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End of 49ers Encampment and heading home

Warning – another picture heavy post!

We finally got all the work done on the Jeep, and it was expensive. Just part of the joy of MH ownership, and we have been pretty lucky until now. There has been so much travel to Las Vegas that we really didn’t want to do a lot more travel. That is the excuse I am going to give for not hitting the big tourist spots in Death Valley this time. We didn’t even do any of the 4WD trips! We did get to some of the historical presentations, all the music acts, and some other presentations.

We also took time to buy a Blackstone grill while in Las Vegas. Kevin has been looking at them, and the Camping World there had one at last year’s price, a significant savings. So far we are enjoying it. Kevin has made hamburgers, fajitas, and grilled potatoes. It is a bit of a pain to clean, but that should get better as the seasoning improves. Kevin installed a propane tap to the MH so it is easy to attach an external device to the MH’s propane tank instead of having to use a separate propane bottle – handy.

We headed into Beatty, NV one day to go to their famous candy store. And of course we bought a bunch of nuts and candy. They have some things hard to find anywhere else. Right at the edge of Beatty we found two of the famous donkeys. They are a standard sight here, and very popular with tourists. They are truly a dreadful thing in the wild though, displacing the native big horn sleep.

Heading back to the campground, I took some pictures of Death Valley at sunset.

Near the bottom of Sunrise Pass looking south

There really is no way of showing the vastness of the park. The picture above shows probably 30 miles.

From the Texas Springs Road showing the salt pan to the north

Looking from Texas Springs Road above Sunset Campground, NPS Visitor Center foreground right.

The huge alluvial fans coming from the mountains are amazing, this one shown above is probably 5-7 miles wide. They are a very distinctive feature of the park, and they show up everywhere.

With all the beauty around us, you don’t generally stay at the campground to “camp”. It is more a place to rejuvenate, eat, and sleep. That’s good because the campground is basically a big gravel parking lot. It is cheap though – $7.00 a night with our senior pass. There are flush toilets (no showers) plus a dump station with fresh water. This year there weren’t nearly as many people attending. They didn’t even open the first overflow camp area until Thursday, and normally they have all three overflows open and occupied by Monday or Tuesday.

Another thing about the Furnace Creek area is the legendary fuel prices, generally the most expensive in the country.

Also in the park (but regulated by NPS contract), the price for regular gasoline is $4.86 at Stovepipe Wells. Outside the park in Nevada at the casino, the price was $3.88. It is well worth the time to drive the 35 miles to Nevada! The Furnace Creek prices are the best advertisement I know of against unbridled capitalist greed. Stovepipe Wells is just as far from distribution sources, and they charge more than $2 per gallon less.

One thing nice about Nevada and California is they allow both medical and recreational sale of cannabis. I was able to refill the gummies I use to manage the residual pain in my shoulder for a much better price than I can going to Illinois at home. Using them I have been able to stop the ibuprofen that I have been on since surgery, giving my belly a much wanted relief. I take 10 mg each night, and I also take CBD gummies to reduce inflammation. The combination has really helped. I have to use the gummies because there is absolutely no way I am smoking anything!

Getting back to the Encampment, the biggest event is always when the wagon train comes in. This year they had 14 wagons travel the 100 miles from the far southern edge of the park to Furnace Creek. I will just post the pictures without captions because they are pretty self-explanatory. They are lead in by the Marine mounted color guard from 29 Palms. Each of the color guards trains their own horse, chosen from mustangs sold by the BLM. Impressive!

We left Death Valley on Sunday. We spent Sunday night at the Seligman, AZ KOA. Monday we stayed at Lavaland RV Park in Grants (nice brewery associated with it), Tuesday and Wednesday we were at the Tucumcari KOA waiting out a wind storm, and tonight we are at Mustang Run RV Park on the west side of Oklahoma City. We will spend Friday night at a Boondockers Welcome site near Kansas City, then home!

