Category Archives: Utah

Going Home

The last week was a transition time for us. On Tuesday, we pulled out of Paradise RV Park in Panguitch, Utah as planned. The day before, I made a trip to Ace Hardware in town and bought some JB Weld adhesive. I bonded the panel surrounding the left front tire to the mounting points. Although I’d managed to make a temporary repair to the front mounting point by installing small screws where the rivets failed, the rear of the panel was loose and it moved back and forth due to aerodynamic forces. We had over 400 miles to go and I didn’t think my temporary repair would hold up unless I secured the rear of the panel.

We were out of the park by 10:30am and had a long day ahead of us. Our plan was to travel about 220 miles to Cameron, Arizona where there’s a newish RV park across the highway from the Cameron Trading Post. Our route had us on US89 south all the way. This is a scenic drive as US89 cuts east south of Bryce Canyon and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Diesel fuel in Utah was over $4.00/gallon, so I held off until we crossed into Arizona at Page. I filled our tank there at $3.33/gallon. A year ago, I wouldn’t be too happy with that price, but in the current situation, I thought we did okay.

We found the RV park in Cameron, but it wasn’t what we expected. The website showed a nice looking park, but in reality, it’s a poorly laid out dirt lot. To check in, you have to go to the motel at the trading post and pay, then cross the highway and pick a site. It seemed like there was plenty of space but due to the poor layout it wasn’t easy to get a big rig into a site. And we had to unhook the truck because the pullthroughs were not long enough. And we only had 30amp at the pedestal so we could run only one AC unit.

Once we were settled in, Donna phoned the Elk’s Lodge in Payson – that was our next planned stop. They have 12 sites with 30amp hookup and we hoped to snag one so we could run our air conditioner because the forecast for Payson was 95 degrees. The lodge doesn’t take reservations and unfortunately they told us all of the sites were occupied. We had a back-up plan to go to the casino in Payson and just run the generator for air conditioning. After talking it over, we decided we would make the 240-mile run all the way to our park model home at Viewpoint in Mesa, Arizona.

I know you’re thinking 240 miles doesn’t seem that far. The route I chose had us on US89 south to Flagstaff, then we hit I-17 south to Camp Verde. US89 has a tough climb up to 7000 feet above sea level in Flagstaff. At Camp Verde, we exited onto AZ260 which turned out to be a tougher drive than I expected. The last time I drove this highway was more than 10 years ago and I was riding a motorcycle. I didn’t recall how steep some of the grades are and also how narrow some sections of the road are. It was hot and I had to keep a close watch on our engine coolant temperature – this meant slowing down and gearing down on the steep climbs. From Payson, we took AZ87 (Beeline Highway) to the Bush Highway exit, went over Usery Pass and were back in Mesa.

The alternative would have been to take I-17 all the way to Phoenix, then follow Loop 101 to Loop 202 to Mesa. I didn’t want to take that route as traffic would be heavy and people drive like maniacs through Phoenix.

We parked the coach in front of our home at 12:20pm – we’d gained an hour when we crossed into Arizona. Our caretaker had the air conditioner on in our house – he said he would turn it on two days before we arrived. We came in a day ahead of schedule, but the house was cool although we had triple digit temperature outside. By the way, the JB Weld repair held up fine – I had no issues with the panel on the coach.

We went right to work unloading the coach and moving back into the house. I took some time to get the swamp cooler running in our Arizona room – a 400-square foot room addition to our park model home. The coach was hot sitting in full sun in front of our place and we worked all afternoon. Donna did most of the moving while I got things like electrical breakers and the water heater going. Our goal was to empty the coach first, then we could take our time sorting things and putting stuff away. One plus was that it didn’t take long to defrost the refrigerator thanks to the heat!

On Thursday morning, we took the last of our stuff out of the coach. I drove the coach to the Apache Sands Service Center about a mile away from here where I filled the propane tank, dumped the holding tanks and filled up the fuel tank with 31 gallons of diesel fuel at $3.00/gallon. I wanted the fuel tank full while it’s in storage to minimize air space in the fuel tank which, in turn, minimizes condensation of moisture in the tank. The coach is in a covered storage lot at 202 RV Valet with a 20-amp electrical hook-up to keep the batteries charged.

