Month: May 2022

Day 58, the Last Day of School

          “Good Morning Class!”

          “Good Morning Mr. Hall!”

          Well, I hope that you have enjoyed our Fifty-eight Day Field Trip for this year. Now that we have arrived back in New Jersey and it is Memorial Day weekend, I have some good news for you.”

          (Pause for dramatic effect and wait for the class’s rapt attention)

          Your Studies for this semester have come to a close! I know that we said back in the beginning that we would be ending this Voyage of Discovery probably in Mid-June, but that’s it!

          We’re Kaput!

          Finished!

          Toast!

          Hasta la Vista, baby!

          And the best part is that, even though ‘Pat from Lafayette’ is begging me to assign some homework for over the summer break, I am, in fact, NOT going to do this!”

          There will be however, some short ventures into the wilds of New England and the Jersey Shore that you may attend for extra credit. To that end, I will pass along some advice for making it easy to follow along at home if you cannot attend in person.

          Go to the end of this Post and at the bottom you will find two little boxes to check. Read both of them and check off at least the one about being notified of Future Posts (if you haven’t done this already) Make sure  that you provide your email address so that this very intelligent computer program knows who to send messages to when I post something new.

          Before we dismiss for the weekend, lets review what we’ve seen over the past two months.

          The first leg of our Journey saw us at Tomboy Farm in Durango, Colorado where we participated in a ‘Gate Building’ project and we collected fresh eggs and bluebird skies to go along with a side trip to Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans mecca of sorts.

          We then forayed into the wilds of Las Vegas, where basically as non-drinkers, non-gamblers, and definitely non-smokers, we found the most interesting things were the ‘Lights of the Strip’ at night and the mighty Hoover Dam. I know that we almost lost several of you to some over-imbibing whilst at the Tables, but we were happy to see you all  on board the next morning.

          Hey! Who can forget that wild forty-mile an hour windy area we traversed on our way to Los Angeles? Crazy wasn’t it? It was a good thing that all of you galley-slaves had your oars out the windows helping us keep steady in that tempest!”

          In the Los Angeles area, we visited my old haunts on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, i.e., the Tide Pools and the all -glass Wayfarers Chapel. The trip to Catalina Island was sublime and definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip. An early Easter Dinner at the home of Travis’s parents, Linda and Dan, was a much-needed taste of home.

          Heading north out of Tinseltown, we meandered up though the San Joachim Valley trying to identify all of the crops that we passed along the way to Sequoia National Park. We won’t get into the physiology of giant trees again, but I think that you’ll agree that they are about as majestic as they get!

          Over to the Paso Robles growing region we went after that. A short trip up the coast to witness the Elephant Seals in their rookery was just fascinating, and so close! We did go to a Winery while there and discovered an unfortunate fact. As satisfied as one is with less-expensive wines, once you develop a palate for some of the finer (read  expensive) vintages, well, let’s just sat that the “Two-Buck Chuck” (which is really three bucks now) at Trader Joes leaves something to be desired. Oh well. At least I have found that my Cold Winter Milk only varies slightly from area to area and always has the same taste no matter where we procure it!

          Off to Monterey we went after that. From that cute town we ventured down the coast to the storied Big Sur area and were not disappointed one iota with anything along the way. It was as iconic as everyone describes it. We even had one of the most memorable meals of lifetime at Nepenthe, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the incredible cliffs of this area.

          Back in the bus we climbed for the trip a little further north to the San Francisco environs. Here the Hills, Bridge, Cable Cars, and other sites paled in comparison to what we encountered in Muir Woods National Monument, one of the homes of the Coastal Redwood trees.

          Back across the state we zoomed. Another perfect day was in the offing for our visit to the incomparable Yosemite National Park. Our visit was timed perfectly as the kids were still in school and the waters were flowing nicely with the spring run-off that produces those dramatic waterfalls!

          I wonder if I should schedule a pop-quiz directly after this review to see if you all are paying attention? (Pat from Lafayette!)

          After that we visited the unlikely town of Eugene, Oregon where we met up with one of Paula’s old classmates, Deb and had a great tour of the downtown area.

          It was then time for our next homestay and that was with Liz and Beth on the coast of Oregon. While the Motorhome stayed safely tucked away in the Sysco of Portland parking lot, we ventured over to the coast for four great days of hiking, exploring, wine drinking, (not me!) and visiting. It was quite memorable!

          Our next leg brought us to the Olympic Peninsula home of Olympic National Park and a bunch of Orcas. To those of you who thought that it was a good idea to swim with the Orcas….. well,  I’m still not sure that all of you made it back on board! But that’s why we get those signed permission slips from your parents absolving us of any semblance of responsibility!

          Another homestay was waiting for us in Spokane, with Kim and Greg, old family friends of Paula and her family. Greg served two tours of duty with Dan in Iraq and have been close ever since.