Finally made it to Death Valley

We left North Platte on Friday,29 October. We stayed at the KOA in Rawlins, a nice spot, then got to the Salt Lake City KOA late morning on Saturday. We were able to meet up with friends, ate well, but only had the two little kids camped next to us a Trick or Treaters. I gave an entire bag of candy to one of my friends to take into work! We stayed until Tuesday morning, the headed on our way. We spent the night at the Eureka Casino in Mesquite, NV. Very quiet, but we sure had to pull out the leveling blocks!

After we left Mesquite, we started getting check engine lights on the motorhome. The error was low manifold pressure, so we called to Freightliner in Las Vegas to check it out. Turns out a hose had developed a crack and needed replaced. Since it was a formed hose, it had to be ordered from the warehouse in Phoenix. They let us stay overnight next to their lot, and then replaced the hose the next morning. $45 hose, $40 shipping, and the rest of the $600+ bill was labor. Sigh. This is the first non-routine issue we have had in 3 1/2 years and almost 40,000 miles, so I won’t complain too much. Still, it was too bad this didn’t happen at home with $95/hour labor rates instead of the $175/hour in Vegas.

We finally got set up at Death Valley, and we lucked into our favorite site! It is on the east side of the lot with nothing between us and the mountains except a small road. My camera was dead, so I hope you can stand these iPhone photos.

Timbisha Shoshone settlement and headquarters on the left and part of the staff housing for Furnace Creek on the right.

Rather flat light, but the color contrast is still interesting

The mountains at sunset looking a bit south

I can look at those mountains all day! We haven’t had a lot of chance though because Kevin discovered the base plate on the Jeep was loose. This is what attached to the tow bars to tow the Jeep, so loose is a danger! The closest place was Vegas again, this time Indoor RV Center. They came recommended, and so far is seems valid. They saw us on Friday to evaluate and quote the repairs, then on Monday Kevin drove back to get the repair completed. It would have been completed then, but we have discovered the idiots who originally installed it didn’t follow the directions or use the right parts! I am livid. We had to have a complete new baseplate installed plus extra labor to drill out or cut off a bunch of bolts put in wrong. It was so much work that we had to come back today too! Since northern Vegas is a bit over 2 hours from Death Valley, that is an awful lot of driving. We don’t know the final bill, but it will be north of $1500. The shop rate here is even worse than the Freightliner dealer – $189. They do seem to know what they are doing though, and a base plate is a critical piece of safety equipment. We just can’t stand to have an issue with it, and better here than Canada or Alaska next summer!

We have yet to attend a single 49ers activity, but we will start this evening if we get back in time. And we have the funds to pay the bills since we knew this day would come. Hopefully my next post will be much more positive.

On the road again!

Finally! I had my last PT on Monday morning followed by my last orthopedist appointment. I am officially released. I am still not recuperated completely though, and I will need to work on strengthening the unused muscles a lot more. I still get store and stiff, and I have trouble sleeping in the bed, but we are out traveling!

We left on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to beat the “Bomb Cyclone” leftovers headed for the Midwest. We made it to the Cabela’s just south of Omaha Monday night and stayed in their parking lot. A bit noisy, but better than a Walmart. We left early, still trying to get as far ahead of the forecast winds as we could manage. We only made it to North Platte, NE where we have been stuck for 3 nights. Luckily the campground, Holiday RV Park is a reasonable place to stay. They still have water on, and it is nice to have access to electric heat. We had lunch one day at a great place downtown – Good Life on the Bricks. It was mostly a BBQ place, and we both enjoyed it. We also ate at Sonic one night – green chili hamburger!

Here’s a picture of winds that came through. See how narrow the frontal boundary is? And it was right on top of us. There was over an inch of rain dropped, but it was accompanied by hail, thunder, and lots of lightening in addition to 50+ mph gusts. The MH definitely rocked and rolled. The campground has been filling up the last 2 days with other work refugees. Luckily Friday is looking good, and we intend on heading out early in the morning,

Rain forecast. The pink is for wind warnings.

While we are stuck in North Platte, we got groceries and wandered around some. There was one older house that had gone all out for Halloween.