We were both ready to get off of the road and settle back in at Viewpoint. Coming back this early risked high temperatures and we’ll have them. The forecast calls for triple digit heat for the next week before things begin to cool. Triple digit heat in the afternoon lingers after nightfall – overnight lows are in the 80s.

The fairways and greens on the golf course are brown at this time of year. Some grasses go dormant in the heat of summer in Arizona, just like some grasses go dormant in the winter up north.

Dormant grass on the fairway and green of the fifth hole behind our house

The previous owner of our place had internet through a local provider called Jabba. The high-speed internet wireless receiver antenna was still on the carport and he left the router. Yesterday, I set up an account with Jabba and hooked up the router. We now have truly unlimited data usage with a speed of 15Mbps for $44.95/month. I also suspended my Dish service while the motorhome is in storage – we have free cable TV here at Viewpoint.

Donna restocked our refrigerator and pantry yesterday and last night, she manned the large gas grill we have at the house and grilled a coho (silver) salmon filet and bok choy. She made a soy sauce, worcestershire and honey based marinade for the fish. It was outstanding.

Donna and I love our time on the road, but we’re both happy to be back in Mesa and settling in to our home. We only spent about six weeks here after we bought the place last spring. We’ll probably stay here until May.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11. We should take a few moments to remember the innocent victims and never forget the horrors of terrorism.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Hoodoo and Pink Ledges Trail

The rain in the forecast I mentioned in my last post came, but it came much later than originally predicted. It was cloudy all day Tuesday but the rain held off until sundown. It rained off and on during the night and continued to rain Wednesday with a few breaks. Thursday we had showers but the sun broke through occasionally. The nice thing about the rain, it cleared the air of whatever pollen was getting to me.

Thursday afternoon during a period of sunshine, we drove to the store. On the way into town, Donna suggested making the 18-mile drive up to Panguitch Lake to have a look around. It turned out to be not such a good day for it. As we climbed to the lake west of town, we drove right back into rain. We didn’t even get out of the truck – we just drove by the lake and took a look. There isn’t much up there and it was too dreary to snap a photo.

Friday morning we had clear skies and the sun was shining. We had a late breakfast, then drove up to Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest. Red Canyon has a visitor center with a large parking lot providing access to many hiking trails – it’s the gateway to Bryce Canyon National Park with a 17-mile paved biking trail to the park.

After a stop in the visitor center for information and maps, we decided to hike from there. We followed a trail from the visitor center parallel to the highway and started up the Hoodoo Trail. Geologically speaking, a hoodoo is a column of rock, usually softer rock like limestone topped by a harder layer – typically basalt. Hoodoos differ from spires due to their shape – they are irregular, forming a totem pole-like shape or are topped with an area with a larger diameter often looking like a rock balanced on top of a spire. A spire is a column of rock that tapers from a larger diameter base to a thin tip.

Hoodoo Trail is aptly named as it offers views of two distintive hoodoos.

Like arches, hoodoos form from erosion over millions of years.

The Hoodoo Trail fishooks as it climbs and has nine posts, each one numbered with a guide pamphlet giving information about vegetation and geology of the area around the posts. After the ninth post, we reached the junction with the Pink Ledges Trail. This trail climbs and had four more numbered posts (10 through 13) described in the guide. A few of the posts also have benches where you can take a break and look at the scenery.

Rock layers are evident in the distant cliff

In the photo above, the high cliff in the background clearly shows the sedimentary layers of rock – softer limestone and sandstone topped with darker basalt.

High up the trail, the view seems endless.

It was amazing to see trees rooted in the rock formations.

The orange and yellows in picture above are from clay and iron mixed in the limestone. It’s hard to see in the photo, but the darker areas appeared to be a type of lichen adhering to the rock.