          Down to Yellowstone we went, and this is where the obvious miscalculations of Seasonal Events reared their ugly heads. While not crazy bad, it wasn’t that good either, so we elected to make that Big Right Turn and head south towards Utah and places warmer. This was a GREAT decision as both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks were not on our original itinerary. As it turns out, they both became highlights of our trip as they are both magnificent and we found some new friends in Sherry and Scott!

          By now we could taste the eventual end of this two-month long jaunt so a slip into Durango to visit Lorelyn and Travis again was just the medicine we needed to push through the Mid-West fields, try to find the St. Louis Gateway Arch, visit the Air Force Museum in Dayton, and then book it for New Jersey.

          This writing finds us sitting safely in the back of Yetter’s Diner in Sussex County.

          Home at last!

          Well that about sums up the past few months, thanks for tagging along with us, be sure to check the appropriate box at the end of this so you don’t go crazy over the summer trying to see if anything has posted lately!

          Now get ready for the quiz!!!

          That means you too Pat!

Day 56

          I remember exactly when and where I was when I decided that I needed to visit the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

          It was in August of 1989, in Beach Haven, N.J. on Long Beach Island.

          I met Richard Dahlstedt in a curious fashion.

          His wife, Marden, was the author of Shadow of the Lighthouse, one of Lorelyn’s favorite books. She was presently in 5^th grade and was devouring books that summer. We learned that Marden had written another book, The Terrible Wave, (about the Johnstown Flood) but it was not available. This was before the “buy anything on the Internet” time. I had read on the dustjacket, that Marden, and her husband Richard, had an antique shop on the Island and we happened to be just across the bay at my Grandmother’s shore house. I called the shop and Richard answered the phone. He explained that Marden had passed away, but he had several copies of the book and would be happy to get one to us. I told him where we were and that we would be right over.

          Richard had the book ready for Lorelyn when we entered The Attic, which was the name of their antique shop. Behind the desk, hanging on the wall, there was a photo of a B-24 Liberator from WWII. Richard and I got involved in a conversation about it and that was when I learned that Richard was the commander of that bomber in North Africa during the war.

          Richard relayed to me an interesting story.

          He picked up his favorite pipe and indicated a carved symbol on the front of it. It was kind of a skull and crossbones likeness, but not quite that. Showing me the pipe and then looking closer at the photo, he showed me that the pipe had the same markings as the B-24.

          “I heard that my plane was eventually taken to the Air Force Museum in Dayton,” he started. Stopping for a moment he picked up his pipe again and said,  “It was years before I got the chance to go and visit her, but when I did, I had my pipe with me, but then, I always had my pipe with me and didn’t give it a second thought, Until……” He looked up at me and smiled. Continuing, he said, “Until….. the guy at the Museum saw me and recognized the carving on my pipe. All he said to me was, “We’ve been waiting for you to come.”

          That was when I decided that someday I would get to Dayton and visit the Air Force Museum. Well, that someday turned into yesterday. It only took me thirty-three years to get there but it was worth the wait!

          In order to do this Museum justice, one would need to spend about three days here so that you could read every bit of information that was presented with the various displays. I only had about three hours, so I rambled about, going from one Aviation Era to another, picking out my favorites and spending my time with them.

          As you may imagine, their collection is incredible. I’m sure that it rivals the Smithsonian’s, but we are not going to debate who’s is better, we are just going to be thankful that once again, someone decided that something was worthwhile saving, and did just that!    

          The Museum is vast. Besides the main building, there are four additional “hangers” where the aircraft are displayed. These “hangers” were specifically built here for this purpose and are large enough to enclose some mighty aircraft. The largest are a B-52, a B-36, a B-29, and a Boeing 707 that was once an Air Force One plane.

          I took a few photos to represent what is displayed here and to give you a sense of not only how large it is, but also to show you how well everything is portrayed.

          Sacrifice and Service are prominent themes here, as they should be.

          It is well worth a visit, no matter how much time you have.

(Just make sure that you get good directions!)

Day 54

          “T-Minus 16 seconds, and we have a slight hold.”

          “Roger Mission Control”

          “Countdown continued…..”

          “……. T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, Ignition sequence, 3, 2, 1,….

          “We have liftoff! Aurora 7 and Scott Carpenter are on their way!”

          It was 6:45 AM on May 24, 1962, in St. Louis, and little Donny Hall was feverishly scanning his large map of the world that was spread out in front of the television in the living room. He was plotting the position of  the spacecraft as it was reported over the various tracking stations around the world.

          He worked on this like it was his job.

          It was a three-orbit flight and both he and Scott were only about an orbit and a half into the flight, which meant that he would need to stop what he was doing before the end of the flight in order to get to school on time.

          “Donny! I told you five minutes ago to get to school!”

          “Ok Mom, I’m leaving!”

          Rolling up his map, gathering his school stuff, Donny left the house and quickly made his way up the street on his way to 2^nd Grade at St. Bartholomew School several blocks away.

