kept 4 trout and threw twice that many back.

Next up was Denver, CO. We stayed at the Denver West KOA which is west of the metropolitan area, still in the mountains. Our campsite was on the edge of the mountain with a view into the valley where Central City and Black Hawk were nestled. The road from the KOA down into the valley was a steep twisting road that I had no desire to try and ride on the bike. The 2 towns are tourist towns and are primarily casino driven. It looked like a Las Vegas strip with all the casinos, except the roads are narrow and steep. The towns are remnants of the mining days. They are the only towns with casinos in CO that are not on an Native Indian reservation. The town leadership had petitioned the Governor decades ago to grant them the opportunity to run the casinos as a source of revenue and now you see the results of that.

We ran into Golden and spent the afternoon with Teri’s nephew Bill. His wife Holly had just graduated with her PhD in pharmaceuticals and was off visiting and relaxing with her mom before she got back to the grind so we missed seeing her.

The old fashioned train ride in Georgetown sounded like a fun afternoon so off we went. The train is a narrow gauge so the rails are 3 ft wide instead of the standard 4ft 8in. This is due to the steepness of the mountains and the sharpness of the curves as the train lumbers up the mountainside. The engine was steam operated so as we started up the mountain you could actually hear the chug-a-chug-a as the power was applied. The whistle could be heard throughout the valley and there are a sequence of whistle blows as various indicators such as starting, crossing a road, rounding a blind bend, etc. The train started in Georgetown, a small mining town that again, is tourist driven as there is no mining any longer. The ride ends about 1 hour up the mountain at the Silver Plume development. This was the origination of the Silver Plume Mine. Can you guess what they pulled out of that mine? Yep, silver along with some other minerals. There is an opportunity to do a mine tour that we declined as we have toured several mines over the last couple of years.

Throughout our travels, Kevin keeps us on target with our workouts and nutrition. In my dreams I can hear him saying “Come on John, only 3 more, you got this, what do you mean you can’t do a pushup, you ate WHAT?!” We do 2 workouts per week with 1 of them a Zoom and the nutrition discussion is Zoom so he can closely monitor our progress. He says “that’s what you pay me for…”. It’s working because we are getting stronger and slimming down.

Clear Creek runs through the mountains above Golden so we took a day to fish. We walked a lot, lost a lot of flys in the trees and marveled at the beauty. We didn’t catch any fish as the runoff is still too strong. We gaped at the rock climbers as they worked their way up the cliff walls like a lizard climbing a rock. There are several popular spots along the river in this area for rock climbing. We watched as 1 young lady was trying to climb up to her partner but was having trouble. There was a rock outcropping that forced her to lean out away from the wall while hanging on over head to pull herself up. She tried for about 20 minutes and called it a day and worked her way back down about 50 feet to the landing. I’ve got nothing but admiration for her efforts, as you wouldn’t find me even putting the harness on much less trying to climb.

We next connected with Les and Marlene. I had met Marlene when I started working at Phoenix College in 2006. Les, her husband was also a police officer with the District at a different college. Shortly after I was promoted to Commander at GateWay Community College, Les was promoted to Commander at Scottsdale Community College. When it was appropriate for them, they retired from the District and moved to Broomfield, CO. The Denver metropolitan area is very similar to the Phoenix metro area in that there are cities all connected with only an invisible line separating them. Broomfield is one of those cities similar to a Goodyear or Chandler. Les and Marlene cleared their schedules to show us around. Downtown Golden, Red Rock Park, the amphitheater and Lookout Mountain were all on the agenda. Lookout Mountain is the gravesite of Buffalo Bill Cody, and I’m going to assume the Wanted sign was his. It was a fantastic day. The following day Les and I had plans to go a bike ride on the paved multi-use trail that winds it’s way through the metro area. Teri had decided to stay home and relax. Unfortunately it started to rain and was too much to ride. We spent the day visiting and just enjoying conversation. That afternoon I stopped off to visit Megan at the Fire Station. I met her several years ago at The Cactus Cup race and we have stayed in touch. It was interesting to catch up albeit a short time. It rained all day, into the evening and into the night. The next morning we woke to several inches of snow. We were scheduled to spend 1 more night at the KOA but with the temps and the snow, we decided to get off the mountain. I was concerned the roads would be icy in the morning and I did not look forward to driving down the mountain in a motorhome on icy roads. We packed up and headed down the mountain. It was a slow drive with the rain and snow. We pulled into Cabela’s in Broomfield for the night and had an impromptu dinner with Les and Marlene. The next morning we were saying goodbye to Colorado and hello to Nebraska.

We hit the road to Big Springs, NE where we spent the night. We endured 48+ hours of rain. I kept looking for Noah and his Ark. The sky started to lighten and we thought there might be light at the end of the tunnel when we had an hour of sunlight, but it turned out to be a train. The rain continued with 30 mph crosswinds.

The next morning we woke to sunshine and no rain or wind. It was going to be a glorious day but here came that train again. We got ready for an early start. Everything was hooked up, I put the motorhome in Drive and we started forward, for about 10 feet. Everything stopped and the left rear was tilting downward. I tried reverse, forward, reverse, forward to rock it but nothing worked. As I surveyed the situation from outside, we had buried the left rear dual tires in the mud and were sitting on the frame. A phone call to Nadia (owner) resulted in Mark (her husband) showing up in about 15 minutes. After discussing options, he called a friend who showed up about 30 minutes later. During that time I received an education on Nebraska farming and ranching. George (I think that was his name) showed up with a heavy duty wrecker with Amy’s Towing Service listed on the side. He hooked up a chain to the receiver hitch and pulled us out in 5 minutes, with no damage. It took longer to hook everything up than it did to pull us out. Off we went.

