Even more food and a problem

It was a beautiful day so we decided to take a ride, and where better to go than Llano, TX, home of Cooper's BBQ.  Larry and Mary Ellen had not yet been there so it was a perfect opportunity to introduce them to perhaps our favorite BBQ place in Texas?  A very pretty ride ended in us parking at Coopers and finding just a small line at 1130 on a Sunday morning.  At Coopers you line up and go to a "serving" pit where you choose what you want and how much you want.  Choices abound, such as sausages, pork chops, brisket, both pork and beef ribs, prime rib, rib eye steaks, chicken, just to mention a few :-)  The server puts what you choose on a plain plastic tray and then you go inside where they slice and weigh it, you pick your sides, and be sure you get some cobbler, either peach, apple, pecan, or blackberry.  Then you pay and find a place to sit on the long picnic tables.  Make your way to the huge pot of pinto beans at the side of the room, add some pickled jalapeños and white bread from the table and you are on your way to BBQ heaven.  We made our way back through the pretty Texas hill country, sat and visited over a bit of the grape and waited til we, yes, decided to go get more food!  A light mexican snack was decided upon and we went and had some more great food at a nearby restaurant.  Our visit came to a very quick end, too short, but we will be back, and have more time as Larry enters the life of leisure we enjoy next year!

Once we got the hydraulic leak fixed we thought we were home free for a bit with problems.  We got a little clue about a month ago when our Aqua-Hot wouldn't light off one morning when we needed a little heat.  A bit of explanation is required.  We have a hydronic heating and hot water system in our motorhome.  It is a very efficient and effective unit at making domestic hot water and providing 4 zones of heat.  It is a combination unit that uses electric and/or diesel to heat a boiler.  In the warmer months the electric element provides all we need, endless hot water, as there is a domestic hot water loop immersed in the boiler.  If for some reason we need even more hot water or in cooler times we need heat, we turn on the diesel burner and then we have a 50,000 BTU burner as the heat source.  Other advantages of this system are 3 separate zones of heat in the living area, another zone in the basement area, unlimited hot water, a loop to preheat the engine on a cold morning, and the ability for the engine when running to become the heat source for the boiler.  So back to our little warning sign, we were in Ridgway, Colorado on a 32 degree morning and we turned on the diesel for a bit of heat, and it wouldn't light.  I checked the several things that might cause this to happen, low voltage, low coolant for example, but all was well.  I played around a bit, but it wouldn't light.  Roger Berke is considered the guru of hydronic heating and runs his own forum and service and parts company.  I contacted him and he had me do a couple more things and it lit off, and then continued to operate perfectly for a month, right up until yesterday morning when it was 35 degrees in Georgetown when we were supposed to leave.  This time I couldn't get it to light using all the techniques I used previously, so I contact Roger again, he says it's most likely a control box, and gives me contact info for a mobile service guy in Houston as the nearest to Georgetown.  I don't need to remind you that winter is coming, we're heading north to Louisville, and although we'll do what we can to avoid winter, we still NEED heat.  I call the guy in Houston, Rudy, and we discuss our issue and he is virtually certain it is a control box as well.  He very nicely offers to have me come over to Houston, will meet me, sell me the control box, let me put it in myself, and not charge me a service call or labor.  Jan and I consider this for a bit, but  detouring over to Houston will add almost 400 miles to our trip to Kelly's.  

We decide since Roger and Rudy are virtually certain it is a failed control box we opt to order one from Roger, have it sent to Kelly's, and I will install it myself.  All pretty straight forward, good stuff, except for the small fact a control box is $800!  But, as Jan says, we have to have heat.  So in case any of you thought things were going just a little too smoothly, you can breathe easy now:-)

Georgetown

We got a tour of Larry and Mary Ellen's beautiful new home.  It is a Texas beauty, open and welcoming, and absolutely gorgeous.  After several aperitifs, we made our way to the Hardtail Bar and Grill, a nearby biker bar for sensational burgers!  I had my second thoughts as they told us we were going for some of the best burgers in Texas, especially since we had fairly recently had the best green chili cheeseburgers in the world at Bobcat Bite.  I have to tell you they were awesome!  Cooked to order, no problem making them rare for all of us when so many places give you that crap about, oh no all our burgers have to be cooked well done.  Anyway they were huge, juicy, delicious hand formed burgers with all different toppings for each of us.  Sensational, and only a couple miles form their house!