          He never made it to school that day.

          In his haste to make up the time used to plot Scott Carpenter’s progress over the earth, he defied one of the basic rules of walking to school.

          He walked out to cross the street from between two parked cars.

          Both he and the driver of the car that hit him could not have seen it coming.

          Donny is OK all these years later.

          I know this because I am typing this story out and I feel fine, thank you  😊

          Here is why I am reliving this scenario to you.

          It is May 24, 2022, exactly 60 years to the day after the ‘incident’ and where do I find myself?

          In St. Louis.

          I have never been here since that time.

          In all of our travels, where our plans changed so many times for assorted reasons, how and why do I find myself back here on the exact day, T-Plus sixty years later?

          I don’t know either! I just thought it was quite serendipitous and I needed to relate this story to you!

          We were in St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch National Park.

          We almost gave up on this venture before we got there because someone must have decided that since you can see the Arch from most places and roads in the area, that no signage whatsoever was needed to guide out-of-towners to it.

          I take that back.

          There was one sign on the highway placed immediately at the exit needed to get there. Not a half-mile before, or even a  quarter mile before.

          Exactly at the exit with its arrow pointing to the right …..

                    Arch —–>

          And once you exit, there are zero signs to direct you after that. We ended up crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois and having to do a U-turn and retrace our steps.

          St. Louis gets an F-minus for not even one big brown National Park sign with any amount of information on it!

          After the Direction Debacle was ended, we found ourselves in a beautifully manicured Park set alongside the Mississippi River with the Gateway Arch prominently displayed in the middle.

We did not avail ourselves of the trip to the top as the wait was just a little too long. So, we went through the accompanying Museum which displays the history of our County’s Westward Expansion (which is the theme of the entire Park) with just enough detail for a history buff, but not so much that would have someone else’s eyes glaze over. We toured the Museum as we waited for the film about how the Arch was designed and built, to start.

          The film was fascinating as you may imagine. The engineering alone is worth the story, never mind the story of the crew of guys that actually built this 630’ marvel. OSHA was formed in 1971, and the Arch was constructed between 1962 and 1965, so you know what that means!

          No Safety Harnesses!

          It was projected that, with this amount of new processes being implemented here (so no previous experience level was available to lean on) that there would be upwards of thirteen major injuries during the construction phase of the project.

          They were wrong!

          There was ZERO incidents during this time period!

          I could go into all of the details of the build, but I am positive that your eyes would glaze over so I will leave you with these suggestions:

          Go to St. Louis.

          Go see the Arch.

          Look at Google Maps for an exact address of a nearby business or location and use that to guide you to the Park, as Gateway Arch National Park will not work!

          Have fun! It was well worth our initial aggravation!

Day 54

          Don’t it always seem to go

          That you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone

          They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

          We all know these lines from Joni Mitchell’s 1970 song, Big Yellow Taxi, and I’m sure that at one time or another we’ve all quoted it when the time was appropriate. Progress is a relative word, depending on one’s point of view.

          So, let’s call it process.

           This almost five-hundred-year-old process of moving across North America has had its positives and negatives, and we are not going to debate these at this point.

           Let’s just say that it is a good thing that somewhere along the line, someone takes a good hard look at something and decides that enough is enough and we need to stop that something in its tracks.

          And sometimes we get to take advantage of a good thing when we see it.

          Enough with the nebulous statements! But that’s exactly what the Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service have done in this unlikely place in the middle of Kansas.

          Here’s another quote for you,

          “Whenever you stop on the prairie to lunch or camp, and gaze around, there is a picture such as poet and painter never succeeded in transferring to book or canvas….

[We] ought to have saved a…… Park in Kansas, ten thousand acres broad….. the prairie as it came from the hand of God,

Not a foot or an inch desecrated by ‘improvements’ and ‘cultivation.’

It is only a memory now.”

          Here’s the best part of that quote, it was written in 1884 by D.W. Wilder, the Editor of The Hiawatha World, a newspaper in Hiawatha, Kansas.

          Enter Stephen F. Jones in 1878 and his wife, Louisa.

          The Jones’s had a cattle company in Colorado and wanted a place to graze their stock. Their Spring Hill Farm eventually grew to about ten-thousand acres. The Jones’s, and the subsequent owners of this farm, never broke the soil, never farmed the pastures, and never needed to not have the native Tallgrass eliminated from the lands.

          Tallgrass, and its cousins, Shortgrass and Mixed Grass are some of the correct terminologies used to describe the types of grasses that grow here, and only here. Most of the rest of the Prairie, which at one time spanned the heartland of our Country from Kansas all the way up to, and into, the south of Canada, succumbed to Mr. John Deere’s new invention, the steel plow.

          Process.

          As luck would have it, (for us) the farm and all of its wonderful buildings, came up for sale in the 1980’s because it went into receivership. Over the next few years, several plans were put forth by concerned citizens and organizations to try and preserve this, the last, best example of Tallgrass Prairie left in the country. The Nature Conservancy, along with the National Park Trust, eventually acquired the entire farm and folded it into the National Park Service, who administers it to this day.