As we moved our way east on I-80 we came across the Archway spanning the freeway. We decided to stop and be a tourist. The Archway is in Kearney, NE. Say Kearney with me, it’s not like Kearney, AZ. This is the Archway for the start of the trek west in the 1800’s. The California Trail, The Oregon Trail all started from here as well as the railroad which I-80 now generally follows. There is a wonderful audio tour with lifelike models in the Archway that depict the travels and the move westward of the settlers by wagon, railroad and cars through the 1960’s. I caught Teri in an awkward moment. There is a model of a young man coaxing the animal team pulling the wagon up a hill while a young woman is pushing to assist the animals. Teri is standing alongside looking at her phone and listening to the audio tour. It smacks of irony.

We arrived in Spirit Lake, IA and parked at the Cenla RV Park. Spirit Lake, Okoboji and a few other towns all make up the Iowa Great Lakes area. It was explained that there are about 8 lakes in the area. Our primary reason for being there was to hang out with Megan and Devin. You’ve heard of them if you’ve been following the blog. We met them in AJ last year and we all went to Tombstone and Bisbee together to cause trouble back in December. We spent just shy of 2 weeks with them. They introduced us to more of their crazy friends, to include Sandy and Curt, Tami, Adam, and several others who we unfortunately don’t remember the names. If you’re reading this, we’re sorry and we’ll have to reintroduce ourselves when we roll through there again. Many of the evenings were spent sitting on the patio playing cards and watching the turkeys and deer in the meadow. We did spend 1 evening boating on the lake. Teri and I tried fishing various streams and lakes without any luck.

The Tulip Festival was being held in Orange City that weekend so we took a drive over. Was I ever in for a surprise. My thought was that there would be street vendors in the center park with displays of Tulips much like a farmer’s market. Was I ever wrong. As we rolled into town I was astonished to see people of all ages wearing Dutch clothing and wooden shoes. There were no tulip vendors in site. The town square had a large windmill reminiscent of the windmills in Holland. The streets were closed and filled with people sitting in lawn chairs along the street and an announcers booth announcing the parade participants. It was a heritage parade. The Tulip Festival commemorates the Dutch heritage of Orange City. The building facades are Dutch in design and the costumes were elaborate. The parade also had huge demonstrations of dancers of all ages participating in heritage dances. One of the acts was the street washing so the street would be clean enough for the queen. In this case it was an opportunity for the young people to throw water on each other as they walked the parade route.

During our time there we reached the end of our 3 week detox cleanse that was suggested/required by Kevin. The goal was to give the kidneys a rest from the toxins we consume everyday. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I had expected when he first explained it. No dairy, low protein but same amount of food. Damn, it was hard giving up ice cream and coffee. But we got through it and felt great. Fortunately we were able to complete it in time to have some nice dinners with our friends. The Little Swan Lake Winery was an exceptional favorite. A 3 piece band sang for us, Megan and I killed a wonderful bottle of wine (I’m not a wine drinker) and the food was very good. Watching the bison in the fields was special.

We fished the area and thanks to Adam and Tami, we used their boat dock and caught several sunfish. Teri tied on to a large fish that dived under the dock but it was able to get away before we could see it. Yes, it really was the one that got away. We spent a day at Arnolds Park which is a city operated amusement park. The marine museum was especially interesting as the stories and photos go back to the 30’s. There are a couple of boats that had been recovered from the bottom of the lakes after having been sunken since the 30’s. We took a walk through the Tilting House. None of the floors are level and it requires hand holds to navigate. We continued to ride and hike and complete our workouts with Kevin. When I started working with Kevin, I had an issue with my right leg. It felt weak. We worked on strengthening it before we hit the road and it was feeling great through the races in NM. But it finally started being an issue. I went to Dixon Family Chiropractic on a reference. I met with Dr Adelee Dixon who owns the practice with her husband, Walt and is also a bike rider and personal coach. She understood my mental anguish although I was able to ride without much issue. I was able to get 4 visits. Each time I felt great when she finished working on me, but the discomfort would not go away. On the last visit she took X-rays and suggested that I potentially had a degenerative hip joint. She said it might require a hip replacement. That was not what I wanted to hear. I contacted my Dr in Chandler and we made plans to see an orthopedic when we return in the fall. On a side note, Adelee said she had overheard I was a police officer and asked where. Chandler, of course. She said she knew a police officer from Chandler who had been killed in the line of duty. Of course I asked who and she said it was Carlos Ledesma. I didn’t know Carlos personally but I know of him and his sacrifice. As we talked we both started to tear up as she told stories of meeting Carlos and his wife Sherrie. It always amazes me at how small the world can be.

As we prepared to leave, we asked about staying longer but we were told that there was no vacancy. The summer season was starting and all the RV parks and campgrounds were filled up. It surprised me but so many of the folks who came to the Iowa Great Lakes area rent the RV space for the summer, park their RV and only use it on weekends as they return to their homes to work for the week.

So the month of May has ended. It rained, it snowed, it was sunny, it was cloudy, it was calm and it was windy. The month lived up to it’s name and we had a great time. Thanks for traveling with us. See you next month as we travel to Arkansas and Tennessee.

Stay Safe.

As we started planning our summer adventure it seemed odd to see snow falling on the mountains around the valley. The Superstitions, 4 Peaks and McDowells all had layers of white stuff. It gave pause to wonder what the rest of the world would look like as we left the Phoenix area. We are spoiled and tend to forget the weather in other parts of the state and country. We also had heavy rain on the first day of the month and mid month.

We had decided we wanted to learn to fly fish so we found a class at the AZ Fly Fishing shop in Phoenix. A day long event where we learned to tie knots, were schooled on gear, the different types of flies, and then we went to a park to learn and practice casting. The instructors make it look so easy and effortless. I hope I can be half as good as they are….