Another view from high up the trail of the hoodoos in the first photo of this post

The trail switches back around this hoodoo

The Pink Ledges Trail eventually brought us back to the far end of the visitor center parking lot. The trail wasn’t too strenuous, although it did have significant elevation changes and few steep areas with loose stones. Wear sturdy shoes and tread carefully!

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, Donna took advantage of a break in the rain to grill chicken breasts. She grilled the chicken seasoned with salt and pepper, then served it topped with a Mediterranean vinaigrette. She roasted patty pan squash (picked up from the local produce stand) with tomatoes and black olives, topped with fresh basil.

Grilled chicken with Mediteranean vinaigrette

This morning, Donna loaded her bike in the truck and returned to Red Canyon. She rode up the trail toward Bryce Canyon to the summit and beyond, gaining nearly 1,000 feet of elevation before turning back after seven-and-a-half miles to make a quick descent back to the truck.

With the rainy day Wednesday, we had a high of only 64 degrees. Thursday was warmer and Friday hit the upper 70s with a high of 78 called for today. We should see highs in the low to mid 80s in the next few days. I paid for three more nights here to get us through the Labor Day weekend. We’ll head out on Tuesday and intend to be back in Mesa, Arizona on Thursday September 9th.

Bryce Canyon

We had a quiet weekend here at Paradise RV Park in Panguitch, Utah. The temperature swings from the daily highs to the overnight lows was a whopping 40 degrees or so – highs in the 80s with lows in the 40s.

Yesterday we made a day trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. The park entrance is aboout 25 miles from Panguitch. We entered the park with my America the Beautiful Lifetime Senior pass – without the pass the entrance fee is $35/car. Our first stop was at the Visitor Center, one mile into the park. From there we went to the General Store – I was desperately in need of benadryl allergy tablets. My eyes were itchy and watering. I found benadryl there and got some relief.

We drove up the main park road – it’s an 18-mile road that dead ends at Rainbow Point. We found a picnic area there and had our lunch. We’d stopped at Subway in Panguitch on the way here and I bought a 6-inch sub and Donna got a salad. We brought along a cooler with drinks and watermelon slices. The watermelon we bought at the vegetable stand on Saturday is supreme. The guy that grew it really bragged about it – he told me it was a county fair gold award winner and the sugar content measured at 13 to 15 brix. For comparison, he said most watermelon at the grocery store measures around 6 or 7 brix. Donna and I agreed, he was right. The seedless watermelon is one of the sweetest we’ve ever had.

Our plan was to scope out the viewpoints on the way up the road without stopping, have lunch then make our way slowly back down, stopping at points of interest. The park is a narrow strip of land along a ridge. The northernmost area is crossed by a highway – UT12 and the park there is only accessible by foot. The main park road runs from the entrance north to south and the elevation varies from about 7,200 feet above sea level to 9,115 feet above sea level at Rainbow Point. At Paradise RV Park, we’re at an elevation of a little over 6,600 feet above sea level.

At the viewpoints in the national park, you can see for miles and miles. I have a lot of pictures to add to this post. If the photos start to get redundant, that’s the nature of the park. The views are spectacular, but like at Cedar Breaks National Monument, you can start to get numbed by it all. If you make the effort to really look at the different viewpoints, you can see there are differences even if they are subtle at times.

Sunlight on a ridge far away to the east

At the Agua Canyon viewpoint, a raven perched on a fence rail and posed for photos. He was totally unafraid as people walked up within a few feet to take a picture.

The next stop was at Natural Bridge viewpoint. Natural Bridge is a misnomer – it’s more correctly called an arch. These are formed when hard cap rock layers are over softer substrate. Over time, water erodes the softer substrate and creates a hole under the cap rock. Wind then enlarges the hole over centuries or even thousands of years.

You can see how water runoff courses through the arch

At Inspiration Point, you can see where water that comes down from the ridge from three directions join together. The resulting stream bed, when dry, looks like a road along the bottom of the canyon.

Looks like a road through the trees at the bottom of the canyon

On the way to and from Bryce Canyon on UT12 near Red Canyon, the highway goes through two arches.