But the one that caught my eye is the house with tan siding next door. This was their sign:

The cats have adjusted pretty well. Luna is still her cuddly self. Minnie hides more so no picture. Minnie is actually on anti-anxiety meds, and they are helping. She probably will always be easy to spook, but it doesn’t seem like she lives in terror of everything. Poor baby!

Kevin went to Golden Spike Tower, a railway museum. North Platte is home to a HUGE rail yard, and he said there were lots of various locomotives on view. I stayed back and got a bit of sewing done. I always like having some bowl cozies around as gifts, and I was completely out. I now have two available if I need them. I used my new edge stitch foot and my roller foot, two feet I bought this summer during Bernina’s 25% off sale. The vintage 830 Record machine I have in the MH doesn’t use the same feet the other Bernina does, so I have been adding to the nice selection that it came with.

Speaking of sewing machines, I almost forgot the lovely vintage 730 Record I picked up a month or so back. I wanted a backup machine, and this was sold by a Bernina store in Minnesota. We drove up, and it was in perfect shape. I should have gotten pictures, but I was so sore when we got back I forgot to take any. Lovely machine, heavy, perfect stitch, all the original accessories, all tucked into a cool green suitcase.

We are leaving here tomorrow morning heading to Rawlings, WY. Hopefully we will make it to Salt Lake on Saturday early enough to see some trick or treaters in the KOA campground. I was told the Mormon Church, pretty strong in the area obviously, had decreed Saturday was Trick or Treat Day so everyone can concentrate on church on Sunday. Sigh. I figure we will be ready both Saturday and Sunday. I am hoping to do some banking, connect with some friends, and do some shopping before we head to Death Valley on Tuesday.

ETA I fixed the typos! I have to improve my proof reading skills.

Blogging block

It has been 2 1/2 months since my last post. I guess I just have lost my blogging mojo. Some of it is not being on a trip (I always post more when traveling), and some has just been the blandness of preparing then recovering from rotator cuff surgery.

To start, we did get home from the Badlands. We stayed one night at the KOA in Mitchell, a nice enough place. We then spent a night at a Boondockers Welcome site in Truman, MN (southwestern Minnesota) before coming home. We thought we had to rush home to get to a rescheduled pre-surgery appointment only to get it rescheduled (for the third time!) a week later with a different practitioner. I wasn’t pleased, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. It didn’t get rescheduled until we were already almost home.

I had surgery on 30 July, and it was truly as awful as everyone says. I was so sore and hobbled with the sling and pillow. I also got an open incision instead of the arthroscopic surgery the surgeon had discussed. That made everything more sore and longer to heal. Six weeks in the nasty sling, PT every week day with the therapist just moving my arm (passive range of motion). I must have built up some scar tissue because the ROM sucked. The therapist basically had to break it up and that hurts! I actually cried a few times, and I was one fairly heavy meds. At 6 weeks I was liberated from the sling, and after 8 weeks I finally got an acceptable ROM. I am now in the strengthening phase meaning I can pick up a one pound weight and move it around below shoulder height. Slow progress, but definitely progress. I can drive! I can do my hair! I can dry my back! Funny how little things take a huge importance when you haven’t done them for 2 months. I get another 4 weeks of 3X a week PT plus exercises at home, then I get partially released. Good thing because we are heading to Death Valley with a detour through Salt Lake City to see friends. We won’t be back until the week before Thanksgiving, so I will be doing my exercises on my own then. After the trip, I will work with the PT some more. It truly is a long recovery.

We did enjoy a weekend with most of the kids and grandkids (plus a SIL and a girlfriend). We rented a spot at Pleasant Creek State Park, and my DD and SIL rented one next door. They stayed in our little motorcycle tent camper, and the rest of the family stayed in tents. We ate food cooked over the fire, and the kids all had a blast. I only have a few pictures. One of my children allows their kids a big social media presence while the other doesn’t.

Callyn is a busy girl, but she stayed still at least once

Sergeant Schmitty is one of my grand dogs (golden doodle)

Mark had an exhausted Sergeant Schmitty on his lap. Sorry for the quality of this one! You can see his other dog’s ear (Grizzly, a black German Shepherd).