The next day we went for lunch at The Noble Pig, a place we had seen on Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dives.  It is a sandwich shop for the most part, but makes it's own sausages, pates, and head cheese, yum yum.  It is a tiny place in a strip mall that was absolutely packed, lined up out the door, and stayed that way the whole time we were there!  I think Guy really hopped up their business.  We had a Tongue sandwich with smoked green onion, red pepper relish, and aioli, a pork belly sandwich , a pork shoulder with kimchi pickles, and the namesake, "Noble Pig", a spicy ham, pulled pork, provolone, and bacon sandwich.  They were fantastic!

Jan, Mary Ellen, and my apologies, half of Larry!

You know how much that first dent, scratch, bump hurts with a new car?  Well our first booboo was yesterday on the interstate.  We're cruising along minding our own business when we notice something coming through the air at us, it ricocheted off the hood of the car, but initially from inside we couldn't see anything.  Well, once we stopped we saw it shattered our air deflector, dented the hood, and then scratched its way up and over the roof!  So much for our virgin Jeep.  The good news is the brunt of the dent will be under the new air deflector that I just ordered.  Who knows, maybe one of those dent guys can remove it.

So as if we hadn't had enough great food, off we went for dinner at the Ho Ho Chinese BBQ, a place we had visited when we were here in the spring.  It was just as good, except Jan wanted roast duck. As we waited for a table, the ducks in all their glistening glory were hanging under heat lamps right near us, so it really had our mouths watering, unfortunately once we got seated, the ducks were all gone for the evening!  But we made do with other wonderful dishes, including BBQ pork and chicken, Shrimp in Black Bean sauce, Shrimp and Scallops in a spicy garlic sauce, and crispy Pork Chops!  Wow, it was gooood!!

So off we go now to see what other adventures await us on our last day here in Georgetown.

On the move

After a busy couple of days in Albuquerque, we're back on the road again, must be a song in there somewhere:)  We cheaped out and had our coach just washed, while Karen had hers washed and waxed, and man they both look good for a change!  But of course, Murphy has to raise his head because it looks like both Karen, and Jan and I will be driving through rain showers today, us on our way to Georgetown, TX, and Karen on her way back to Louisville.  So much for our beautiful clean coaches.

Her initial fiasco at Rocky Mountain Cummins in Albuquerque went from bad to worse, and barely ended up on the positive side.  After taking care of her oil leak and cleaning things up after leaving the oil cap off, it was discovered she had a coolant leak as well, from a bad coolant reservoir.  She was told by the service manager the part was ordered on Tues for a Wed delivery, BUT he never ordered the part at all!  Then after much back and forth including with the general manager the part was finally ordered on Wed for a Thur am delivery.  She was supposed to have the part installed Thursday so she could still leave right after.  She never ended up getting out of Cummins until after 2 pm so only got to Tucumcari yesterday.  I will say this, I would under no circumstance except an emergency go to Rocky Mountain Cummins in Albuquerque!  Even after all the assurances from the general manager on down, she still had to wait over an hour after the part arrived to have anyone even move her coach inside to be worked on!

We are on our way to visit with Larry and Mary Ellen and to see their new house.  It was under construction when we went through in the spring and is all done and moved into now.  Looking forward to seeing our good friends!

Birthday Girl

Thought I would share a picture of our 90 year old birthday gal, Vivian with her three daughters, Karen, Nancy, and Jan.

The girls

I just hope I can be this spritely if I make it to 90!