While we were in the park, we had a few clouds overhead. As we came down from Rainbow Point we had a few raindrops, but it wasn’t anything to worry about. Lightning strikes can be worrisome in the park as over the last 25 years four people have been killed and six injured by lightning.

I need to mention Sunday night’s dinner. Donna made a new recipe – shrimp poached in coconut milk. It was awesome.

Shrimp poached in coconut milk over rice with broccoli

After we returned home, I took a nap – the benadryl made me drowsy. The wind really kicked up in the late afternoon and we had a few raindrops here. We can expect rain later today. Donna went out for bike ride this morning while I was writing this. She wanted to get a ride in before it rains – the forecast calls for rain again tomorrow and possibly on Thursday morning with high temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s.

World’s Fastest Indian Was Here

From the start of this blog, I always said I would post honestly – the good, bad and the ugly. This post has it all. Wednesday’s prime rib dinner at the Rupert Elk’s Lodge lived up to its billing. The prime rib was excellent, the corn on the cob was fresh and our baked potatoes were well seasoned and perfectly baked. The salad bar wasn’t the greatest, but everything was fresh. We couldn’t eat it all, so we brought home some leftovers for steak and eggs for me and steak salad for Donna.

Thursday morning it was time to leave Rupert. Our first stop was the dump station in town. I had filled our fresh water tank before we left the Elk’s Lodge and after dumping, we hit the road with empty holding tanks. Our route had us heading south on I-84. We turned off onto ID81 to take a shortcut into Utah where we would pick up UT30 west.

As soon as I hit the exit ramp, I sensed trouble. I saw a line of vehicles stopped on the overpass and the truck ahead of us was stopped at the top of the exit, waiting for traffic to clear. Once we were stopped, I could see the source of the hold-up. A tractor-trailer rig with an over-sized flat bed trailer failed to make the turn onto the northbound on-ramp. The extra-long trailer was hung up on the concrete barrier. I feared we would be stuck for a while before we could continue. The thing was, the direction we wanted to go was opposite of the trapped trailer.

A couple of gentle toots of the horn got the attention of the trucker in front of us. He saw I was indicating a right turn. He was able to move forward and left enough for us to squeeze by. Trouble no more, we were on our way. The shortcut on ID81 was a good choice. There was very little traffic – we only saw a few cars every 10 minutes or so. The speed limit was 65mph, so we weren’t going any slower than we would have traveled down the interstate. The road surface was good. The only downside was the narrow road with little to no shoulder.

The long drive southwest on UT30 had similar road conditions with even fewer cars along the way. We’d left the Idaho farm country behind and were driving through a mostly barren landscape. There weren’t any real towns – just a few clusters of houses in a place called Rosette – they even had a post office there. Eventually we crossed the border into northeast Nevada and found the town of Montello. No stoplights in Montello. The road designation changed at the border to NV233.

We finally hit I-80 and headed southwest toward West Wendover. A few miles down the interstate, I heard a loud bang – it sounded like something had hit under the front of the coach. I checked the side mirrors to see if there was anything in the road and didn’t find anything. Then Donna said, “We need to pull over – I can see a basement door open.” She was looking at the driver’s side view mirror and from her vantage point, she could see something that wasn’t in my view.

I stopped on the shoulder and walked around the front of the coach. What I saw qualifies as ugly. It wasn’t a compartment door she was seeing. It was the front body panel mounted under the driver’s seat from the front of the coach to just behind the front wheel well. I looked it over and found the rear bracing of this panel was bonded with a type of epoxy to two braces in front of the wheel. At the front of the panel, it folds toward the center of the coach at 90 degrees and has four rivets holding the front of the panel.

We heard a noise earlier on ID81 but didn’t see anything out of order. I thought the sound may have come from a farmhouse we were passing at the time. In hindsight, I think the bonded braces broke free there. This allowed the panel to flex back and forth from airflow and on the interstate, the rivets gave way. Now the panel was slightly bent away from the coach and would flap in the wind until it completely broke off.