I am hoping to get back some blogging enthusiasm soon. I am actually hoping to get some sewing done this weekend too! I can’t quilt (can’t push that much weight), but I can piece, so I want to finish the rows of a quilt for my daughter. Hopefully I stay feeling good.

FMCA Convention and moving to the Badlands

We left Cody to head to the FMCA convention. As always there was way too much to do, and we were able to get about half of the seminars we wanted. So many seminars, so many at the same time! We only bought a nice T-shirt for me, but we enjoyed just looking around the vendor area. No pictures of the campsite because it was an empty field with lots and lots of rigs around, parked quite close to each other. They had around 1,300 rigs plus a number of rigs from vendors, so it is always a bit crowded.

We left on Sunday morning, and we had an easy drive to Badlands National Park. We are staying in Cedar Pass campground inside the park. There are only a few spots that can accommodate a long, wide rig like ours, but we reserved this site months ago. They are just wide spots along the entry road, and we had to drive the wrong way on the one way road to have our steps face the picnic table instead of the road.

It is moderately spacious with great views

As we drove to Rapid City to pick up my medications at one of the only CVS pharmacies in the state, we stopped just long enough for a small sampler of photos.

The smoke haze makes it harder to enjoy the vistas. Can you see the hills in the distance? Normally those are quite visible. We are due for some rain tomorrow, so I intend on heading out after that to get some clearer pictures.

And of course we had to stop at Wall Drug for donuts and coffee. These are hands down the best cake donuts I have ever had, and we make sure to stop every time we are nearby. They are what makes the tourist trap worthwhile.

Kevin went out last night to take Milky Way pictures, but I stayed in the MH to sleep. Hopefully he will get some processed and I get post a few soon. It is very windy and hot today, and so we are just going to do town stuff. He is hoping to get out again tonight for a few more pictures, but it depends on when and where the clouds come in.

Cody, National Byways, and Yellowstone -good stuff!

We are in Cody at the Ponderosa Campground. The sites are tight, but that is to be expected in a town where the emphasis is on tourist activities away from the RV. Fun town, but too many people here on this holiday weekend for us. We are enjoying our time with the Diesel RV Club, but we had yesterday off to do sightseeing. We decided to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, the Beartooth Scenic Byway, and take a detour into Yellowstone since we were nearby.

I am first going to show you some pictures of lovely tundra flowers since they were out in full bloom. These are found more abound 9,000-10,000’ this time of year. They are all incredibly small, the tallest poking their heads up 4”, but most 1-2”.

Around 8000’ the meadows were awash with larger flowers due to their milder conditions. White, shades of purple, pinks, yellows – a riot of color.

The meadows around 8000’ were awash with flowers

Oh, and the roads themselves? Marvelous as usual! I never get tired of the views.

Looking down on the Beartooth Scenic Byway

Near Dead Indian Summit on the Chief Joseph National Byway

The Yellowstone detour didn’t get us a lot. We did see only the second moose we have ever seen in the park itself only a few miles from the northeast gate. We have seen a number of moose outside the park, but they stay pretty hidden inside.

Only the second moose we have seen in Yellowstone NP proper

And of course we had a bison jam. It was a small group with a bunch of cows, yearlings, and a few calves.

Red dogs (aka bison calves) have a nickname that is descriptive

The bison slowed us down for about 20-25 minutes, and just as it cleared we were stopped by tow trucks removing three wrecked cars just a few miles down the road. That took 45 minutes, so we just took a bit more sightseeing and turned around. We finished our drive back to the campground from Red Lodge on the flat roads, and the entire trip took about 8 1/2 hours.

And yes I know this is terse, but the data service here is dreadful! I can’t get anything more than 1-3 mbps down and 0.5 mbps up even sitting right outside the campground store. Our phones and hot spot are only picking up LTE signal, and everything is painfully slow. Maybe we can find better service soon.