After one of my previous races, Teri decided I wasn’t training hard enough so we had ordered a single speed custom built bike from Kaolin at the Flat Tire Bike Shop in Cave Creek. I picked it up a week before our travel day. As of this writing, I’ve only had 2 good rides on it. It is different from my full suspension geared bike. It’s going to be fun.

Of course no trip can be taken without maintenance on the vehicles. We took the motorhome to Roberts Tires to have the tires rotated and to identify a leak on one of the rear duals. I have a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) on the tires and one of the sensors had continually identified a low tire (outside passenger dual). I had checked the tire regularly with an air gauge and it always read properly filled. For grins I decided to check the inner dual. Guess what!!?? The sensor was on the wrong tire. Roberts fixed the leak and we were ready. A few final Dr. appts, get the motorhome washed and we were ready. We couldn’t leave without a final meal with my daughters, grandkids and friends. We met Nichole, Landon, Cooper, Melanie, Tom, Kennedy and Brooke for dinner at The Thirsty Lion and had a great visit. We had breakfast with Joe and Richard as well during the week prior to leaving. We always have a great visit with everyone when we get the opportunity.

The Cactus Cup mtb race was the final race for me in the valley. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked in my placing or my finish times. My coach Kevin had to remind me we had changed my training program and he knew my expectations were too high, but he didn’t say anything so as to not deflate my balloon. After much discussion, I felt better as I had fulfilled the underlying goals. Hammer Nutrition has always been a big sponsor of this race. Had the opportunity to meet with some other Hammer sponsored riders as well. Cory is always a kick in the pants and we love hanging out with him. He does a great job keeping the bike suspension in tip top working condition as well. Stillwell Suspension is the name of the shop in Scottsdale. stillwellperformance.com

As soon as the race was over, I hit the road to TX. We had offered to let my grandson, Damian, “protect” Teri’s jeep while we were traveling. He readily accepted our offer. So, I left Apache Junction on Sunday afternoon and drove 1200 miles to Harlingen, TX arriving on Tue morning. I spent several hours with Damian and my granddaughter, Mia while teaching Damian about the jeep. It is the first vehicle he has ever ‘owned’ and he has never been exposed to a diesel vehicle, so there was a slight learning curve. When we were done, they drove me to the airport and I flew home arriving late Tuesday night. Wednesday was spent getting everything ready to say goodbye to AZ.

We were on the road on Thursday, March 16 headed to Lake Havasu for an MTB race. Sarge had to say goodbye to Riley, the other cat in the RV park. In the race I did much better and had a fun race. The race was a bit different than others. I went out hard and hit the single track in 3rd. 1st was gone, not to be caught. 2nd slowly pulled away and I couldn’t hang with him. Jeff sat on my wheel until about mile 5 when he pulled around. He finished 3rd. I was too hot going into a corner and had to slow and was passed. At the top of a long climb, I stalled and the chain fell off. Got passed again, now I’m sitting in 6th. A mile later I caught #5 and I’m back in 5th. As I started the 2nd lap, I could see 4th in front of me about 30 seconds ahead. I was able to catch him several minutes later. We fist bumped as I passed and we encouraged each other. In a steep climb, I stalled again and he rode past me. At the 18 mile mark of a 20 mile race, I was able to catch and pass him again and that’s how it ended. I finished in 4th. It was fun chasing and trading places with John. That’s how racing should be. We had a chance to visit with a lot of people and Teri was talking about riding, racing, and our adventures past and future. We allow Sarge to wander around the campsite and monitor him through an Apple AirTag. Surprisingly he stayed very close to the motorhome and didn’t roam as far as he has been known to. We asked him about this but all he said was ‘meow’.

We took a drive to the Bill Williams Wildlife refuge to do some fishing. We stepped onto a dock and began setting up our gear. As we were using fly gear, we would need some extra room for casting. As we were preparing to cast, some guy came onto the deck and set up about 10 ft from us paying no mind whatsoever to us. Some people are just ignorant and rude. We packed up our gear and went to another area. Unfortunately, the wind was too strong and impeded any casting so we headed back to the car. As we were packing up, a gentleman about our age approached and asked some questions about the area. He had a strong european accent. It turns out, Chris is from Germany but has been living in Canada. He was traveling in a cab over camper and pickup around the country. We shared some stories, showed him some of our travel apps and had a nice visit. It was a good thing, because the highway had a backup that lasted about 2 hours due to a near head-on crash. Fortunately there were no serious injuries according to the officer I spoke with.

As we left Havasu and headed north towards I-40 and Kingman, it was windy with the winds from the south that had us struggling. It required concentration but wasn’t scary. As we rolled through Williams there were several feet of snow to the sides of the interstate and ADOT had not even bothered to clear the drives into the rest areas. The depressions along the interstate were full of water which I have not seen in a long time. Our destination was Cottonwood for another mtb race.

We rolled into the Verde Valley Fairgrounds and set up camp. We only had electric service but there was a water fill station and a dump station available. It rained the first night there (Sunday) and the dirt grounds became saturated and muddy. Teri started doing laundry and after 4 days we had to dump the gray tank and fill the fresh water. It rained again on Monday and Tuesday all day and night. You can imagine what the mud holes looked like now. The winds were 20 mph and fortunately we didn’t have any problems. We took a drive into Prescott Valley on Monday for fun and Teri was looking for an Espresso coffee maker. Apparently no one drinks espresso any more because we couldn’t find one in the 3 stores we checked. On the way back to Cottonwood we stopped off in Jerome and had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. The food was delicious. You have to try it. On Tuesday we went back to Jerome in the rain to check out the various stores. The folks in Jerome are very friendly and enjoy showing off their wares. As we drove north into Jerome, we could see the clouds coming down off Mingus Mt. that just enveloped the town. I am always mesmerized by the sight of roads that just cling to the side of a mountain. That afternoon we drove to the Verde River to see about fishing. The river was in flood stage with the brown water cascading through the river banks. Too high and too muddy to fish.

