Cracking along and good food too!

This post is filled with pictures.  We have been busy and moving.  We left Durango and went up to Montrose for the night, partially to get pizza at Pahgres, and partially because it was too far to go all the way to Salt Lake City on our way to Boise.  Let me back up.

We heard about a restaurant in Durango we wanted to try called Rice Monkeys.  It specializes in sushi and vietnamese food.  We are pretty excited about vietnamese food right now.  It is still new and different to us and we really enjoy the freshness and bright flavors.  It is a tiny joint right on Main Ave in Durango and can only seat about 15 people.  It was excellent, I had Pho and Jan had a Bun, which is a dish served on vermicelli noodles.

My delicious pho

Jan's bun

Rice Monkeys

After our delicious lunch we drove up high over Durango and the Animas Valley to an overlook.  It was another beautiful day!

Looking north up the Animas Valley

The Needles

Durango

We even did our good deed for the day as on the way down we encountered the back end of a car sticking up towards the road as it perched on quite a steep slope.  A couple kids said they encountered a deer and lost control, doubtful we thought as they had gone by earlier at what we would say was a high rate of speed:-)  Anyway, they weren't hurt and we managed to pull them out.

Then later it was off to Andrews Lake high in the mountains on the way to Molas Pass.  A beautiful alpine lake at about 10,000' for our picnic dinner.

It was about perfect as we munched on our dinner surrounded by beauty and quiet.  After a short walk around the area we headed back down the mountain.  It was getting quite nippy by that time.

A view from the lake

Along the path

A view from the road

As we were descending all of a sudden Jan yelled to stop!  She had spied a big bear coming out of the treeline above us.  It was at extreme range, and he was moving pretty quick so she wasn't able to get her tripod out, so the shots are little fuzzy, but nonetheless you can see it was a sizable bear!

It was pretty cool to have our day capped off with a bear sighting!

Then the next morning we were off for Montrose, had a gorgeous drive up and around through Cortez and Dolores, so sad that the Million Dollar Highway was closed.  Not really, no way I would drive the motorhome on that road anyway:-)  Saw lots of deer and elk on the way, then pulled into Centennial RV Park to get us in position for pizza at Pahgres!

Centennial RV Park

Karen was nice enough to unhook her truck and transport us into Montrose where we enjoyed our pizza!

Yum, yum, yum!

Then off in the morning for a pretty long drive up to Deer Creek State Park in Heber City, UT.  It is a pretty campground with incredible views, and would be our home for 2 nights.

The view right from our coach!

Of course since we are Food Network junkies and Diners, Driveins, and Dives fans, we had watched an episode on the Salt Lake City area and Guy featured a little vietnamese restaurant in Holladay, UT which was nearby.  So we took off on a scenic drive up and over the backside of the mountains into and through Park City, and ended up in the little joint, called Oh Mai.  We had a delicious lunch of Banh Mi's and pho for me.

My delicious pho

The Banh Mi

Then the next morning very early we left for Boise, Eagle really, a suburb of Boise to visit Kris and Sandy and Abby.  We have been having a great time here visiting and being wined and dined.  Yesterday we met Sandy at the Westside Drive In, another Triple D visited spot and had a super lunch topped off with incredible Black Raspberry milkshakes!

After one more superb day here we are off for Washington, our ferry to Alaska is only about a week away.  We are working to empty our freezers and get our refrigerators down to non perishable food since we will have to completely shut down the motorhomes for our 3 1/2 day voyage.  

And no, the tires are still not paid for.  I think I will go to a weekly report on this since I'm getting tired of writing it again and again to say nothing about you getting tired of reading it again and again!