Short Extension

We've had some challenges the last couple days.  Not directly involving Jan and I, but close family.  Our son is going through some trials and tribulations, and is hopefully going to have good prospects ahead.
Another had a scare that turned out to be nothing.
Karen may soon be setting records in problems with motorhomes.  I mentioned she had her coach serviced and they found a leaking gasket that was causing the dripping under her coach.  Well, yesterday, I got looking and thought the puddle under her coach was too far back to be caused by some gasket.  I walk to the rear of her coach and first of all notice the entire rear cap and her tow bar is covered in oil.  I open up the engine cover and everything is awash in oil!  And right there in front of me is the cap for the oil fill sitting on top of a battery!  So it spewed oil all over the place all the way from the service facility to the campground!  She was tied up this morning so I drove it back down to have the gasket repaired and as I'm showing the service manger all the oil, we notice she has a leak in her coolant tank to add to the fun!  So now they are trying to find a new one that can be installed before she has to drive home.

We are really having a great time here with Nancy and CT, Viv and Karen.  We've been gathering at Nancy's house and having a nice relaxing time.  So much that we decided with all the other stuff going on we would extend one day to keep up with the festivities and issues.  It gives us a chance to see Viv some more as we won't see her for quite awhile once we leave.

Fun

It's nice being around family, we've been having a great time just catching up and visiting.  Viv had quite a Birthday, an incredible dinner of Rouladen made by Nancy, Jan and I, a favorite of hers, after a Happy Hour where the saxophone player did a rendition of Happy Birthday for her. Everyone there wished her a happy birthday.  She talked to and skyped with all the grandkids and great grandkids and we were all there to enjoy it.  

Karen got her motorhome into Cummins for some work and found out the leak she has is an oil pump gasket about to go.  They weren't able to repair it Friday, but are going to take care of it Tuesday.  On top of all her other travails, she had a flat tire as she was leaving the campground for her appointment which prompted yet another service call.  She is certainly getting quite the intro to motorhome ownership!  Her coach sat for awhile and evidently wasn't serviced like it should have been by the previous owner.  I think after this leak is taken care of she will have caught up and will be able to really enjoy it going forward.

Yesterday we all drove 50 miles up to Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe and had absolutely incredible green chili cheeseburgers!  The best in the world.  Yes it WAS worth driving that far!

We are going out today for an early dinner at a mexican restaurant we all enjoy, El Bruno's.  It's one of the things we wanted to accomplish before we leave the Albuquerque area.  We were talking last night and it dawned on us that in less than 3 weeks, we'll be back east in Louisville.  Wow, seems like we just got out here.  Before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving time, then down to Florida after stopping in Atlanta to see doctors and friends, then Christmas will be upon us.  Time flies!

Is our leak really fixed???

Happy Birthday!

First of all, Happy Birthday Vivian!  90 years on this earth is quite an accomplishment!  And to reach that age with your mental facilities intact, to be active and involved is sensational.  Karen flew in last night and came to Nancy's with Walker, Jan and I are here, and of course Nancy and CT live here near Viv.  We had a pleasant get together last night pre birthday, and plan a birthday party tonight after Happy Hour at Viv's place.  She is going to be honored there so we want to be sure not to interfere with that:-)  After all it's only Happy Hour one day a week where she lives so it's definitely a BIG deal.  It's too bad everyone in the family isn't able to come, but as I'm sure Viv would agree, life goes on and has to be dealt with especially when family is so far flung all around the country. Everyone will be here in spirit even if not in the flesh.

I think of all the things I've observed change in just my 60 years, just imagine all the changes in 90!  Just a handful that come to mind, computers, cell phones, aviation, even the airline that supported her family, TWA, wasn't even in business when she was born!  

In addition to Viv's birthday, today is also our son Jason's 33rd birthday.  We wish him a Happy Birthday as well!  

Fantastic!

We went to Cummins in Albuquerque to have them look at our hydraulic leak.  We got all checked in and were waiting for a tech to come over.  After about 30 minutes, we were very early for our appointment, a tech came strolling over.  He asked what we were doing there as if he didn't know?  I showed him the leak, he at first said, it looks like a bad fitting, duh.  Then he said they would have to put in a new hose, oh man, that is not what we wanted to hear.  The service guy on the phone when I talked to them to make the appointment said they would just put on a new end.  As I'm thinking of leaving, he says, can you give it some pressure?  I ran a slide in and out, he says give me a minute.  He comes back with some wrenches, loosens the fitting and is rewarded with getting sprayed down with hydraulic fluid, then really tightens it up, I mean he really leaned on it.  Wipes it down and says run the slide again.  I do and he says, "YOU"RE ALL SET".  WOW!  He says either something in the threads came out or you just hadn't really tightened it, either way it doesn't leak and there is no charge!  He wasn't even the regular tech, hence the fact he didn't have any idea why we were there, he just had a down moment while he was waiting on some parts and walked out to see what we were there for.  I bought his lunch as a thank you, he took care of the paperwork and we were out of there with a fixed hydraulic leak. Super!

