Hoover Dam

It’s our second full day in Las Vegas and we spent the morning doing the full tour of Hoover Dam.  Very impressive, indeed.  This dam was built in the 1930s in the middle of the depression and the systems are still in operation today, pretty much unmodified.  Although the lake is down about 150 feet (and still falling) they are still supplying water and electricity to most of the southwest part of the country.  One unfortunate part of this otherwise enjoyable visit was the gate security.  Yes, there were signs at the parking areas that said we could only carry items into the dam that were no larger than this (followed by a black 12-inch square).  The satchel we carry was about that size so we did not anticipate any problem.  We also did not anticipate the airport style security check point at the entrance complete with magnetic walk-through scanners.  They took away my Gator-aide, the two sandwiches Linda had made for lunch, all of our trail mix packettes and, worst of all, they took the little Leatherman tool I carry on my key chain.  I appreciate the effort to protect the facility but do they really think I would hi-jack a dam with my little pen knife and screw driver?

The afternoon we spent walking the strip in Las Vegas, watching the fountain at the Bellagio and eating dinner at the Forum in Caesars Palace.  We both love people watching and this is a great place for that!  I had forgotten how outrageous the outfits are that one sees in Vegas – and not just the show girls.  It was entertaining to see all the street vendors found everywhere.  During the day, the typical  bedraggled men with cardboard signs purporting all sorts of problems that a  few bucks would fix.  As night fell they were replaced by costumed Disney and cartoon characters, a few dozen Elvis Presleys, busty women in full show girl regalia, and even shapely young lasses in almost nothing – all posing for pictures.  I love this place!  And I really loved finally getting back to the RV, sitting down and putting my feet up after all that walking.

We selected an RV park on Nellis Air Force  Base and are happy we did.  Since it is on base it is restricted to active duty and retired military, so security is not an issue.  At precisely 5:00 pm (that’s 1700 hours)  a set of loud speakers spread throughout the base plays The Colors as they prepare to lower the base flag, and follow it with the National Anthem as the flag is lowered and folded.   During these few moments everything on base stops – traffic, people  walking, kids playing – everything.  All solemnly faces the point where the flag is and pay tribute to our nation and it’s flag.  It is truly an honor for me to be part of this and it reminds me how blessed I am to have been placed in this country during these times!  The same set of speakers also plays Reveille at 7:00 am every work day.  That’s OK, I was going to get up anyway. 

And now we’re off to Peoria, AZ for a couple days with my Daughter and two of our six grand kids.

Bobcat

Almost two years ago we visited the front entrance of Northwest Trek, located outside of Puyallup.  On that trip we just snapped a photo of the entrance sign as part of the Tourism Revealed contest; but we vowed we’d get back to actually take “The Trek” someday.  That day arrived last Saturday when we picked up my sister and headed out to see the animals.

Northwest Trek is a combination of a zoo and a free range viewing area which they refer to as their “free roam”.  The actual trek is a ride on an enclosed trolley that traverses the entire 500+ acres where you can see all manner of “wild” animals.

The zoo portion of the exhibits is great for viewing, but I have to admit I found myself wishing the animals, especially the black bear, had more room, as he constantly paced back-and-forth in a 15 foot area.  (This is called stereotypy.)

Here are some of the animals we enjoyed seeing:

WildEagle

WhiteWolf

Moose

Elk

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Eagle1

coyote

Cougar

Chipmunk

BullMoose

BullElk

Bobcat

Pepper and Salty Dog

On Saturday, we headed out for Tyson’s wedding (Cecil’s nephew).  Galelle and Tyson wanted to get married at their favorite site in the deserts of Utah.  Did I mention it was in the desert?  30 miles off the freeway (1.5 hours) bumping along unmarked roads, crossing washes, in and out of arroyos, dust, and  around a corner to approach a covered geodesic dome where the wedding was to be held.  A few hours later we were unloading tables and chairs and setting up lunch for family and friends.  They were married under an arch with a view of the mountains and magnificent canyons as a back drop.  Galelle’s family and friends from France were able to join us for this momentous occasion and nearly the entire wedding party camped out there after the ceremony.  We elected not to stay the evening and returned to our home on wheels.  Those who remained enjoyed the evening of celebration but it was cut short by rain showers and followed the next morning by an 8-hour drive over muddy roads with pushing and sloshing along the unpaved road to get back to the interstate.  It was a day to be remembered!