I thought I could secure it well enough with duct tape and gave that a shot. We got back on the interstate and I kept our speed at 55-60 mph. It held for about four miles, then went bang again. I pulled over and this time, I opened the front generator compartment, cleaned the bulkhead there with rubbing alcohol and ran the duct tape around the front edge of the panel with the tape adhering to the bulkhead. This seemed more secure but it only held for about another four miles. This was getting real ugly.

I didn’t like working on the driver’s side of the coach on the interstate shoulder. Fortunately, the traffic was light and most drivers moved out of the right lane giving me plenty of room. But at one point, I looked up to see a car traveling at about 80 mph barreling right past me about two feet away!

I knew I had to do something besides duct tape. I rummaged around and found two small screws. I put them into the rivet holes – holes in the panel no longer lined up with the holes in the bulkhead, but I was able to pound them in with a hammer. Then I duct-taped over the screw heads to hold them in place and re-taped the panel.

Back on the road this held. We stopped at the Pilot-Flying J in West Wendover where I topped up the tank with 69 gallons of diesel at $4.01/gallon! Gulp, $276 worth of fuel brings our fuel costs to about $500 since we left Mount Vernon, Washington. This Biden economy is killing us.

Donna bought another roll of duct tape at the travel center and we continued east into Wendover, Utah. Our short run in Nevada was done and we went east on I-80 to Utah exit 4 where Donna found a boondocking spot on BLM public land off Leppy Pass Road.

I added another screw to my temporary fix and re-taped it.

Temporary fix – you cab see the adhesive residue from my first tape jobs

We saw a few other RVs in the area but we were spaced well apart. We were at an elevation of about 4,300 feet above sea level. I never realized the Bonneville Salt Flats had this much elevation – it definitely is enough to affect the power of naturally aspirated engines. I disconnected the truck and we took a drive out to the Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway area. The speedway was first used in 1912 for timed top speed events. While we were there, an organization was preparing the course for a motorcycle speed event. There was great movie about a motorcycle at Bonneville called The World’s Fastest Indian made in 2005 – it’s a story based on the life of New Zealander Burt Munro starring Anthony Hopkins

They used to have a straight track nine miles long with a black stripe for Speed Week – a week-long event to set speed records sponsored by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA). Speed Week was canceled in 2014 and 2015 due to poor conditions from heavy rain. Mud washed over much of the flats. Between the leaching of salt into the aquifer and mining operations, the amount of salt has gone down greatly over the last 50 years. Where the salt surface was once more than two feet thick, it’s now only about two inches thick and the track is less than three miles long. The speed track is no longer striped, they use flags and markers for the course.

This marker is at the end of Bonneville Speedway Road where the flats are

Trucks in the distance preparing the course for motorcycle trials

When we returned to the coach, I re-hooked the truck to the coach. Another coach came in and set up about 100 yards from us. At first it looked like they were going to stop right next to us. Really? It’s wide open here on the flats.

Sunrise over Bonneville – still lots of smoke in the air

Friday morning we found a couple others had pulled in during the night – SUVs with people presumably sleeping inside. We pulled out and drove east on I-80 for 80 miles and hit UT138 south. This route bypassed Tooele (pronounced TOO-illa) and had very little traffic. I was a little worried as most of the route had no shoulder and if my temporary panel repair broke, I had no place to stop. We made it without incident and stopped for the day at Fort Deseret State Park. It’s a quiet place to dry-camp for the night, but’s it’s the strangest state park we’ve ever encountered, I wrote about when we stayed here last year.

Saturday morning we continued south on UT257 which became UT129 at Milford, then UT21 at Minersville. We drove through the town of Beaver and found I-15 south there. The interstate immediately climbed and we reach the summit at 6,500 feet above sea level.

We left I-15 shortly and my repair was still holding up. We took UT20 which was a steep climb up 7% grades to the summit 7,920 feet above sea level. The descent down the east side is even steeper at an average grade of 8%. We found Paradise RV Park a few miles north of Panguitch, Utah. It’s a nice RV park with very low rates and no real amenities. Donna met the neighbors who’ve been coming here for years. They said over the last few years the ownership became absentee, only coming around to collect fees and the place is slowly deteriorating, though still pleasant. We paid $134 for a week including tax and might extend over the Labor Day weekend.