So over to the campground we go, run some errands for Viv's birthday, then have a delicious dinner and super visit at Nancy and CT's.

Conundrum

We are enjoying our time here in Santa Fe.  We got to the Pantry for an awesome dinner.  We were supposed to meet Nancy and CT at Bobcat Bite, the home of the BEST green chili cheeseburger in the world, but they are closed on Monday:-(  We had a good lunch nonetheless at Harry's Roadhouse just down the road.

This is our last day here before we go down the hill to Albuquerque to hopefully get our hydraulic leak fixed, and then spend a week visiting with Nancy and CT, Vivian, and Karen who's flying in for Viv's 90th birthday, and to get her motorhome which she left here several weeks ago.  A good time will be had by all.  We have some other stuff to accomplish as well, we have to go to Tia Sophias for a meal, a big Triple D restaurant, have to go to El Brunos, a fantastic mexican place for dinner, get to Costco and Target, as you can see, some very important items.

Although we can't wait to see family and friends back east, we are not looking forward to leaving the west.  We really love it out here, but our kids and grandkids and most of our good friends are in the east.  And we enjoy spending the winter in Florida.  It may be our last winter with my mom so we really want to be there for her.

Good bye Colorado

The forecast weather wasn't as bad as they said.  Must be nice to have a job where you can be wrong ALL the time and still remain employed.  Instead of pouring rain turning into snow and accumulating an inch, we only got a little rain, and no snow except at the higher elevations and not much there.  We took a quick ride yesterday up to Molas Pass to see the snow on the mountaintops.  Very pretty, but also reminds us to get out of here before it moves down the mountains.  So off to Santa Fe this morning.  

Spud Lake

Doubt you remember but back in June we took a nice hike to Potato Lake, or Spud Lake as it is commonly referred to.  It was pleasant, green with leaves, great views, up to a beautiful lake that unfortunately already had 10-20 people there!  We wanted to do it again in the fall and see how much different it looked.  To pick your memory this was the hike that ended in the drive on out the road that absolutely terrified me, the one with the huge drop offs and the big boulder in the middle of the narrow road that Jan had to direct me around.  Needless to say we didn't come out that way this time!  It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, and about 65 degrees, about perfect for our 2 mile hike.  Oh yeah, instead of the crowds we encountered previously, there was one young couple with a baby in a carrier that blew by us like we were standing still.  So it was quiet and still for our hike.

Looking up through the now bare aspens

Across the valley to Purgatory

Views along the way

Up by the beaver ponds, climbing gently from 9,360' to 9800'.

Looking down to the beaver ponds

A Stellar Jay

Then to the lake!  What a gorgeous, peaceful, pleasant place far from the bustles.

Reflections

Just a bit of color left

Me perched enjoying it all!

Disappointing Day

Waited all day for the hydraulic service guy, and never heard a thing!  Also put in a call to HWH, the company that built the unit at 9am CDT, and never got a return call all day, even after I called back 3 more times.  Clark Howard has it right, "CUSTOMER NO SERVICE!"

