CANYONLAND

Hey Campers:

July 23. I was reading information about the Moab area. They have just put in a bike/walking paths that are over 100 miles long. This is pretty cool. One can literally ride/walk almost  anywhere. It runs along several highways. Only problem I saw was it is so hot that it needed more shade shelters. 

We went to Canyonland National Park today. The park is located 30 miles from the Arches Nat. Park. It is a wonderful drive with lots of open prairie land and rock formations.

We started our trek at the visitor's center. You guys know how much I love the visitors center. We saw the movie about how the park was developed and dedicated. The park was established in 1964. Canyonland is the heart of the Colorado Plateau. It was carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The rivers are surrounded by 3 regions. Island in the Sky on the north side, The Maze on the west side and the Needles on the east side. This was really rugged land.

We bought a self guided driving tour CD. (I forgot to mention we did this yesterday also.) This is a must if you plan to know anything about the area. We took off to the first stop.

Here are some highlights: Shafer Canyon Overlook has vista that area that was picturesques.

Lo was checking out the road below. It was a road used by the Indians and cowboys to get from the canyon floor. They drove cattle and horses on it. If you had a 4 wheel drive car you could drive the road. We saw 2 cars on it. Our car is a 4 wheeler. He decided that we were not going to be on that road. Good because the road was narrow at points and hairpin curves. It also had a shear drop off. I love roller coaster rides but this is crazy. Not going to happen.

We traveled on to the Mesa Arch. I hiked the 1/2 mile down to the arch. This arch was like looking into the window of the world.

 

On to the Buck Canyon Overlook. There was a panoramic view of the plain.

 

The Grand View Point Overlook. This is where the Green River meets the Colorado River. They call the meeting of the rivers The Confluence. Did you know that the Confluence was unknown until John Wesley Powell mapped it out in 1889? The only way you can view the meeting is by air, foot or boat.

 

 

Now you want may want to ask, who is John Wesley Powell? Well, let's get a little history lesson. He was a one arm Civil War vet and geology professor. He had a mission to explore the uncharted canyons and rivers of the Green & Colorado. He began the trek with novice oarsmen and four boats. He ended the journey 3 months later with two boats and 6 men. Powell's voyage opened the world to adventure and scientific discoveries.

The best way to see the rivers are in a boat. Have you ever gone rafting? I have and it can be scary and exhilarating at the same time. Good luck on the river.

Did you know that the Green River starts in Wyoming?

On to the Aztec Butte. The Puebloans survived in his area because they work hard and had a lot of ingenuity. They scrambled up these buttes to store their harvest of seed and grain. They would seal them up with mud. So it became a grainier for serving the people in leaner times.

We checked out other rocks on our way out of the park. One of the formations that caught our eye was the Merrimac vs the Monitor. They are 600 feet tall. They were named after the Civil War Ironclads. Check out your history books. The buttes look very similar. The Merrimac on the left was the Confederate ship called The Virginia. The Monitor on the right was the Union ship sent to destroy the Merrimac. Even though both of the ships lie at the bottom of the sea, these formations stand the test of time.

I was only 95-100 degrees today because it was over cast. What a brake for us. 

The desert gave us a look bird's eye view of how twisters start. It was interested to see how fast dirt could twirl.

I find it very interesting in our travels that most of the tourist are foreigners.  We as Americans need to get out and see what our country has to offer.

Well campers

See ya soon.

Lorenzo & Bren

THOSE RED ARCHES

Hey Campers:

July 21. We started our trip with a sunny day on our way out of CO. CO has the most beautiful scenery along the freeway. If you have ever been to Vail, Aspen or Breckenridge you know what I'm talking about.

When we came out of the mountains we came to rock formations that made you want to know more about geology.