I love the Bighorn Mountains

We left Salida early on Sunday on our way to Cheyenne. It was one of the most tiring drives I have ever made. We took HW 50 to I-25, and that part was lovely. Yes, the road was twisty since it followed the Arkansas River, but it was beautiful and not too busy. We took a cutoff on CO 115 that was fine too, dropping us off south of Colorado Springs. All that enjoyment changed when we hit I-25! I think the entire front range is under construction! Lanes were narrow, busy (even on a Sunday morning), and nerve racking. I drove from south of Colorado Springs all the way to Cheyenne without a break, but that was stupid. I was really, really mentally exhausted by the time we stopped. Note to self: don’t do that again!

We stayed in another Boondockers Welcome site Sunday night. It was set high on a hill in the northern suburbs, and it was really easy to get in and out. We had some lovely weather and didn’t need the AC at all. I didn’t do anything except crash though the views were lovely. We left the next morning in no rush to make it to Buffalo, WY and the KOA. We had wanted to stay 5 nights, but when we called 2 weeks earlier they only had 4 nights available. We did exciting things like laundry and watched some streaming shows (we hadn’t had good enough data service to do that until now). We did do a lovely drive along Hwy 16 from Buffalo to Tensleep.

I like the combination of rocky peaks, forests, and parks.

We investigated boondock spots along Hwy 16, and we ended up staying at Grouse Mountain Trailhead about 10 miles west of Buffalo. Amazingly it had a small amount of cell data, but I couldn’t post pictures.

Onour last full day, two cattle trucks deposited a bunch of calves to fatten up on the meadow grass. It was impressive watching the cowboys work the cattle. I couldn’t get a picture of the border collie they had working with them, but the dog was definitely helping. Also note the clouds. It rained a lot! It would rain hard for 30 minutes, the skies would clear, they would cloud up an hour or so later, and a big drizzle would come. Then the clouds came back and more rain would follow. It did it pretty much the entire weekend.

Oh, and I think the cats are doing just fine in the motorhome! They sleep snuggled up in the driver’s seat a lot.

The bad news was that on Saturday morning the Forest Service came by to tell us they were closing the area to all activities on Monday morning due to an invasive grass that was discovered. We drove Hwy 16 again, and we found a few decent places, but most were muddy from the rains. We also took some scenic drives. One of the prettiest was Crazy Woman Canyon.

Crazy Woman Creek was a noisy mountain stream

We decided we would stay a Lake de Smet north of Buffalo because it was gravel and not muddy. The weather was still lovely on Monday, and the solar was cranking! We didn’t need the generator at all.

We had planned on driving Hwy 16 to Cody, but we were told there was a lot of construction. I really didn’t want to get a bunch of tar on the motorhome, so we drove Hwy 14 to see how it was, and it is completely doable. We decided to head that way. We had thought about spending Tuesday night somewhere along the road, but we decided to just stay put at Lake de Smet. It is a decent spot with good sized sites, gravel pads, and no hookups. It also has no reservations, so it is quickly filling up for the upcoming holidays.

We will take off tomorrow to Cody for a rally with the FMCA Diesel Club. Full hookups will seem pretty luxurious!

More sightseeing in Salida

We arrived last night at another Boondockers Welcome site in Salida, CO. They are having a big kayak festival this weekend, and the town is really busy. We decided to do some sightseeing today, so we drove across Monarch Pass to Crested Butte. The Madonna Mine is one of the biggest sights on the eastern side of the pass.

The pass is high enough that Kevin and I were both yawning a lot to get more oxygen in our lungs. We live at 800’!

The views in Crested Butte were the standard lovely vistas.

Looking from Mt Crested Butte to Crested Butte

We had Father’s Day dinner tonight because tomorrow will be a hard day. We are driving all the way to Cheyenne, WY, and we have to get going early to miss the hoards coming from the front range into Colorado Springs and Denver. The roads can come to a complete halt by late afternoon so we want to get through early. Our host has been lovely here, and we are going to another Boondockers Welcome site before heading to Buffalo, WY and a real campground! We disconnected from our host 20 amp electricity as soon as it cooled down enough to turn off the AC, and we will be running on battery and solar until we get to Buffalo. Checking out the new lithium batteries!