Wednesday we drove to Deadhorse State Park to try our hand at fishing in 1 of the 3 ponds in the park. As we were doing our best, a man who had been fishing to our left, called over and asked if we’d like some help. Of course we accepted. He spent about 15 minutes giving us casting pointers. He had such an easy cast, I can’t believe I’ll ever be able to match that. After he left, we were still practicing our casting when a man walked up from my right and said ‘you’re back casting too far’. We talked for about 30 minutes. His name was Randy and he works as a guide in Wyoming in the summer. He left, we practiced some more and called it a day. Still no fish. Thursday I took the single speed out to pre ride the 1st half of the race course. That was a tough ride. As I finished, the RV repair guys had shown up at the motorhome. They were early and they were there to make adjustments to the awning. The awning was hitting the slide out when the awning was being retracted. They spent about an hour and had it fixed. We highly recommend Currier Master Mobile RV repair. Friday I went out on the full suspension bike and pre rode the 2nd half of the race course. Afterwards we drove into old town historic Cottonwood and braved the wind and rain.

Race Day, Verde Valley Rally, Hurty30 was a 30 mile race. Some brave souls opted for the 40 mile version. The course is tough with steep climbing and descending, rocky ledges to climb and drop off. Chloe Woodruff was the only person racing who I knew. We chatted pre race. She was doing the 40 mile option. Cory Stem was announcing and he is always a character. At race registration, there were no age categories listed or to select, so I figured it was an open category. Chloe passed me at my 20 mile mark and she finished 1st in her category. As I finished the race, I was physically and emotionally drained. I had beat my goal by 10 minutes. After calming down, I had to go to the bathroom. As I exited, Teri is yelling at me “They called you for podium, get over there”. What??!! I arrived at the podium just in time for photos and received my 2nd place bottle of wine donated by Confluence918 winery. I was ecstatic and pleasantly surprised. As we sat to eat we were in a conversation with Erik and his wife from Henderson, NV. Then it was time to leave. We walked to the car and Teri says ‘Guess what I just did’?! I said ‘No you didn’t’ and she just nodded her head. I said ‘How could you lock both sets of keys in the Jeep???!!!!!!!’ I slammed the window in frustration thinking of the various ways we could get in, including breaking a window. Then Teri said ‘the Jeep app!” Oh yeah. The app allowed us to unlock the jeep with our phones. We were good to go.

A quick stop in Apache Junction to pick up last minute mail and we were headed for New Mexico. Why? Another race, of course. Tim and Monica’s dog Tito didn’t want us to leave.

Our first stop in NM was in Silver City. As you drive north into the city you can see the huge open pit mine that gives the city it’s name. Silver, copper, gold and other minerals are all being pulled from the ground. The size of the operation is astounding. We had arrived a day earlier than planned at the Manzano’s RV park and our space was not available. They did have a boondocking (no hookups) space available and we parked there for the night. The next day we moved into our space (#15) for 2 days and then had to move to space #22 for the remainder of our stay. Not a huge inconvenience and the folks were extremely friendly. We took a drive into the city and walked the downtown area. The buildings are old and historic and has a very ‘home town’ feel. A quick stop in the Visitor’s Center to gather some information and marvel at the murals painted on the walls of the Center and we were on our way. There is a metal arch announcing the entry into Silver City. As you cross under the arch, you immediately see a huge ditch with water running through it. This is called The Ditch. When Silver City was originally founded, The Ditch was Main Street. The founders failed to realize that their Main Street was also the main channel for flooding waters. The Ditch is now 20 ft deep and and has walking paths along it. Obviously Main Street was moved. The majority of the streets in the historic area are narrow and are designated as One Way. The Ice Cream shops boast homemade ice cream and they are fantastic. The Ice Cream Emporium boasts 36 flavors of homemade ice cream. The interior is designed as a gathering place with several tables for sitting, table sized checker boards, air hockey and other games. The Army/Navy store is as authentic as you can find. It reminded me of the Surplus store in Mesa many years ago. High Desert Pies is a pizzeria with some excellent food with a view of the street from 2 stories up. It was a nice relaxing place.

We took a drive out to Whitewater Canyon to view the Catwalk. This was the location of a mining operation long, long ago. The catwalk has since been reconstructed but is still in the original location. The catwalk was used to hold a pipeline that carried water from the canyon down to the mouth of the canyon to provide power for the mill and drinking water for the workers. The miners would have to traverse the catwalk with nimble feet less they fall into the gorge with the roaring waters. As you walk along the concrete and steel catwalk, you can still see remnants of the original catwalk with steel cables attached to rings that are pounded into the rock walls. While eating lunch we fell into a conversation with Chris. He is a nomad from CA who is living in his Sprinter van. He was a life guard, a life guard instructor, a CHP officer and then moved into Search & Rescue over the course of his life. He had ‘Covid hair’ as he called it. It was silver as he is a couple of years older than me, braided and landed at the middle of his back. He loved to talk and said that was from his time of solitude during Covid.

A drive up to Bear Canyon Lake to try our hand at fishing was another day of casting practice. We stumbled across a huge waterfall on the drive there that isn’t marked on any maps or road signs. When we finished casting practice, we were packing up our gear. There was a family packing up their boat and gear as well. As the man approached, he asked ‘Are you Law Enforcement’? I said yes and asked how he figured that. He said “The Oakley’s and the decal on the jeep”. I live in my Oakley sunglasses. I have a full sized window decal of the Thin Blue Line flag on the rear side windows of the jeep. I asked ‘You too”? He said yes. His name was Javier and he is LEO for the Forest Service, just promoted to Investigator (detective) and assigned to the Silver City area. We wished him and his family well in his next 10 years to retirement.