Upon arriving in Utah we stopped in at the visitors center to get maps and brochures of the area. We have always found the visitors center to be a wealth of knowledge. Hey, it is free info. Your taxes has paid for it use it. We drove to the city of Moab to find a RV site. We always try to stay in state/national parks if possible. We found several parks on the maps we got so we decided to park the Hilton 4 and get in the car to investigate. If you want to stay in the Arches Nat Park, you will need to make reservations 6 months in advance just like Yosemite. They only have one campground - Devil's Garden,with 50 sites only. So we found other state parks to check out. Most of the sites were very primitive and not long enough for the Hilton 4. Trust me, we do not have to fancy sites. But they got to be be useable. One park had a bathroom that was truly "outdoors". Not that we use other bathrooms other than our own. But, come on. For real??? No cover? What about the bears and birds and others looking in???

We decided we had seen enough and found a nice RV park. Found a nice mexican restaurant for dinner and called it a day. The weather was 103 degrees today.

July 22. We started this sunny day with a trip to Arches National Park. At the visitors center I got my passport stamped for coming to the park. Did you know that this park has the world' largest concentration of natural sandstone arches?

Some of the highlights. We started with the Penguins rocks, on to the South Park Avenue that had the rocks that had the look of Queen Nefertiti, also at this location was the 3 gossips and the sheep. On to the double arch.

The next stop was the balance rock. This is a defiance of gravity. The pedestal is made of mudstone. It is thought that eventually the erosion will collapse the base and the stone will be no more. 








The windows arches are made up of many layers of rock formations. Over the years, water erosion, weather and cracks start the thinning to make arches.

 

Delicate Arch is the most famous of all the arches.

All along the road we saw rocks that had the makings of becoming arches.

We finally got to the end of the park and saw the Devil's Garden. By this time it is 104 degrees. I had my huge umbrella out, but it was H*O*T.

We decided to head back to the city. Since there isn't a city bus, Lo decided we can just go up the back streets to see where the "real people live." Some had houses built into the rock and caves.

 




We also found another campground that had the look and feel of the Bates Motel. We all know how I feel about the Bates Motel. H.....to the L  N-O-O-O.

Well campers it is still hot tonight. But we will survive.

See ya soon.

Lorenzo & Bren

OK TO CO

Hey Campers:

July 17. Today is move on day. We are on our way to Oklahoma. As we are getting the Hilton4 ready to leave town, we hear a siren. Lo and I look at each other and immediately go to the windows to check the weather. Looks like clear skies to us and no one is seeking shelter. We later found out it was just the weekly check to make sure the tornado warning still works. OK. You Cally folk, you know we were scared that it was the real thing. We were going to get out of Dodge before anything hit. When we asked Midwesterners about tornado threats they did not think it was anything big. They said they felt earthquakes were worse. Hello. We do not have earthquake season! I guess it is all in your perspectives. Give me a little earthquake any day.

Ladies. You know when you hear a sound in the car you have been driving for 12 years and let your hubby know and he looks at you like you are crazy. Well, I kept telling Lo the car is making a funny sound (in New Jersey). He told me it was the road. I told him again in Branson. It sounded like the brakes were wearing. He again told me it must be another car. Well, he finally heard the sound and said “I think we have a brake issue.” I just had to be quiet and roll my eyes toward heaven not to smack him.

On the way out of town we see sign that make you want to say hmmmm. One asked “is your pastor an unbeliever”. The other ask “are you being told the truth at church?” Wow. These are both questions to ponder. Maybe we all need to ask these questions for our own lives. A pastor and church won’t save us. Put and keep your eyes on Jesus.

My friend Mary Jane Tait told us we just had to stop at the Lambert’s Cafe before we left. So we did. It was a fun place to eat. It is located in the Ozarks. It is the home of the thrown rolls. You ask, what is a thrown roll? Well you but your hands up so the waiters will throw you dinner rolls to eat. At first, I was a little intimidated by this action. What if I did not catch it.  Hey, I am a Cally girl. We are afraid of very little. So I put my hand up and got thrown a roll. Yahoooo. I caught it. Of course I had to find out if the waiters pitched before coming to work here. He said a little in college. He told me his pitching techniques. Just make eye contact with the person receiving the roll and throw. If the roll is going across the room, throw the roll like a football. One of  our waiters, Josh, is a Filipino.  He had a southern accent that was most engaging. He grew up in the Philippines until age 4 and was adopted by an American family. Boy, I am feeling like my sister Nita B again.