Arches National Park

We entered the park early in the morning when it is still cool and the light on the mountains is at its best.  After a drive up a steep incline we arrived on a plateau where the sights began.  There were wonderful uplifted rocks and canyons along the drive.  We drove the whole park stopping at a variety of overlooks and parking areas where we were able to take short walks, some steeper than others, to look at and take pictures of the sights.   The arches were awe inspiring.  It is amazing to think of the centuries of natures action needed to create these natural wonders.  We have plenty of pictures but only choose a few of the best for postings to the blog.  Here are others. 

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Moab

A short drive from the parks is the City of Moab.  Not much to mention about the town itself except for having a Starbucks and a wonderful fossil and mineral shop on the north edge of town:  Lin Ottingers Moab Rock Shop www.moabrockshop.com.  I could have spent hours looking at everything.  Every aisle held a different treasure to see, touch and wonder at.  Be sure to stop by if you find yourself in this area.

Canyonlands

Located a few miles from the Arches is the Canyonlands National Park.  It is similar to the Grand Canyon and is at the convergence of the Colorado and Green Rivers.  The overlooks are dramatic, peering over the edge into the depths – fascinating and frightening at the same time.  While Linda kept her distance from the edge Cecil became bolder on each stop and ventured further out to see what lay below.   Sometimes the sides of the canyon were straight down from the cliff to the river below.

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Garden of the Gods – The RV Park we chose was just outside the Garden of the Gods area, so we were able to tour this remarkable area late on Monday, the day of our arrival.  The area is punctuated by towering spires of stone that rise abruptly out of the ground at random spots.  The area had been subjected to geophysical forces that actually turned the layers completely to the vertical.  Then through the process of erosion, sections of the various layers remained and we enjoy them.  This is a really an easy side-trip if you are ever near Colorado Springs.  It area is free to the public as stipulated in a private donation to the City of Colorado Spring. Linda really enjoyed the Gift Shop which also included a short film on the history of the park.   Most of the remarkable formations can be seen from your car or there are easy walking trails around the various parking areas and overviews.  Enjoy some of our photos in the slide show below:

Pikes Peak on the Cog Railway – The trip to the top of Pikes Peak was a “sure thing”, but we had to decide whether to drive the truck up there (about 20 miles) or to ride the cog train.  With the cost of diesel and the possibility of something happening to our only means of transportation, we chose the train.  That was a very wise decision and the ride was way more fun than an hour in the truck.  (Especially with the screams Linda lets out at every hair-pin-turn.)  We saw yellow bellied marmots, mountain goats and black tail deer on the ride.  Although we started around mid-day we were very fortunate to find the top clear of the clouds that often obscured the peak in the afternoons. At 14,110 feet above sea level, this was our “Rocky Mountain High”.  Please enjoy the photos we took on the train and at the top in the slide show below:

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Cave of the Winds – The cave was more than a simple cavern with stalagmites and stalactites, although we saw plenty of both.  This a very extensive series of caves of sizes varying from cathedrals to crawl holes.  They have various levels of “tours” depending on your physical abilities.  We opted for the “family tour”, exploring lit passages and special areas within the cave led by a knowledgeable tour guide.  They also offer a “lantern tour” which takes thrill seeking adventurers into parts of the cave that are unimproved, their only light an old candle in a metal reflective tin like the original explorers.    We took pictures where light was provided but they do not really show the natural beauty of the site.

Being underground, this was our Rocky Mountain “low” – strictly in terms of altitude, as it was lots of fun!  For the more adventurous (usually younger) individuals they have “Terror-dactyl”, a huge straight down swing into a deep canyon (videos here) and “Bat-a-pult”…that is a propelled zip line ride.  Neither of these were on our list of things to do nor on anyone else’s list on the day we were there.