On another note they are calling for about an inch of snow tomorrow night, almost time to head south :-)

Leak

Now lest you think we have escaped all problems, we have a leak.  Actually we have a leak that we've had for some time getting worse.  3 of our 4 slide outs and the generator slide out operate hydraulically, and the pump, reservoir, and control unit are located underneath our entry step.  It has had a little drip for awhile, but each time we park on a  concrete surface like we did in Moab, we are noticing the leak is increasing.  So the diesel mechanic crawled under when we got to Durango and tried to tighten the fitting, but was rewarded with a faceful of ATF, automatic transmission fluid, that is used in the system.  Not good!  It is too tight for me to get up under there.  Fortunately a friend of mine with a similar coach inquired as to whether or not I had removed the storage compartment in the step because as far as he knew it would gain access to the fitting.  Duh, feeling kind of stupid I did that and boom there it is!  Only the problem appears to be a bad fitting on the end of one of the hydraulic hoses.  No big deal I think, but I found out calling around that the hydraulic repair people want to replace the entire hose.  That wouldn't be a problem if I knew where it went and could get to it.  Right now it disappears into a bundle of about 25 different hoses and goes who knows where!  I call the manufacturer who surely knows where it goes, and find out.........no they don't know either!  Call a big service facility and.......they don't know either.  I finally found a repair guy who is willing to put on a new end as long as the hose is okay.  He is supposed to be here tomorrow and hopefully he can quickly repair the fitting and we'll be all set.

We took a ride up to Silverton to find out that it is pretty dead with the end of the season coming up.  Shops are closing as winter approaches, in fact, they expect snow on Thursday-Friday above the 9000' level which easily includes the pass into Silverton.  We spied a dirt road south of town that we had somehow missed all these years so off we went, figured it would give us a different view of Silverton.  Looked a bit rough but up we went.

Up the shelf road 

It got very, very steep and very rough in about a mile so we called it quits.  It was a dead end road anyway, but we did get a different view of Silverton and the valley from the other, south side.

The mining town of Silverton
350-400 full time residents

Looking towards the Million Dollar Highway
towards Ouray

So down we came back to town.

Yeehaaa

We drove back to Durango, but had to stop in and see Lake Havilland on our way.  Beautiful and quiet now with the summer gone.

Gorgeous

Quiet

We then took a drive up to an overlook high above Durango cause if you remember it was smoke filled when we were here in June.  It was beautiful, but a bit hazy, always something, huh?  We putzed around here and there and came back to spend a quiet day enjoying the beautiful weather.

On to Durango

Just a quick post.  Even the drive to Durango was fantastic.  The colors are past peak now, but even so there are patches of bright yellow where the aspens haven't yet lost all their leaves.  I don't drive the motorhome down the Million Dollar Highway (550) that goes from Ridgway to Durango, through Ouray and Silverton.  I'm chicken.  I'll now drive the Jeep and have driven the motorcycle down that road, but no way with the motorhome, so instead we go around past Telluride, through Deloras, and into Durango from the west.  It only adds about 25 miles and it's a beautiful ride in and of itself.  We even found a nice spot big enough to pull over and have lunch.

Lunch stop

We got to the campground in Durango about 3:30pm.  Kind of quiet compared to the summer months.  There's only about 20 of us here, as they wind down the season and close at the end of the month, hopefully before the snow flies!

Fall has come

A really nice day

I said that we were going to go for a drive down towards Telluride and we did.  It's the Last Dollar Road.  In June we did it from Telluride back to the north towards Ridgway, so this time we did it in reverse.  We got a kick out of this sign at the entrance to the road.

Pretty good, huh?

The road meanders through fields and meadows before it starts to climb up over the pass on Last Dollar Mountain.  There is still a bit of color around as you crest the hills.

Almost over

The road is much rougher than it was in June.  We keep climbing up through the aspens.

A tunnel of color!

We continue up to a viewpoint still short of the pass.  What a vista!  I'm trying not to fall off the cliff edge:-)

Wow

We stop at another viewpoint fairly close to Telluride's airport for lunch.  Not a bad spot, huh?

Lunch time

We are even seeing some signs of winter high up on the north side of the mountains.

First snow

We continue along and start to descend towards town.  We get a view back up the canyon towards Telluride.

Telluride

We descend and join the main road and turn to head back to Ridgway.  We take a nice walk around the campground then have a fantastic anniversary dinner with some great wine.  As I said, a really nice day!