 

Talk about a hillbilly menu. They had these items: hog jowls, liver & onions, slice of hog, fried catfish. The drinks came in 34 ozs only. You put molasses on the rolls.  Waiters come by with fresh fried okra, black eyed peas and fried potato. This is before your meal comes. Ribs come in a skillet. Of course you know there is very little for vegetarians. So of course you I got a grilled cheese. Even with this we were so full we almost had to be rolled out of the cafe. There isn't any silverware, place mats or napkins on the tables. You are suppose to use the brown roll of tissue (you know like the ones in the bathroom to dry your hands) as the place mat and napkin. You use your fingers as forks. For those who cannot master the finger technique there is plastic ware. Luckily for Lo and I, we grew up with southern parents so we knew what to do. Definitely worth the stop.

 

 

 

Next door to the café was a strip mall. I had never seen an Avon store before. I went inside to see what they had. It was like looking at a Avon catalogue.

Upon arriving in Tulsa, OK what do we see, a Hard Rock Hotel/Casino. Of course you know we had to stop to add to my Hard Rock pin collection.  Glad we did. Lo let me out and went to find a spot to park the Hilton 4. The shuttle driver told us we can park at this casino anytime we were coming through OK. They have a RV area with water and a dump station. All for free. Hey you RVers put this on your beautiful place to stay.

We arrived at Rex & Barbie’s (Norma) new OK house. We say a goodnight to each other and hit the springs. We all our tired.

Happy 9^th anniversary Alex and Sharelle. Time sure has flown. You two are a great couple.

July 18. Rex & Barbie are renting a house from relatives. It is a cute home in the country. It needs work so Lo and I pitched in. Lo helped with unboxing. I started on removing wallpaper. This is what we do with family. The grand kids came over for the day. Luke and Eli are good workers. That Luke is Rex up and down. He may only be 10 but he acts and thinks better than some adults. He is always looking for ways to help. He was very patient with his 5 year old brother. Nick & Sarah are doing a great job in raising these boys.

By the way, Lo fixed the brakes. No more scrubbing. Be beautiful Red (Bren). (Yaya’s you know what that means.)

July 19. We met Rex at his new job and got a tour. He is the Director of Plant Operations. You know Rex, he knows almost everyone there already and he has been there just a month. As family, we did not want to see them leave Cally, but we think this was the best move. It has been a while since we have seen him this stress free.

 

We hated to say goodbye again, but we did. It was easier this time because they are both so happy. Their kids are only 45 mins and 4 hours away. We hope to see them later in the year.

Now you know you are in small town America when the stop light and stop sign are both on a little pole in the middle of the street.

I had to stop and take a second look at the windmills. It really reminded me of home. Where is Don Quixote when you need him.

The clouds appear brighter than what we see at. Don’t let those clouds fool you. They are what keep the humidity going. They also can turn into storm clouds in a matter minutes.

We drove on to Saline, Kansas to our favorite hotel for the night.

July 20. It is Sabbath. What a glorious sunny day. Those clouds are out again. I can’t be fooled any longer. As we come to Colorado the sky gets dark again. Luckily the rain stays to the east of us.

OMG! OMG! I-70 was shut down for the entire weekend to put up a new ramp. (We found this out on the internet later.) What a nightmare. We out of towners had to clue as to what was going on. There were a couple of signs stating a detour. So we figured they would reroute the freeway and get us back. The reroute pretty much left us on our own to figure how to get back to I-70. Thank God for the Atlas we live by while traveling. Of course I had to be driving. The reroute was on I-25 which took us right in front of the Denver Bronco stadium which had country western singer Kenny Chesney concert going on tonight. (My Ya Ya sister Mary Ann probably already saw the show. Lucky you.) So traffic creeped along. Lo figured out how to get us back to I-70. We went through good, bad and ugly neighborhoods. But we finally made it back. We found a really upscaled WalMart in the Denver hills and called it done for the day. An unusual cloud came by at the end of the day. I hope it is not a storm cloud.

Well campers, we are on to the Arches National Park for the week.

See ya soon.

Lorenzo & Bren