          This Park, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, is about as simple as it gets. 11,000 square acres of what was once over 400,000 square miles of Tallgrass Prairie is left to its own design and is allowed to do, and be that, forever. The prairie has some new (?) indigenous species re-introduced to it, the American Bison, or buffalo, if you prefer. Bison, and/or cattle, do not harm this region at all. In fact, these automatic fertilizer machines work nicely with the local ecosystem as you may expect. A few head of these critters were “imported” from the herd in Yellowstone and the only thing that is managed is the total number of Bison that are kept on this relatively small expanse of prairie.

          We took a short walk on one of the trails that weave their way through the rolling topography that is indicative of this, the Flint Hills of Kansas. The view from up on top was seemingly endless. Thinking that we were seeing exactly what our Native American friends saw those many years ago was quite humbling.

          I think that Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Wilder both got it right.

Days 50 through 54

          We drove seventy-three miles with no one in front of us and no one behind us for as far as we could see. I know this because I kept track. We did have a few vehicles pass us coming from the other direction however.

          We have not been on an Interstate Highway since we left Durango on Saturday morning and that is just fine with us.

          What started out as an exercise in plotting the most direct way to get from Durango to St. Louis has turned into a game of …..

Interstate? Not Today!

In fact, our route from Page, Arizona to Durango lead us through the Navajo Indian Reservation, not using even one major highway, and complete with trading posts! I availed myself of their services and procured some nifty, authentic Native American Handiworks for the Grandkids in Boston.

          What a way to see the Country! We have had our share of Interstate Travels  and there is no faster way to get from here to there, but when (and if) you have the time, take that advice that we’ve all heard so many times…”Get off the Interstate!”

          Well, we did just that, just in time for the snowstorm to hit us at Wolf Creek Pass which tops out at 10, 856’ of elevation and a 7% grade both leading up to it, and away from it. Remember good ol’ C.W. McCall of the song Convoy from back in the ‘70’s? Well, he even wrote a song about it!

          Thankfully the roads just stayed wet as the snow accumulated on either side of the road. I’m quite sure that this meteorological event was the reason that there was nobody (almost) on the road with us. Being able to navigate up and down these mountain passes without fear of trucks either barreling down behind us or being stuck behind an even slower one ascending, helped make this experience a little less harrowing.

          Once we hit level ground again, our pulses slowed down a little, but the snow did not! Just because we were level did not mean that we were that much lower. We were not still at almost 11,000’ of elevation but were still at close to 7000’ and that is plenty high enough for snow to be had at this time of year.

          And we thought that we were done with this stuff when we made that big right turn in Montana and headed south!

          When we finally left the snow behind we were headed east through the southeast corner of Colorado. This area has farm after (abandoned) farm with a few tiny towns interspersed between. Some of the scenes reminded me of Dust Bowl photos that I have only seen in books.

          And, we had not even arrived in Kansas yet!

          Our first real destination on this leg was the town of Dodge City.

          Yes, that Dodge City.

          Marshall Matt Dillon, Doc, and Miss Kitty were there at the Long Branch Saloon to greet us. There was an element of Gunsmoke that was based on fact and the Long Branch Saloon was one of them, as that is the real name of the saloon in Dodge City both back then and today.  We entered the Boot Hill Museum not really knowing what to expect, but it had come highly recommended, so we gave it a try.

          The place is really located on/next to the real Boot Hill. The cemetery part of Boot Hill was removed way back when the town fathers needed a place to put up a school, and since only the bad guys, Black Bart, the McAllister boys, and all of the other desperados were buried there, well, no one really cared, so they were re-planted somewhere else. Dust to Dust…..

          Do you know why it was called Boot Hill?

          It’s because when an unfortunate fellow got dispatched to meet his Maker, (usually by nefarious means) no one stopped to even remove his boots before he was admitted to this undesirable (for many reasons) section of town!

          The Boot Hill  Museum does an extremely fine job of not only documenting the past of  Dodge City, but also of the life of a western town at that point in our history.

          Back into the bus we climbed as our journey needed to continue. Our travels once again were all to ourselves as there was no one else on the road with us. Now we really felt like we were traveling in the Dust Bowl era, passing field after field of mostly wheat with those tiny burgs placed just far enough apart to give them a definite feeling of isolation.

          Gigantic grain elevators dotted the horizon as did some windmills that were placed there just to scare us because we hate wind, and no one puts windmills in non-windy locations!

          We are travelling from Walmart to Walmart, but we have altered our modus operandi to include a phone call to our prospective overnight host. So far we have been rebuffed only once! Our next destination is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve just outside of Strong City, Kansas. Tallgrass once covered 170 million acres of our nations heartland, but then we all came along and needed driveways, and other essential (?) necessities, so there’s none left.