Donna grilled chicken wings, thighs and drumsticks for dinner and served it with sauteed veggies we found at the local grocery. We also bought some veggies and great watermelon from a roadside stand in town. The couple operating the stand were full-time RVers for 13 years before settling near here and they grow their own vegetables which they sell.

Grilled chicken with Mediterreanean vinaigrette and sauteed vegetables

We’re near Bryce Canyon and plan to explore this week. The temperature reached the mid-80s today and is supposed to get there again tomorrow before we have a cooling trend with rain probable on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are finally away from the smoke and have decent air quality after breathing wildfire smoke since early July.

Another Jetpack Blow-up

We left Thompson Springs around 10:30am Thursday morning as planned and backtracked on I-70 westbound through Green River, Utah. We turned north once again on US191 about five miles west of town. It was a relatively easy drive until we hit Indian Canyon just north of Helper. We drove this route back in 2014 and recognized some of the landmarks, but I didn’t remember how tough the climb out of the canyon was. We finally topped out over 9,100 feet above sea level.

Our next stop was at Steinaker Lake State Park, north of Vernal, Utah. We had reserved a site with water and 50-amp electrical service. It was hot once again and we wanted 50-amp service to run both roof-mounted air conditioners. Although our site was a pull-through, the roads and paved sites are narrow and tight. Our “pull-through” site had a really sharp turn before the narrow exit – no way could we drive through it. I disconnected the truck from the back of the coach in anticipation of reversing out of the site in the morning. We were at an elevation of about 5,200 feet above sea level.

Donna went for a short hike around the reservoir and shot a few pictures.

After a mostly quiet night – we had some gusty winds that woke us up a couple of times – we were back on the road Friday morning. Three straight travel days were wearing Ozark the cat out – she’s not too keen on the travel days.

Our route northbound on US191 had us climbing again. On one section of road, there was a sign warning of sharp curves with 10 switchbacks over a four-mile stretch. Once again, I kept an eye on our engine coolant and transmission fluid temperatures as it was hot outside – around 90 degrees. On hard climbs, I slow down and downshift the transmission manually to keep the engine RPM around 1900. By downshifting, I reduce the load on the engine by utilizing torque multiplication through gear reduction. Running at higher RPM keeps the radiator fan spinning at higher speed and circulates the coolant through the engine quickly for efficient cooling.

When we crossed the state line into Wyoming, I remarked to Donna that I’d never driven in Wyoming without seeing antelope. For the next 15 minutes, I wondered if I jinxed myself before I saw a lone antelope buck about 75 yards off the roadside.

We hit I-80 about midway between Green River, Wyoming and Rock Springs. We checked in at the Sweetwater Events Center – we’ve stayed here a few times and never had a problem getting a site. It’s a huge property with arenas, race tracks, a golf course and about 1,000 RV sites. There were only three or four RVs in sight when we arrived Friday afternoon and a few more showed up on Saturday.

We paid for four nights ($114) and set up. We took the truck into town to stock up on groceries at Smith’s Grocery store. After dinner, Donna saw our Verizon Jetpack mifi jump off of the window sill! The lithium-ion battery pack had blown up! This happened to our last Jetpack a couple of times before it finally went kaput after about three or four years. This one is about three years old. I put a back-up battery in it and it turned on briefly before an error message stating “no battery” appeared and it shut down for good.

Saturday morning I went to the Verizon store at the White Mountain Mall. The woman at the store there told me there was a recall on the Verizon mifi and I needed to call a special phone line for it. I looked at the recall notice in the store and it didn’t include our model (6620). She told me I needed to call – she couldn’t help me. I made the phone call and as I suspected our model wasn’t included in the recall.

I knew there was another Verizon store about a mile away and I went there. The woman there told me she sold her one and only Jetpack a few days earlier. Then she told me there was a third Verizon store about half a mile up the road. I went there and they had two Jetpacks in stock. I bought a new model 8800L Jetpack mifi and we’re back in business. The Sweetwater Events Center has wireless wifi, but it’s not 100% reliable.