We took a drive out to the City of Rocks State Park to visit with the Flintstones and Rubbles. Unfortunately they were out so we just toured the City. These are rock formations that have been carved by water and wind providing paths through the towering rock skyscrapers. Some very interesting formations were seen. Some formations you wonder how they ever got that way, especially the round rock boulder that is balancing on top of 3 smaller rocks.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that we were there for a race. We went to the Historic Ft Bayard area for a preview. Ft Bayard was once a Ft used to protect the Buffalo Soldiers and later brought back into service for WWII. The buildings are all still standing, however most have been boarded up. One of the larger buildings has been remolded into a museum and visitor center. There is also a tour available with numbered stops throughout the fort and descriptive narrative signs. The parade ground was to be used as the main venue and parking and camping. The fort also has its own Fire Department and the Forest Service uses some of the property for their operations as well. At the entrance to the fort is the Forgotten Veterans Memorial at Bataan Memorial Park. A fitting tribute.

Next up was the race, but’s for the next chapter. Thanks for riding along with us on our adventures. We hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave any comments. See you next month.

John & Teri

The month of April started with a bang, the bang of the starter’s pistol to start the Tommy Knocker 10, a 10 hour mtb race in Silver City, NM. The race course was a 13 mile loop that traversed the hills surrounding Ft Bayard. In those 13 miles were about 10 water crossings. They weren’t deep, the deepest maybe about 2-3 inches deep but the splash sure affected the drivetrain. After about 5-6 crossings the chain would be creaking and groaning, crying out “why are you doing this to me”? I finished 6 laps for a total of 74 miles. Don’t try to do the math. The first lap was a shortened parade lap around the venue to stretch the field out. The elevation was a killer and by the last lap, I was barely turning pedals but I finished. I finished in 11th of 22 in my age group. I considered that respectable.

We stayed at the Manzanos RV Park. The owners were extremely friendly and accommodating. We arrived a night early but they graciously met us at the main gate and led us to a boondocking space. The next morning we moved to our site. There was plenty of room and we had a view of the sun rising. After 2 days, we had to move to a different site as ours was reserved. We knew we would have to move before we arrived, so it was not a surprise. The 2nd site had a westerly view that sat on a ridge that gave us a wonderful view of the Silver City valley and the sunset.

We took a walk through downtown Silver City and admired all the old, original buildings on the main street. This was a rebuilt main street as the Main Street was now referred to as The Big Ditch. When the town was first founded, they established Main Street without realizing it was a river path. After rebuilding subsequent to the numerous washouts, main street was moved. There were large murals on the sides of buildings and an artist was in the process of painting one of them as we toured. Ft Bayard was also the site of the Bataan Memorial and the Forgotten Soldiers memorial. Ft Bayard was originally built for protection of the Buffalo Soldiers and then decommissioned. It was recommissioned for WWII and later decommissioned again and is now an historical site.

We toured much of the area to include Mimbres, the Catwalk and Lake Roberts. Mimbres is a small community with many small homes and a lot of agriculture. As we drove through Mimbres, we rounded a curve and were greeted with an unmarked waterfall. It was about 20 feet high and water just poured over the edge. The Catwalk is a landmark from a mining community from years past. The Catwalk received it’s name as the pipeline that was run from the canyon downstream to the mining mill and the community was built on a raised platform above the river. The miners had to walk like cats on the boards to work their way around the operations. The CCC and other federal agencies have since rebuilt the walkway for visitors but you can still see the remains of the original equipment (spikes, cables, etc) pounded into the rocks. The river roars through the narrow canyon 5-10 ft beneath your feet as you walk back into the canyon. We met Chris while we were eating lunch. He was an interesting fellow. He was our age and told us his life story beginning with being a lifeguard in San Diego as a teenager. He spent a lot of his adult life in Search & Rescue in CA.

We wanted a fishing day. The drive to Lake Roberts was something else. Steep climbs, tight corners and a narrow road with no center line or shoulders. There is no way the motorhome would have navigated the corners. We threw our fishing lines in the water with no results, just more casting practice. As we were preparing to leave a family was also packing up the kids and loading the boat. As the husband/father ushered his kids to the bathroom, he looked at me and asked “LEO”? (Law Enforcement Officer). I said ‘Yes, you’? He said yes. I asked how he knew. He said “The Oakleys and the window decal”. He was referring to my Oakley sunglasses and the Thin Blue Line decal I have on the back windows of the jeep. Javier is an LEO of 16 years with the Forest Service recently promoted to Investigator. We wished each other well and safe travels.

A day drive to the City of Rocks was also on the agenda. Our plan was to stop and say hi to Fred and Wilma Flintstone and Barney and Wilma Rubble, but they weren’t available. We did have a wonderful hike through all the rock formations. The sights Mother Nature has created for us are amazing.

The night we were preparing to leave we checked the weather report as we try to do each day before traveling. Winds were predicted at 30-40 mph with gusts to 70 mph. We extended our stay for 1 more day.

The next day we rolled into Las Cruces. On the way there we saw an 18 wheeler that had overturned in the median, presumably from the winds the day before and the crews were still trying to upright it. We felt this strongly supported our decision to delay our travel by a day. We rolled into the Las Cruces KOA that afternoon. The campground sits on a hill on the west side of the city. We had a pull in space where the front of the motorhome sat right up against a block retaining wall with a view of the entire Las Cruces valley. We spent a day strolling through Las Cruces and ended up in Old Mesilla. An old, historic town with some amazing shops and food. The mexican lunch was delicious.