The park itself was gorgeous, although quite different than either of us  remembered during previous visits as preteens (yeah, a long time ago!).  We saw quite a bit of wild life, including bison, elk, prong horn antelope, white tail deer, moose, bald eagles, swans, geese and chipmunks.  We did not see any bear although they were quite prevalent last time.  I’d like to think it is just the wrong time of year for them, but I fear their numbers are simply far less than they were in the 1950’s.  The geysers and steam pots (or “fumaroles” as they are called””) were very active and the cold temperatures (19-degrees overnight) made the steam visible for long distances.  We missed Old Faithful as the road was closed for repair to a bridge, but otherwise, I’m pretty sure we saw everything.  I was not aware of the many waterfalls in the park nor that they have their own “grand canyon”.  Both were magnificent! 

If you see photos of Yellowstone they usually include a two-lane road packed with cars on the shoulder, in both lanes and people with cameras running everywhere.  It seems that the wild life is held in such esteem that it makes it OK to stop your camper/RV in the middle of a two-lane road, leap out with your camera and stand in front of on-coming traffic to take a photo.  Whatever it is that you see, everyone else wants to see as well so they do the same thing.  Wildlife, cameras and huge traffic jams all seem to go together.  But I never heard a horn honked in anger – everyone just seemed to be enjoying the experience, as did Linda and I!   In the time we had  before departing we enjoyed a great meal at the Cowboy Café in Dubois.  It seems a terrible conundrum that the animals, so revered in the park, were prevalent on the menu.  Selections such as Bison burgers, elk steaks, and moose stew  were the favorites of the tourists.

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Hills along Hwy 287 to Dubois

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Boiling water rising from deep fissures

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Fumidores

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YellowPotCecil

YellowPotLinda

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Grand Canyon of Yellwostone

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Where the buffalo roam

Yellowstone Chipmunk

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Lower falls

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Lower falls

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Lower Falls

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YellowWindRiver

Wind River

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Patiently waiting in the driveway

Tomorrow morning, (that’s Monday, September 8, 2014) the RV finally gets out of our driveway.  We’ll be off on the first of what promises to be lots of adventures.  This trip will include Yellowstone, Colorado Springs, and a wedding in the deserts of Utah.

I’ll be posting our progress and photos here for anyone who is remotely interested in following along with us.  You can check the blog directly at http://www.see-hawks.net or at our Facebook Page.  If you want to get e-mail notices when something new gets posted you can do that by filling out the form HERE.

Moab Vicinity

(September 2014) – Going to Utah in September for Tyson’s Wedding.  The wedding itself is on Saturday, 20 September out in the “wild”.  It’s not where any road goes to that Google Maps knows about, but you can see it on the map and is actually HERE  if you’d like to have a closer look.  Put the satellite layer on and zoom in as far as it will go. Expect pictures of the wedding here after the event.

Florida via Utah – Summer 2014

This is one of those “What was I thinking?” moments.  I was thinking we’d be traveling in August, but it is September (Doh!) and we both need to be back to Granite for Railroad Days Parade, the first Saturday in October.  So I think we will do the trip through stop number 7 BEFORE the wedding, then high-tail it back home right after the wedding.  As always, those plans are still in the idea stage, but I think we can make it work.  Now to figure out how we are going to care for the animals while we’re gone.

The route to the wedding

And here is the current plan, as of Sunday, August 30th.  Click on a stop for more info.

1. This is home – our starting point, .  It’s also where we end up on the 23rd.
2. Peaceful Pines:  Still in Washington State, but in Cheney.  One night stay.  WE may go back here someday as there is plenty to see in this part of Washington and we haven’t seen it.
3. Farimont RV Park:  Anaconda, Montana.  It’s probably a bad sign but the park registration clerk said no reservation is necessary.  “There hardly anyone here this time of year.”
4. Longhorn Ranch:  Duboios, Wy.  This is our first stop of more than 1 night.  Three days to spend exploring Yellowstone.  Hopefully you can catch the trav el log for this stop and see some photos.
5. Fort Collins/Poudre KOA.  Our first stop at a KOA camp ground.  Most of our stops are Sams Club, so we’ll see how this goes.
6. Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs:  Two days to do Pikes peak and the surrounding area.
7. Shady Acres RV Park, Green River, Ut:  This is the wedding stop.  We allowed 4 nights here so we can take in all the sights of the Utah desert as well as a day for the wedding.  Again, expect Idaho.pictures here of both.
8. Hagerman RV Village, Id:  First stop on he way home.
9. Hat Rock Campground, Oregon:  Last stop before home.
10. Home again.  September 23rd.