          Except here.

          Tomorrow, we (and you!) will experience what was once upon a time…..

Day 49

          This day is probably the first day that we are actually headed East. Forty-nine days on the road, each one has been unique and storied in its own right, but this daily rootless lifestyle comes with some disadvantages.

          We miss everyone.

          Enough is enough. We may have found our limit as to how long we can say unattached to one of our bases and that is just fine with us.   And we still have a way to go.  

          When this East Coast-Roundabout-Go-West-Before-Going-East method of travel in order to get back to New Jersey and environs is complete, we will have been on the road for approximately sixty days.      Thankfully interspersed within these sixty days were a few stops along the way made with friends and family. These Home Visits really impacted us and allowed the trip to continue having had small slices of familial familiarity  along the way.  Travis and Lorelyn in Durango, Travis’s family, Linda, Dan, Erin, and Rob in California, Liz and Beth in Oregon, Greg and Kim in Spokane, and even our newly found friends, Sherry and Scott in Utah, have helped us, each in their own way, to keep those Homesick Blues at bay.

          We are currently back in one of our favorite Walmart’s and that is the one located in Page, Arizona. This is a mecca for outdoors recreation and that means that tons of RV’s converge here on a regular basis. It also means that these folks treat the Walmart here nicely. It is does not seem to be in their nature to trash the place or take advantage of its hospitality as we’ve witnessed too many times before at other locations. So, consequently the welcome mat is always out here which gives us a certain amount of assurance that someone will not be knocking on our door in the middle of the night asking us to move along.

          The trip yesterday from the Bryce Canyon area to here was taken with a certain amount of ease. We found ourselves retracing our route out this way, which made for being in familiar territory, which for all the right reasons, was just fine with us. The scenery was magnificent, the skies were that deep patented blue that seems to highlight most days in the West, and since we were traveling in the opposite direction, the view was a little different!

          We did manage to squeeze in one tiny side-trip on our way here.

          We made a one hundred twenty-mile diversion from our route and visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

          The North Rim of the Canyon had just opened two days before, so our timing was perfect. The elevation here is a full 1000′ higher (at 8300′) than the South Rim, so Winter hangs in a lot longer! Apparently it was perfect for lots of other people too, because we found it rather full. But I believe that full here is a relative term when it comes to the Grand Canyon and the amount of visitors that it gets over the course of a year. The Grand Canyon receives an estimated six-million of its best friends annually, and only ten percent of these go to the North Rim. That means that even its shortened season (as compared to  the 365 of the South Rim) the North Rim averages only 4000 visitors a day. The South Rim’s numbers are  closer to 30,000 per day in the height of its season. Mind you, the North Rim does not have the expanse of facilities, nor is a shuttle required to get from point to point as down South, so “Crowded” up here is OK!

          The views are strikingly similar as those from down at the South Rim, which means that they are equally Glorious. I defy anyone to not be affected by the grandeur, and seeming unending vastness, of this magnificent natural wonder. The timing of the day for our impromptu visit was unavoidable, but still impactful. We arrived around mid-day which is the exact time of day that offers the least desirable viewing opportunities and that is strictly because the sun is overhead. This position does not allow for dramatic shadows or the blue-light filtering aspect of the atmosphere which gives us those great sunrise and sunset photos replete with all of the reds and oranges that we so want in our pictures.

          You will have to be satisfied with what we have to show you here as waiting an additional six or seven hours for the ideal photographic conditions was definitely not in the hand of cards dealt to us that morning!

          On our way out we took Route 89A to get back to Route 89, the main drag out here that links Arizona and Utah (and their National Parks) very nicely. As we drive around out here from place to place, the vistas laid out before us help make these drives incredibly rewarding in their own right.

          Thankfully the appropriate State DOTs know that people will pull over at the most inopportune times, and places, in order to snap a few pics of what is laid out before them. So, handy Viewpoints and Pull-Outs are strategically planted along these routes for our viewing pleasure (and safety!).

          By tonight we will be back in Durango , stopping for all the obvious reasons and also to pick up some required medication that we had shipped to a familiar destination. After that, it’s all eastward from there. We have some nifty stops planned over the last few weeks to keep both of us (You guys included!) entertained.

          Thanks for riding with us and not eating all of our Snacks!

Day 48

          Bryce Canyon National Park is vying for our coveted Favorite National Park Award which will be announced at a Black-Tie Reception before a Joint Session of Congress later this year.

           Be sure to check your mailboxes for your invitation.

          Bryce is smaller than a lot of Parks, but it loses nothing in the Grandness Department. In fact, it may outrank some of the more renowned ones. It’s hard to put your finger on why….

           Maybe the size helps, the place is so manageable.

           Maybe it’s the way that the shuttle system works and the way that the Shuttle Drivers are so enthusiastic about informing you about their Park and hoping that you have a great day.

          Maybe it’s the immersion factor, the hikes are nothing like we’ve encountered before.