Our next stop was Carlsbad. Our primary reason to be there was to visit Carlsbad Caverns. But first we did a tour of the city. We drove to the Lake Carlsbad Beach Park which is a city park on the edge of a reservoir which allows boating, fishing and even has a swimming area. We found the town to be very industrialized and commercial. The downtown is very congested as the main US highways travel through the downtown area. Lots of cars, trucks and semi-trucks fill the streets. Our park seemed to be filled mostly with long term residents, many who work in the oil fields. PU trucks and work trucks left in the morning and returned at night. We didn’t see anyone lounging on their front porches or walking the park streets. Everyone really kept to themselves. We noticed that the air had a dirty smell to it, an oily smell. Little did we realize the impact the oil industry has on the area with huge oil fields. There are also potash mines in the area. Throughout our travels we have found ingenious ways to stay in shape through walking, hiking, bike riding and strength training using TRX straps, bosu ball, stability ball, dumbbells and try to have fun doing it.

We found a fishing hole called Higby Hole. When we first stopped, there were 2 men fishing, one who’s name was Jimmy. They both grew up in the area and proceeded to tell us of the changes they’ve seen and not all for the good. Later we stopped back to fish. We didn’t catch anything but had a good laugh. We heard splashing in the water beneath tree branches that had fallen into the pond. We thought it was a fish. We tried for about 30 minutes to free it or at least see if there was anything there. We didn’t find anything and the splashing had stopped. As I attempted to cast my line, the fly caught in a bush behind me. As I bent down to lay my pole on the ground, I heard a slap of a hard case hitting rock. I looked down to see my box of flies bouncing off the rocks and into the water. I had forgotten to zip up the pocket of the vest where I keep the fly box. I watched it hit the water, out of arms reach so I grabbed the fishing net from the back of my vest and snared the box without falling in or getting wet. A short time later as we were packing up, Teri asked if I had her car keys. I said I had seen them where I laid my hat when we were attempting to release the apparent fish. We searched for 15 minutes looking everywhere we had been for the damn keys. As we were giving up, I starting laughing and pointed to her waist. There, hanging from a belt loop were the keys. As we look back we laugh at all this.

We took a drive to Sitting Bull Falls park to see the waterfall and have lunch at the picnic area. The Falls were dry and the picnic area was full of people with nowhere to park. So much for that hour long drive. However we saw some amazing scenery. As you drive along all you see is flat land with some rolling hills. As you make a turn between the hills, you find yourself in a canyon with the walls gradually climbing higher and higher above you. It really is amazing.

Yes, we did a tour of the Carlsbad Caverns. We have toured many caverns and caves throughout the country in the past year. This one is amazing and probably the most amazing of all the caves we’ve seen. A mile long hike into the cavern or you can take the elevator down 700 ft. Of course we walked the path down into the Cavern maneuvering around the switchbacks as we wound our way into the blackness. Once you reached the bottom, it is a scene from a Star Wars tavern. The cavern opens up about 100 yards wide by 50 yards deep and a ceiling of 10 feet. There is electricity, running water, a snack bar and modern toilets in this natural opening of the mountain. After a short snack we continued through the cavern for another 1.5 miles around the big cave. The sights are breathtaking. We then boarded a 15 passenger elevator after standing in line for about 20 minutes for the ride to the surface. It is truly an adventure to take in.

From here we traveled to Farmington through the historic towns of Lincoln and Capitan. These were very small towns with the highway flowing through the middle among historic buildings. We didn’t stop, although we probably should have. We spent one night at the Socorro Rodeo Grounds. They have an RV park with electricity, water and sewer and few other amenities. But it served our purpose well as it was inexpensive and easy access.

I have mentioned before the challenges we face when we are identifying the things we want to do, places we want to visit, where we want to park the rig, etc. This was no different, but we always work it out without yelling, hitting, biting, screaming, etc. Mostly. Just kidding.

Upon our arrival in Farmington, we met up with Shaun, Shorell and Kimori. Kimori had a ballet recital which we attended and were quite impressed with her performance. We all had dinner prior to the recital. Shaun and I were able to get in a bike ride, one of my first on the single speed. He put me to shame as he rides SS on a regular basis. We spent one day driving to Durango where we met up with Mikel and Steve and had a nice lunch. Mikel was my Chief at the college until he retired and Steve was a Commander at Mesa Community College while I was a Commander at GateWay Community College until he retired a couple of years ago. We had a great visit.

One of our scheduled and anticipated activities was a guided fishing trip on the San Juan River. We sailed with Conner McIntyre who contracts with Fisheads San Juan River Lodge. We arrived early and had a home cooked meal in the restaurant and Connor arrived precisely on time. Originally we had signed up for a wading trip where we would be able to wade out into the river to fish. Connor had called us the day before and suggested a float trip instead due to the amount of water in the river from snow runoff and said we would have a better adventure. We took his advice. We drove to the landing site where he put the boat in the river. We were surprised to see about 5 boats in the area and about 10 folks fishing in waders. Connor set up our lines and we cast off. As we passed each boat Connor and the guide in the other boat would acknowledge each other and share information. As we started at the upper end, Teri and I both fished off the right side of the boat while Connor expertly maneuvered the boat along the river. I had a bite but couldn’t land it. Conner patiently explained what I needed to do differently when fly fishing rather than bait casting. 2 more bites that I couldn’t land and then Teri caught our first fish. I have never seen trout that big in person in the wild. After a few minutes of fighting, Connor was able to snare the fish in the net and haul it in the boat for a photo opportunity. Then the fish went back in the river. This area of the San Juan below the Navajo Dam is a catch and release only area. Teri caught a few more before I landed my first and only. I did have 1 that jumped off the line before we could get it in the boat. Teri caught 6 but she says I caught the biggest. It took about 5 minutes of fighting to get it landed. What a rush. During the day, Connor was super patient with us as he untangled lines, changed flies, netted fish, paddled and searched for the perfect fishing spot. We felt like such amateurs and yet through it all he kept a friendly, patient attitude even when I made a stupid move which tangled lines badly. He stayed calm and kept us in the game. We finished floating to the exit point where he provided us with a fried chicken lunch and then we drove the boat back to the starting point where we fished for a little more. Then the day was done and we headed back to the lodge. What a great day and we are so thankful to Connor for his patience, expertise and knowledge.