The places we parked the RV and “camped”.
Placing my parents in their final resting place.
Wilson Andrews Family reunion – Jul 21, 2014.
Pt. Lobos and the Monterey Peninsula.
Mariposa Redwood Grove

The places we parked the RV and “camped”.

2014 Monterey Trip

At right is a small map of the route we choose for this trip.  Our first stop was in Oregon at the Rivers West RV Park in Myrtle Beach.  Simple accommodations.  I was really looking forward to parking the RV right next to the river.  Although we were “right next to the river”, there was a huge line of bushes so we could barely see it – let alone go down to it.  Never the less, it was the first stop and we got in and out without problem.  The adventure had begun in earnest.

Next stop was our week long stay in Monterey.  We parked the RV in the Monterey Pines RV Park – a military campground on the grounds of the Monterey Pines Golf Course.  Although all the campers were active duty or retired military, the rest of the place was no different than others.  The parking pad we got was far from level, but the biggest drawback was the fact that their internet access was down.  The WiFi network in the campground worked fine but it wasn’t attached to the internet, making it totally useless.  After several conversations with the manager (pointless), I left them a really bad review even though we stayed an extra night because we didn’t have a place to stay on the 25th.    Did I mention that while setting up all the stops I noticed that our reservation here was from through the 25th, so I booked our next stop for the 26th – not realizing that the 25th was our departure date, meaning I needed a place for that night.  Oops!  We just extended our stay and spent a couple of days in Castro Valley with grandson Colton.

Following the Monterey stay was the Fairgrounds RV Park at Mariposa.  A big grassy field with electrical and water connections on the perimeter.  Simple, no frills and cheap.  And we picked a spot near the WiFi transmitter so we had good internet for those two days.

Coming home was just three days of driving and two quick stops at JGW RV Park in Redding where we were next to the Sacramento River and at Roamers Rest RV Park in Tualatin where we were next to the Tualatin River.  Both were very nice, but JGW in Redding was the best we have been to so far.

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Reaching high branches took a 10-foot ladder and the truck

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We needed about 13-foot of clearance to get the RV up our drive way.

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The Eagle has landed.

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All set\ up in its new home

Placing my parents in their final resting place.

Grave Markers in El Carmelo Cemetery

Mom and Dads remains rode down with us in the RV and were turned over to the City of Pacific Grove along with their grave markers on Wednesday the 18th.  At 2:00 pm on Saturday the 21st we gathered to bid final farewell where the remains and markers had  been placed by the City.  The El Carmelo cemetery in Pacific Grove is where they wished to be inurned.

Long time friends

Several friends attended from their Church in Carmel Valley and from the Mayflower Church in Pacific Grove.  The fact that so many friends remain from as much as 25 years earlier speaks to the impact those two had on other people and their lives.  They will be truly missed!
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Wilson Andrews Family reunion – Jul 21, 2010

The inurnment gave us a perfect opportunity to gather the Wilson Andrews family together for the first annual (?) reunion!  Nearly all of the Wilson and Elsie descendants were gathered on the Monterey Peninsula to celebrate their lives and say goodbye and to reminisce.  Don and Susan both managed to get their entire family there.  It’s a long trip from Florida and Arizona for my kids (Mike and Kris) and Donnas son, Tyson, was stuck in the Wyoming.  We took some typical family photos at El Carmelo and spent the rest of the day in typical Andrews tradition – eating and telling stories!