          And then there’s the simplicity of these incredibly grand, stoic, static, geological formations that seem to welcome you to travel among them and marvel with every step and turn.

          Who knows?

          All we know is that our time here was one of the highlights of our trip so far. And…. We weren’t supposed to be here! If the weather had cooperated we would be somewhere in Michigan by now! But we jammed on the brakes, made a Big Right Turn, headed south, and ended up here.

          No complaints!

          After hiking the rim of the storied Amphitheater and gazing longingly down and across it, we decided that our next day there we would take the plunge (literally) down into the 900- to 1000-foot-deep Canyon Floor and hike amongst the Hoo-Doo’s, and see from down there what we had seen from so far above.

          The recommended travel path was to go clockwise when combining two of the best routes. The Navajo Loop and the Queens Garden together were a fine choice for the day. Our new friends, Sherry and Scott, had done this route the day before and mistakenly did it “backwards”, much to their delight. In talking to folks on the trail they came up with the realization that even though the entry/exit points that they used were 18 feet higher on the exit, that the ways and means to get to that exit were much harder (read steeper)going the other way. See example!

          So, we followed their advice and when we were finished we knew that, as the Old Monk in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade says, “You have chosen wisely”.

          After our hike we asked a nice couple if they would mind sharing their picnic table (in the shade!) with us and of course they obliged. After a few minutes we asked them where they were from as their language was certainly European. The Netherlands was their response and we then entered into a lively conversation about all of our collective travels. This gave Paula and I a wonderful opportunity to practice our Dutch as we really don’t get to meet many people from there. They also speak German, English, and French so they had us beat in that department.

          Hah! Who’s kidding who here?

          We were lucky that their English was excellent even though they thought that it was poor. We felt woefully unprepared to embark on a European Vacation if we had needed to converse in other languages. But it appears that almost everyone in Europe is encouraged (made) to learn English.

          Smart move.

          We depart this area of Utah today to parts yet to be determined, but we will need to decide soon as we will need to know if we should turn right, or left, when we exit the campground!            Keeping you in suspense…. Details to follow

Day 47

          “Good Morning Class, Today’s lesson is about Miss Geology and our new best friend, Mr. Erosion.”

          “Aww, com’on Teach! We’re sick of all these lessons! Just give us a free period so we can play video games!”

          “No can-do kids…. But I do promise that the accompanying photos will make any video game pale in comparison!”

          Silence.

          I know that I’ve used the word “otherworldly” before and there is a part of me that hesitates to use it again, but sometimes it’s the perfect adjective to describe a scene.

          Bryce Canyon National Park is just that.

          Bryce Canyon National Park is located in Utah just north of Zion National Park. Utah seems to have the enviable position of the Star State of National Parks….. there are still many left that we may need to save for another trip.

          Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon in geological terms, but more of an amphitheater as you can see by the photos. There really is no other opposing side of the “canyon”. It has been a National Park since 1928 and is named for Mr. Bryce, a Mormon settler who homesteaded the area back in 1874. It is also quite small in comparison to its neighbors at a mere fifty-five square miles. But what it lacks in size is more that made up for in grandeur.

          So now we get into the meat of the lesson!

          Once upon a time there was a giant ocean that covered the area. There were lots of little critters (diatoms, where diatomaceous earth comes from) that eventually croaked and fell to the seafloor. Add in a bunch of other sedimentary minerals that deposited themselves on this seafloor, stir in millions and millions of years and then wait for the baking process to begin. Eventually the seas receded leaving all of the sediment behind. The playground bully, Mr. Gravity, added his weight and helped compress all of this into more solid alluvial layers, each with their own special color and characteristics. Some were softer than others which added lots of drama in the coming years as they all started to wear away at different rates!

          This is where we meet our new best friend, the aforementioned Mr. Erosion. Without him and his handiwork, we would never be able to see all of these layers that have waited so long to put on a show for us. Mr. Erosion not only uses rainwater to his benefit, but he also uses the freeze/thaw process to his advantage as this really speeds up his work by having chunks of material fall away a little more quickly. (Think potholes in the road suddenly appearing out of nowhere!)

          This evolution of the land here is still in this progression of wearing it all away right before our eyes. Well, maybe we will be lucky enough to witness a large collapse of his work, but in reality the place looks pretty much the same as it did when we first saw it.

          It takes a long, long, time for this recipe to finish.

          We hiked along the Rim Trail here. The elevation averages about 8300 feet above sea level, which makes breathing a tad difficult if you are flatlanders like we are. Except if you’ve been in the area, and at elevation for a while (like we have been). We are not acclimatized enough to try Mount Everest yet, but we have noticed a marked difference since the beginning of our stays at the elevated Parks. It’s a good thing because you would not want to experience any sort of oxygen-related dizziness as you walk along this ledge. The ever-present Mr. Vertigo provides enough of that already!