We had planned to do the Chama to Toltec train ride while we were there but found out after our arrival they don’t start running the train until May due to weather.

From there we dropped into Santa Fe. We walked the downtown plaza area but didn’t spend a lot of time as we have been here several times before. However we found other things to do. We have never been on a white water rafting trip, so guess what we did?! As it was just the 2 of us, Los Rios River Runners set us up with some other people. We arrived at the Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center about 15 minutes before our scheduled arrival time. The Visitor Center was still closed. As we stood around another car pulled in with a couple in it. As they parked near us, they looked around questioningly. We asked if they were there for the rafting trip. They were. They were Don and Lisa from MA. They were in the west to meet up with family and sightsee. As we waited for our trip guide we were becoming increasingly concerned we were at the wrong location. The instructions said if you were late, they would leave without you. We decided to check another area so we got into our cars and drove a short distance. I saw a sign on an older building that advertised rafting trips. We stopped and I entered the store. The owner confirmed that we were indeed at the right location. The guide had called and said they were having technical problems and were running late. We returned to the Visitor Center and waited. Joel arrived a short time later driving a van and towing an inflatable rubber boat. Joel drove us to the river where we unloaded the boat and he proceeded to provide us with a safety briefing. He explained how to hook your feet under the bolsters that are like seats in the boat. He said to not seat on the bolsters and they would act like a trampoline and pitch you into the water. He said there were few rules, but there were 3 that we needed to know. Rule 1: Stay in the boat. Rule 2: Stay in the boat. Rule 3: Stay in the boat. He then explained how to paddle as we would be active participants and not just riders on this adventure. After this safety briefing we loaded up. Don and I sat in the front on either side of the boat, Teri and Lisa directly behind us and Joel was at the rear in the middle. As we slowly drifted into the river, Joel gave us rowing instructions. All Forward meant we all rowed. Sometimes that was said with a number which represented the number of strokes such as Forward 3. We each paddled forward 3 times in unison. The in unison was an important part. Left forward meant the folks on the left side paddled forward. Backward was just that. You get the idea. Soon we were rolling up to a series of small swells, class 2 rapids where we got our first taste of rocking water as well as looking up at the looming rock walls of the canyon that were several feet high. We felt so inconsequential. We passed the initial test and continued floating down the river. Joel kept up a continuous commentary on the history of the area, identified various landmarks and answered all our questions. Joel explained this was his first trip of the season so he wasn’t sure what water conditions we would encounter. He said we would definitely see some class 2 and 3 rapids. We paddled and floated for about 2 hours, then took a break for lunch. Remember the older building that advertised raft trips, well they were a restaurant as well. We had an authentic Mexican lunch on Los Rios River Runners. From there we headed back to the boat for another 3 hours of river running. The class 3’s were swells of 3-5 ft that were higher than the sides of the boat. When we dropped into the trough, I could feel the rubber hull bend and then straighten under my feet as we crested the trough. Of course, we had to paddle through each of these troughs and over the swells or we would capsize. No chance to take photos of the FUN stuff. We got sprayed as we dropped into the trough and we got wet. Our feet were sitting in water, our clothes were wet and we had grins from ear to ear that wouldn’t quit. We crossed under a low hanging bridge. We felt we had to duck to not hit our heads. The bridge led from the road over the river to a piece of land that had been terraced and looked like it could have been a garden or winery. Joel told a story of the Bikers and Hippies wars of the 70’s that occurred at this site. The story was that the Hippies were growing weed and the bikers wanted a part of it. The Hippies had always declined any offer of ‘help’ from the bikers. So one day the bikers showed up in a show of force to take over the Hippie commune. Unknown to the bikers, the Hippies had hired several Viet Nam vets to protect them. After a gun battle, the bikers left with empty hands. (Teri and I were unable to verify the story through internet searches, but the story sounded good either way). The largest of the rapids were the last of the trip prior to leaving the river. It was also the longest. No time to rest, just paddle, refer to Rule 1 and have fun. When it was over and the water was calm, it was almost disappointing. We said good bye to everyone and agreed to stay in touch with Don and Lisa. We had purchased a waterproof disposable camera, as suggested by Los Rios River Runners, but unfortunately is was 35mm film, not digital, from WalMart. First of all, the photos do not do justice to the turmoil of the river and the rapids. Secondly, I couldn’t photograph and paddle at the same time in the rapids. Thirdly, it takes almost 2 weeks for WalMart to get the film developed and they did not have a process to provide it digitally. Fourthly (?) we weren’t going to be in the area long enough to get the photos returned. I lost count as to where I was in the count, anyway we decided to wait until we could find a store that could develop the film and provide it to us digitally. We finally got it done in Denver a couple of weeks later.

We took a day and drove to Taos. We have always heard what a great place to visit. We were disappointed. It was a long drive from Santa Fe for what we found. We don’t regret the trip, but it clearly didn’t meet our expectations. The small villages surrounding Taos were more interesting to us. The Taos plaza is small and not uniformly laid out. There didn’t seem to be any zoning restrictions as commercial, retail and residential were all clustered together. The homes and many buildings looked in disrepair. The plaza was all retail and there were no historic buildings noted that we could see. Teri had been looking for a turquoise necklace and she found what she wanted so the trip wasn’t a waste.

It was a windy day with winds up to 30 mph. We did take a scenic route home that took us over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. This was an amazing view looking down into the canyon. We arrived home to find that my fiberglass flagpole had snapped due to the wind. Someone (I never found out who) had removed the flag and had neatly and properly folded it and left in on the table for me.