Final Day in Moab

We took off early to do the La Sal Mountain Scenic Loop, a road high, high above Moab with fabulous views to circle back around to meet Nancy and CT for lunch at the Moab Brewery.  You have to drive about 21 miles up along the Green River to get to the loop, then we are greeted with signs that say road closed 18 miles ahead.  We checked our map and it looked like we would be able to take a detour prior to the closure and still loop back in time for lunch.  So off we went.  The road starts climbing from about 5500', up we went beside Castle Rock, and incredible promontory way above us!

Castle Rock

A little farther away

We kept on climbing, went through the road closed sign, and ran right into the men and equipment that had the road completely torn up, and we couldn't reach our detour.  So now we have to go back around the 42 miles to meet for lunch.  Oh well, after lunch we'll just go around the other way.
We had an excellent lunch at the Moab Brewery, sitting on the patio with just absolutely perfect weather, mid 70's and not a cloud in the sky!
After lunch we resumed our drive from the other side.  Although this new Jeep has incredible range, our rule is to not go off road with less than 1/2 tank.  I know there is a gas station south of town where we will pick up our road, so we go by several stations in town.  Well the station we had planned on was $.25/gallon more than the stations in town.  That pissed me off, so I blew it off and we headed out with 3/8's of a tank.  We go about 7 miles and see the new sign, road closed 11 miles ahead.  We stop, peruse the map very carefully, and determine we can detour around before the closure, sound familiar?  This time we were able to detour, so 11 miles down the road and at about 8500' we turn off on our detour.  Before we did we stopped for the view of Moab far below.

South end of Moab

We keep climbing and climbing until we are over 10,000'.  We are in and out of aspen groves that are just getting past their peak, although still magnificent.  We are getting further and further from Moab on our detour, but the road works its way around until we come to an intersection from which we can go straight ahead, join a paved road in a few miles, then drive a mere 37 more miles back to Moab, OR we can cut up and over La Sal Pass and go directly to Moab in about 15 miles, oh yeah, we are a bit below 1/4 tank of gas at this time.  Easy decision right?  Of course!  We go up and over.  The pass is supposed to be in 7 miles and the road is fantastic, winding, narrow, in aspens most of the time, up, up we go, and get to the pass.  So where did the road go?  There is a little rough, narrow, what looks to be an ATV path in front of us, more work with the map, looks like the right way, but........  We stick our nose down and go about 200 yards, it's very rough and narrow, and we have less than 1/4 tank now.  What an idiot I was for a lousy $.25/gallon!  We have a 4WD guide book with us, but we hadn't looked at it since it rarely has just dirt roads in it versus trails.  We opt to turn around, go back the 7 miles to the intersection, and the 37 plus miles back to Moab on the paved road.  Jan for some reason grabs the book as we turn around, and lo and behold the La Sal Pass road is in it.  It says the east side, the side we had just come up was easy, but the west side is a rough, narrow, moderate 4WD trail and crosses several areas of fairly unstable scree.  WOW!  Glad we turned around.  The trip back was uneventful even watching the gas gauge go under 1/8.  

Still beautiful, but losing their intensity

Looking through the trees

Western fall colors

It was a great drive that unfortunately was made a little anxious because of my stupid gas decision.
We said good bye to Nancy and CT yesterday morning as they headed for home and we headed for Ridgway State Park in Colorado, mainly so Jan could get her hair cut in Montrose with a stylist that she really likes from when we were here for a month.  With winter approaching, and the night temps in the 30's, the bustling busy state park we experienced in July is quiet and dark with only about 10 of us.  Jan got her hair done yesterday, ran a few errands in Montrose, so today, our anniversary, we are taking a drive down towards Telluride, having a picnic, then a special dinner tonight.

Taking it easy

We decided Wednesday was going to be health day.  We just took it easy and enjoyed the weather, walked around the campground a bit, sat and read in the sun, took a little ride to look at a famous Jeep trail, even took a nap.  Exciting, huh?

The Moab Rim trail is not for the faint of heart, it is a full on modified, experienced trail only, as it goes up over slick rock with up to 4' ledges, no I'm not exaggerating, right along a cliff edge up onto the top of the mesa.  We had looked at it before, but went over to see if anyone was up to the challenge.  No luck finding anyone running it, but got a few good views of the surrounding area.