Last days in Del Norte

We went back to Creede on Wednesday to drive the Bachelor Loop Byway. It is a relatively short high clearance route driving by many of the mines that made Creede the biggest boomtown in Colorado with 10,000 people.

The mines and mills were impressive. The Amethyst mine was the biggest

Tram and rail lines were laid along the mountain face

The same day we went to the Bachelor Loop we also went to Great Sand Dunes National Park. However it was so crowded we didn’t do anything except drive through and double park briefly for some pictures. The reason I wanted to go so much was because the river was running. There is just something impressive about a flowing river backed by the sand dunes. However i didn’t check that the picture I took was any good before I left; it wasn’t. You will just have to take my word for it.

Our first blooming cactus! Found at Great Sand Dunes

Our last day at Del Norte was Thursday, and we decided to go to Pagosa Springs across Wolf Creek Pass for lunch. As usual, the drive was gorgeous.

We had a lovely brunch, but Pagosa Springs was so crowded we didn’t do anything except drive through the edge. What a crazy time, and it is only mid June! The biggest tourist time is usually mid July, so I will far, far away!

We left this morning for our next spot in Salida. We are staying at a Boondockers Welcome spot again. This time we are at the edge of town and parked in their driveway. It is pretty unlevel, but there is a reason Kevin keeps a LOT of leveling blocks. The hosts are very nice. The best thing is that we had absolutely no need for AC after we set up! Finally we are getting cooler weather building in.

I am not quite sure what we are doing tomorrow, but we will figure it out!

Back with internet so more about NM and into CO

We are at a nice little RV park in Del Norte, CO called Woods and River. We got a lovely shaded RV site right on the Rio Grande. The only problem is there is a major mayfly hatch going on! I am talking enough mayflies to make every trout in the river gain a half pound without really trying. Mayflies by the hundreds! Add to it the cottonwood fluff that is coming down, and we look like we are in a blizzard. We haven’t been able to stay outside, but at least I can get a good river view out of the motorhome front window. However their in-park WiFi is bad, and my Verizon Mifi is experiencing network management, so I have to tether to the phone. It is a pain. We drove out a few miles to a BLM site, and the Mifi is screaming fast! I will try to mostly catch up on my pictures.

The nearby town of Del Monte, CO has an old fashioned drive -in movie! We had a great time watching “In the Neighborhood,” a musical with modern, rap style lyrics and lots of dancing. It was a great show, but we got back way past my bedtime! Worth it though.

I left off with the Dawson cemetery on Saturday, 12 June. We continued along the road to Cimmaron. The town has really invested in tourist infrastructure with lots of signs and historic markers. I particularly liked this old mill.

There was lots of beautiful country, as one might expect. I took pictures of the views, not the towns. Every town was crowded. Taos was dreadfully crowded, and we didn’t get out of the car at all. I was bummed because it was one of my favorite places. Interestingly the Taos Pueblo has been cut off for COVID precautions. The road is closed except to key card access.

Bighorn sheep were grazing along the road

On Sunday we headed to Capulin Volcano National Monument. Nice place. The views are amazing.

The view from the top of Capulin National Monument are spectacular

A nearby much smaller cone to show the shape

The next day we packed up leisurely and went to Del Norte, CO as I noted in the first paragraph. Tuesday we took off on more sightseeing, this time along the Silver Thread National Scenic Byway which is basically highway 149. Much of the road parallels the Rio Grande, and I particularly wanted to see the headwaters. Couldn’t quite get there because a creek had the road flooded, but we did get a decent long distance view.

Click on this link to hear the falls in a video.

IMG_5128

Slimgullion was a massive landslide 850 and 450 years ago

The Rio Grande headwaters are at the end of the farthest lake

Mining history everywhere! This was a bentonite clay mill.

I will continue with our last two days in Del Norte later. This has been hard enough. Hopefully the Mifi will have good service.