Andrews Family

The descendants of Wilson and Elsie Andrews

Susan Wormus Family

Front, L-R: Rachael, Evan, Anya, ?. Back, L-R: David, Tim, Susan, Agnieszka, Amilia, Tim, Braden

David and Rachael

David, Rachael

Tim Wormus Family

L-R: ?, Agnieszka, Amilia, Tim, Anya

Cecil Andrews Family

Linda and Cecil

Donna Wormus

Donna

Siblings - Generation 1

L-R: Don, Donna, Cecil, Susan

Cousins - Generation 2

L-R: Kirstin, Melinda, Grace, Caitlin, Grant, David, Tim

Grand Kids - Generation 3

L-R: ?, Braden, Evan, Anya, Amilia

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Pt. Lobos and the Monterey Peninsula.

It seems like Point Lobos State Park is a favorite spot for many of us, so a day in the park was something we really wanted to do.  It has been decades since our Colorado contingent had been there, and some of the younger family members were on their first visit.  A bit of fog did not manage to deter our enthusiasm and Tim Wormus battled the to-go lines at a local restaurant to provide us lunch.  Although Pt. Lobos is still a beautiful place they are losing the battle against poison oak!  Linda was careful and luckily did not get exposed.  She often just gets it by walking past on of those nasty things.

While visiting the peninsula we managed to stop at Michaels a total of three times for our Blackened Chicken Tacos.  Two trips with our good friend June and one with my sister, Donna.  We laugh when we realize that we judge a vacation by how many great places to eat we find.  This was a short visit to the Peninsula so we missed some of our favorites.  For example, the calamari steak with lemon caper sauce at the Fish Wife in Seaside is legendary (in our minds), and may be worth another trip there.  And we were remiss in not enjoying the Chapino at Phil’s Fish House in Moss Landing – MMMmmm!

[Slide show of Pt Lobos coming soon]

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Mariposa Redwood Grove

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Jan and Linda stand in a tree cut through

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Jan, Linda and Cecil

OldTunnelTree

The old tunnel tree - fell in 1969

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TallTrees

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Clothes Pin Tree

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Could drive a pickup through the hole.

Grizzly

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Pepper and Salty Dog enjoy the camp site

(April 25-27) Although it is early in the “camping” season, we ventured over Stevens Pass (only a few flakes of snow) to the Thousand Trails RV Park north of Leavenworth for a three day stay.   We’re a little surprised that things are not as green here as they are Granite Falls, but then we are several thousand feet higher in elevation so that should have been expected.

Lots of the campers arrived late in the afternoon, but even with those arrivals there were only about a third of the sites taken.  It may be that the Thousand Trails RV Parks are not often full, or (more likely) it is still early in the season.  It’s our second actual RV outing and we learned some very good lessons on the first.  We threw out the idea of using hand signals for backing up the trailer and went to walkie-talkies.  The Rhino 120s we bought for our Mexico trips came in very handy.  With Linda directing and me driving we backed the thing into it’s spot in under 5 minutes.  It would have been 3 minutes, but she said “left” and I went “right” and I had to pull forward and try that again.

Despite the dreary weather forecast we enjoyed blue skies and huge white cumulus clouds hugging the snow capped mountains all weekend.  Hiking along the trails with dogs, relaxing in the camper, strolling the not-so-crowded streets of Leavenworth and a long overdue visit with cousins Dana and Anne made for a very nice get-away.  The drive home was a bit white knuckle as we had a significant snow shower returning over Stevens Pass and we were down to 45 MPH up some of the steep grades.

A stop for lunch at the Sultan Bakery was our last stop before parking and it was a great place to eat.  Parking in Sultan is not exactly accommodating for a truck pulling  a 32-foot fifth wheel but we found a spot in a residential neighborhood near by and walked.  We parked the RV and got unloaded about 10 minutes before a huge rain and hail storm arrived to welcome us home.

Split Rock

Found an interesting rock on our hike.

Overlook

Nice overlook along the hiking trail.

Linda in our kitchen

Very nice setup for a small space.

Dinner (Not!)

The grilled salmon and asparagus dinner didn't get in the picture - we ate it!

Camp Site

Lots of tree and no neighbors.

Dongs in CampSite

Salty Dog and Pepper relaxing under the canopy.

Leavenworth Linda

Linda enjoyed the empty streets in downtown Leavenworth.

Leavenworth Cecil

Heavy jacket but still a very nice day in downtown Leavenworth.