          As we walked along, I noticed several peculiar trees that dotted this somewhat harsh environment, especially right along the edges. I’ve never seen a Bristlecone Pine, but I’ve always wanted to see one in person. So, after checking it out and finding that these longest-living things on our planet do, in fact, live here, I am proud to show you an example of these marvelous non-sentient living beings!

          These troopers here at Bryce average about a thousand years old, and the oldest is approximately 1600 years. This pales in comparison to the oldest living thing on our fine planet, which is a Bristlecone Pine, that lives near the border of California and Nevada in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This particular tree has been named the Methuselah Tree and for a good reason, as it is over 4650 years old!

          I am pleased to report that our dinner plans with our new friends Sherry and Scott did come to fruition. We had a very nice time catching up on family news that we did not know that we even needed just a little over 24 hours ago. We’ve been doing this vagabond lifestyle for about two years now and have never really met anyone else except the folks that park next to us in any random RV park along the way. It’s always a short, nice conversation, but nothing more. I hear about others that go to RV group functions, or meet up with other people who travel around, not necessarily full time, but at least this is their preferred leisure time activity, and have these far-flung relationships. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to meet some others that could become genuine friends, even though you live thousands of miles apart.

          I believe that I can say that we now know what that feels like, and we could not be happier to include Sherry and Scott in our group of extremely fine friends.

          Nicely, I believe that the feeling is mutual  😊

                    Class dismissed.

Day 46

          Zion is one of the Biggies in the National Park Service. It’s one that everyone has heard about and for good reason. Established way back in 1919, this place is almost 230 square miles, which at #36, puts it almost right in the middle of the list of National Parks ranked by size. What we have discovered so far, is that when it comes to National Parks, size is probably the least of the features of a Park that make it important.

          It’s what a particular area contains.

          And Zion is no slouch in that department.

          Much like Yosemite, a lot of what is here is confined in one central valley that is about 15 miles long and has walls up to 2600 feet high. That awesome reddish color that you see in the photos is Navajo Sandstone, which because of its makeup, allows water and wind to sculpt it as they see fit which is usually pretty grand. Mother Nature does not waste her efforts or talents on puny things when it comes to carving out special places for us to visit.

You may know Navajo Sandstone by another popular name, Red Rock. This name (or marketing term) is used all around the four-Corners Region and is so popular that most of the National Parks in this area have it as a prominent feature. That is a good thing because we never get tired of seeing it on display in all of the canyons and buttes in this vast region. Couple that reddish color with other sedimentary layers with different colors, and we have the recipe for all of the banded layers that contrast with each other so nicely. I guess Mother Nature is an artist too!

          Zion is the first Park that we have visited that has made using a shuttle system mandatory in the most congested parts of the Park, namely that 15-mile-long valley. It is easy to see how horrific the traffic would be if we were all allowed to drive up and down the valley trying to get to the trailheads or other features of the Park. The nightmare is that there is no place to put parking without seriously impacting the area, so this shuttle system was the answer to the growing problem (?) of its popularity.

          And we are here to report that this system works just fine.

          If…… you get there early!

          The first shuttles start at 7AM. There is a limited amount of parking available at the Visitor’s Center inside the Park. After that the overflow parking is in the little town of Springdale, which is located just outside the Entrance. A shuttle system that links these other parking areas with the Visitor’s Center is provided for free. That’s nice, but it means that you need to wait for a shuttle to bring you to another shuttle that eventually gets you to where you want to go in the Park.

          Messy, but if you come here you would also agree that it is necessary.

          Luckily for us, we (well, maybe me) LOVE to get up early! Anyway, we were successful in arriving in time to get on the first set of shuttles along with several hundred of our best friends.

          We have also come to realize that these Parks are so vast that if you do come at the right times of both the day and season, the Park has the capacity, and appetite, to swallow the hordes of us visitors and digest us nicely.

          Just make sure that you arrive at a good time so that you too can be a tasty snack!

          We (Paula) did some homework, and after looking over the available hikes to prominent features, came up with a good one for us.         This process is aided by the descriptions of the trails that the Park Service provides. We have come to understand the adjectives and other descriptives that they use.

          Easy is just that,

          Moderate means that there will be elevation gain and loss, so you may want to bring your Lekki Poles along for assistance.

          Strenuous is one that we stay away from. It is Verboten! One of those trails here is to Angel’s Landing. I’m guessing that it is named this for the spectacular vistas laid out before you if you are successful in navigating your way there. This hike encompasses a traverse of a thin ledge carved into the side of a vertical cliff with no guardrails. They have thoughtfully adhered some chains to the walls along the way for you to hold onto, but there is only one way both in and out so that means two-way traffic which means that someone has to let go of said chains in order to pass the other person. I suspect that it may be named Angel’s Landing because over the past twenty years or so, fourteen people have needed the assistance of their Guardian Angels but even those guys failed to prevent tragedy.