We took a trip to the Pecos River near the town of Terreros to do some fishing. This took us up into the mountains northeast of Santa Fe. A narrow winding road that increased in elevation and had some beautiful scenery. Terreros is an old mining town. We stopped at a small forest service campground and got our gear out to fish. We had decided this was the day to test our wading equipment, so on went the waders and necessary gear and into the water we went. We stayed surprisingly dry. The waders actually felt buoyant as we stumbled over the rocks in the river. We didn’t fall and we didn’t catch any fish but we looked good doing it. The water flow was too strong. We found this out in several other attempts at fishing as you’ll read about in later chapters.

Naturally I found time to ride bicycles and one of the reasons we were in Santa Fe was for a race. The 6 Hours in the Basin of the Commonweal put on by Core-Crew is a race I did several years ago and wanted to do again. The race course was a 10 mile loop with 700 ft of climbing per loop at 6500 ft elevation. My goal was 6 laps but I ended up with 4 for 40 miles total. It was good enough (?) for 13th of 19 in the 50+ age group. Not what I was hoping for, but if you’ve read some of the earlier posts, you’ll know that I’m in a transition phase of my training and that has a huge effect on the race outcomes.

Before leaving the area we took a drive on the Turquoise Trail. This is the name given to a route that goes from Santa Fe south to the east side of Albuquerque and follows the turquoise mining history. Our first stop was Cerrillos. A cute little town, almost a village that has a visitor center, a park that provides miles of hiking trails, a few shops and restaurants. We stopped in at one of the bars/restaurants for something to drink before stopping at the trading post. The bar is small and intimate and had a duo playing guitars in the corner. The trading post is owned by a couple who have an active mining claim and all the rocks, minerals, and trinkets are hand made and come from their claim.

Next was Ma’drid with the emphasis on Ma unlike Madrid, Spain. This is a tourist town. Larger and more retail oriented than Cerrillos. This was a mining town that became a ghost town that then became an artist’s haven which it is today. As you drive through the valley you can see all the tailing piles on the canyon walls. The town is filled with food, drink, arts, crafts, and jewelry establishments. It is definitely a tourist attraction as the road and parking areas were filled with cars and motorcycles. As we continued to the end along I-40 we were looking for the Musical Highway. This is a segment of Route 66 that if you run on the rumble strips, the harmonics play America The Beautiful. We searched the area for 30 minutes and couldn’t find it. Then Teri found an obscure post on the internet that revealed it had been removed.

Our last stop of the month was South Fork, CO. This was our introduction to CO on this trip. Our hosts were Mikel, Linda and Steve. As we arrived in town we stayed at Peacock Meadows Riverside RV Park. The managers, Debra and Ron were friends with Mikel and Linda and had been warned about us. Mikel and Linda made sure they gave us the welcome we deserved…. LOL. We had a great visit. The park was largely empty as the summer season hadn’t started yet. Ron stopped by each morning to say hi while on his rounds. Mikel and Linda met us as soon as we had set up and drove us around South Fork showing us the sights as well as stopping at Steve’s house. His house sits right on the river. We saw a few spots where we thought we might be able to fish, but never had the opportunity. We had dinner at Ramon’s Mexican food which was delicious. The banter between Mikel, Linda and our waiter was fun to watch. We woke up the next morning to deer munching on the grass in our front yard. The park is right along the Rio Grande river. We tried fishing, but again the flow was just too fast. One morning I watched our neighbor open his door to take one of his dogs out for the morning business. One of the other dogs saw the deer and he was gone…. He wasn’t gone long and no deer were hurt. We took a drive up over Wolf Creek Pass into Pagosa Springs. This small city was quite inviting with the downtown area filled with small shops that grabbed our attention. We walked past the Springs Resort and saw the multiple hot springs pools and decided we needed to do that. We scheduled a couple massage for a couple days later. Mikel and Linda spent another day with us as we drove to Creede and then to the North Clear Creek Falls. Creede is a small community with very friendly people. We walked the downtown area and stopped in at some of the shops. Everyone was very welcoming. After a small lunch we took a drive over the Bachelor Loop. Creede is a mining community and the Bachelor Loop took us into the mountains surrounding Creede up to the mines that supported Creede, or was it the other way around? We were at a very high elevation and the views were spectacular. We continued up the highway and ended up at the North Clear Creek Falls. This view of the waterfall was amazing. We had to walk through some snow to arrive at the viewpoint. The wind was blowing hard and it was cold. We didn’t spend much time marveling at the views. On the way back home we stopped at a few signs that gave the history of the area. I was surprised that toll roads were in place back in the mining days.

We all ran into Pagosa Springs on Saturday to attend the Brews for Rescue event. This was a beer tasting event with the proceeds going to a dog rescue shelter that was run by one woman. Can you say Craft Beer? There were more than I’ve ever heard of and dogs all over the place. It was a great afternoon. On the way home we stopped off at Treasure Falls on the way up Wolf Creek Pass. A short, steep hike to the falls for an amazing view of a waterfall. On Sunday we drove into Pagosa Springs and had a wonderful massage. Then we relaxed in the hot springs pool. Very relaxing. Of course we tried to fish again. We drove to Beaver Creek Reservoir only to find it was still frozen over. I didn’t trust the ice to try any ice fishing although I did see what I thought was a hole cut in the ice. Mikel and Linda had driven us to Million Lake and we thought we might try fishing there but the day we were going there, it had snowed that morning and so our plans changed.

As I wrap up this segment of our travel, we want to thank all who hosted us, guided us, participated with us and generally just showed us a great time. From here we are headed to Ouray and then to Golden and the Denver area.

Stay Safe.