Moab Rim Trail

This is one of those deals where the picture can't do it justice.  If you look hard you can see the black marks from the tires working up the hill.  There is nothing on the left, straight down.  It is hard to comprehend just looking at it that people actually drive up here, and then come back down!  We walked up a ways to take a few pics.

Rugged

Looking back up the river

One of the many arches in the area
That small dot on the right is a
mountain biker far, far above us!

So not much to tell, but we're just having a great time.

Moab!

In Moab now, evidently a popular time of the year as it is busy, busy.  We had a nice drive over from Capitol Reef.  We usually avoid the interstate unless we are just trying make miles, but we had to take it to get to Moab, even so, the views on I-70 were awesome.  Who says you can't see anything on the main highways?

What scenery!

Looking down Spotted Wolf Canyon
through the San Rafael Reef

Awesome!

We pulled into Portal RV Resort just north of town and just a bit south of the entrance to Arches National Park.  We had never been here before, but had heard glowing reports about the owner side of the park.  Portal is a combo, half regular campground, and half are huge lots that are owned or for sale.  So when the owner isn't here, they rent out the lots.  So it's kind of exclusive I guess, it is all landscaped, huge sites all concrete with patios, a separate pool and hot tub for the resort side.  It's nice, but a bit pricey, with lots of rules to protect the owners.  Would we come back here, I don't think so, we would probably stay back down at Spanish Trails where we usually stay, but it's a nice change.
After a great breakfast with Nancy and CT at the Moab diner with their super green chili, we took off into Arches to do a hike in Devil's Garden.  Wow, we couldn't even find a parking space, so we blew it off and went over to a 4wd trail in the park that we had done before, but first we hiked in to take a look at Skyline Arch.

Skyline Arch

It is about 10 miles of rough wash board dirt road to get to the trail, and things must have changed a lot since we were here last, because we couldn't or wouldn't even attempt the first obstacle.  Man it was gnarly!  We were afraid of wrecking our Jeep, guess we need a lifted up Wrangler to do this one.  So we turned around, checked out the Devil's Garden again, and found a parking space so off we went.  It was a very pleasant hike, you can make the hike as long as you want up to 7.3 miles one way, but it gets challenging and high past the Landscape Arch at about .7 miles.  It is, in our opinion, more delicate and beautiful than the famous Delicate Arch.  306 feet long and thin and spindly looking, in fact in 1991, with a bunch of hikers nearby, a huge chunk fell off the bottom making it even thinner!

Landscape Arch

The trail past the arch gets a little more challenging as I said, here are some folks on the hike ahead of us.

Straight up the slick rock

Nice views and small passages along the way.

We wanted to take a hike into Fiery Furnace, but found out it has to be ranger led, and they are booked up for weeks!  Too easy to get lost or hurt in all the tiny passages.  Looked pretty neat, even though you could only see a small portion of the area.

Fiery Furnace area

It was a good day.  Jan received my anniversary gift this afternoon, a little early, it's on Saturday, 39 years!  So she wants to play around with it and learn to use it tomorrow.  It's a new camera.  Thanks Sandy for all your help and input.  Then Nancy and CT made superb green chili cheeseburgers, with authentic Hatch green chilies, for dinner.  A very pleasant evening was had by all.

Catch up

The internet is still plaguing us.  The campground wifi is iffy here so we switch over to our trusty Verizon modem and get......... next to nothing!  Here is a spot where AT&T is working stellar and V is not.  Anyway, yesterday Jan and I went on a road trip to Cathedral Valley.  It is a dirt/4wd track predominately north of Capitol Reef that was spectacular.  We have been here 3 times previously and somehow missed this drive.  It starts with fording a river!  Then about 40 miles of fantastic scenery, first through desert areas and finally climbing high over Thousand Lake Mountain through the aspens.  The rest of the post is just photos, a recap of our drive.

Entering the river

In the river!

Surreal topography

Super views

Old derelict well driller

Bentonite or cat litter hills

Close up of the bentonite

Awesome scenery

Balanced rock

More views

Climbing towards the aspen

So very bright!

Beautiful grove

A bit closer

Aspen in the foreground