          We picked a nice hike to some safely named destinations of the Emerald Pools. What can go wrong with such a nicely named objective?

          Well, nothing did go wrong, in fact, it went rather nicely! The trails to the Lower, Middle, and Upper Pools were about three miles long and were clearly marked and in some areas, steps had been carved into the famous Navajo Sandstone for us to use. We also happened upon another couple, who for some reason or another, we struck up small conversations with as we passed each other on the trail. We finally ended up hiking with Sherry and Scott the rest of the way. We were of similar abilities and desires of non-scary scenarios which made them perfect travelling companions. In fact, we got along so well that we exchanged contact info at the end because they were on their way to Bryce Canyon the next day (as we were too). We invited them over to our Dining Room on Wheels for dinner and if everything falls into place, that is what will happen.

          Scott likes Chocolate (yay!) so desert is a chinch!

          When you start out hiking at 7 AM in deep canyons the light of the sun does not reach down inside until a little later. This means that it is both chilly and not the best scenario for photographs. It is comforting for both of these situations as the sun creeps down the canyon walls and makes a dramatic difference in a positive way.

          After our hike we drove through a mile-long tunnel to the other side of the Park trying to gain access to an Overlook Trail. Remember that parking issue from before? Well, couple thin roads, windy turns, and all of those best friends from the morning all having same idea and we end up with nowhere to park. We did have a nice ride both ways through this tunnel that was carved out in 1930, but absolutely no chance of that hike.

          We ended up checking with our next Campground at Bryce Canyon and found out that we could get in a day early, so we packed up and headed out over some fairly spectacular (and scary driving) mountains that someone placed in our way.

          See example!

          Today is Bryce Canyon, another fine example of what Utah has to offer. Stay tuned,

Day 45

          It’s been 45 days since we departed Texas Home Base.

          It seems like 450.

          If that sounds like a complaint, I can assure you that it is not!

           I think that it’s just that we’ve crammed so much travel into this stretch that our little Planet Winnebago has entered its own time-warp. Which is just fine…… we’re retired and really don’t care what day it is and, in fact, we’re so old we don’t remember either! I know for a fact that yesterday was Saturday because the Walmart of Hurricane,(Yes, Hurricane) Utah was filled to capacity when we arrived. It’s just something that we’ve come to be able to analyze quantitatively. This is also one of the Walmart’s that has posted signs about No Overnight Parking. We did call a day ahead and when I asked the young lady who answered the phone if they allowed RVs to park overnight she replied, “No, not really but if you park as far away from the building as possible no one will bother you.”

          We are testing that theorem tonight and as I write this (4 AM, Mountain Daylight Time) two police cars have just pulled into the parking lot and have stopped about twenty yards away from us.            Report to follow.

          Back to the narrative. I am sure that you have heard the  old adage, “Be careful what you wish for.” Case in point…. not just two days ago we were leaving the snowbound northern nether regions for warmer and sunnier climes.

          Success! ☹ It got to freakin’ 92 degrees yesterday!

          We needed to run the generator for a bunch of hours so that we could keep the AC running. Walmart does not have full hook-ups in their lots! It was actually hotter here than back in Texas…. the place we vacated before it got to be Hadestown. That other old adage, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” is mostly true. Back in Texas the humidity hovers around 3017% and here in southern Utah it is 23%.

           Ahhhh, the comfort of it all!

          Our plan for the day was to visit a very small section of Zion National Park. This area, Kolob Canyons, is only accessible by its own entrance in the northwest part of the Park, so it does not get the same amount of visitors that the much larger Zion Valley gets. The road into Kolob is only five miles long but it goes past some spectacular scenery and its easy to see how this area got annexed to the Park. As you can see by the photos, we are back to our originally mandated 15 on a 1 to 10 scale of weather.

          Since this adventure was somewhat reduced by the fact that the Park is that small, we took advantage of our extra time to get things ship-shape as it were. Both the car and the motorhome kind of get trashed when we’re just running from place to place and we’re not in a position to be able to stop, empty everything out, and re-pack it nicely. Thankfully, yesterday was one of those days, it was sorely needed.

News Flash…. the Police departed without a word. 🙂

          Another thing that was needed was to give Miss Biggie a bath. This is something that I normally do by myself armed with a large micro-fiber washing mop and a hose. Most campgrounds and all Walmart’s frown on this practice. So, after all that time (the 45 days) and all that inclement weather we drove through, our baby looked like it was owned by some ne’er-do-wells.  The solution was to visit a Truck Wash. These places are huge drive-through garages with about ten guys armed with large brushes and power-washers on steroids. We’ve only done this once before and that was down in Tucson. That experience was fine until as we exited, all shiny and clean, a Haboob Warning went off and the daily dust storm swept our way aiming itself directly for us and our still wet motorhome.

          It was not a pretty sight when she got through with us! Luckily, downtown Salt Lake City does not schedule dust storms on a daily basis!

          On to the main part of Zion today!