We headed down to Bunning Park near the old downtown area for the Blues and Brews Festival a little before 3pm. We attended this festival a few years ago and had a great time. Last time, they had only a handful of breweries participating and a couple of very good bands. This time we found many more breweries represented, a larger audience and the opening band was not so good.

The second band was unusual and they sounded good. What was most unusual was their drummer. He sat on a wooden box and used soft-tipped drumsticks to drum against the box. The box had a microphone or pickup inside to amplify it. It actually worked well.

Admission was $40 and it included unlimited 7-ounce beer samples. I had a wristband and they gave me a miniature mug – the vendors were supposed to check wristbands and only fill the 7-ounce mugs – but a few people had pint glasses that they filled with multiple pours into the approved 7-ounce mug. Donna was the designated driver, so she didn’t pay or get a wristband.

I knew the third and final band would be good when they opened with Too Rolling Stoned by Robin Trower. Their band was called Stones Throw and they were very good.

We had a good time people watching and listening to music. We bugged out of there at 7pm after eating burritos from the Taco Time food truck onsite.

In my last post, I mentioned meeting Curt Mangan and touring his guitar and bass string factory. When I talked with him, he told me they were selling strings as fast as they can make them. They have warehouse distributors in England, Europe and Asia – I think he said Japan and Singapore – as well as around three hundred retailers in the US. But he surprised me by saying the majority of his sales come through his online store! I think I’ll change my guitar strings sooner rather than later so I can make a fair comparison against the strings I’ve been using instead of waiting for these strings to sack out. If I wait until these strings lose their tone, anything will sound better, so I won’t be able to accurately judge if the Curt Mangan strings are equal or better.

We had a couple of visitors today! One of Donna’s tennis friends from Viewpoint, Val Tremelling and her husband Shorty, live about 100 miles north of Rock Springs. Donna sent a message to Val on Friday that we were here in Rock Springs and if they happened to be in town, be sure to let her know. As it turned out, they were on their way to a family BBQ and stopped by to see us before heading there.

The temperature here reached 90 on Friday and Saturday. Today is cooler – in the mid 80s with gusty winds. Tomorrow should be cooler before it heats up again on Tuesday. We plan to pull out of here on Tuesday and follow US191 up to US89 south of Jackson, then hit US26 into Idaho. That’s the current plan, we’ll see how that shapes up.

Unexpected Tour

We stayed busy over the weekend in Cortez, Colorado, then things heated up! On Friday night, we went to the fairgrounds a few miles east of town for the Ute Mountain Roundup – the rodeo! Donna ordered five tickets and had reserved seats for us all – front and center! We’ve enjoyed a number of rodeos since we hit the road eight years ago and this rodeo ranks right up there with the best. By the way, you can read about my first rodeo experience back in 1976 here.

Saturday morning Donna and I played in the pickleball Shootout – it’s a local tournament with a round-robin format. Unfortunately for me, I was scheduled in a group that was totally mismatched. We had two players that could play at the 3.5 level – me and another guy – and two players that weren’t up to par. This led to uneven play and lopsided scores. Donna had a better matchup and held her own in some tough competition.

Mike and Jodi Hall came out with their granddaughter, Swayzie, to watch and enjoy Centennial Park. For such a small town, Cortez has a large number of beautiful, well-maintained public parks. After the tournament, we went to the farmers’ market and got there about 20 minutes before it closed.

We took a break and had some down time before we met up at WildEdge Brewing Collective for a couple of cold ones. Mike picked up the tab – thanks for the brews, Mike! We said our goodbyes until fall as Mike and Jodi were heading out of Cortez Sunday morning.

We had a lazy day on Sunday. We decided to forego the pickleball social at Montezuma’s in Dolores – we had just eaten there on Friday. Meanwhile the thermometer steadily climbed each day. We had upper 90s Saturday and Sunday. Monday was near 100 degrees and Donna was called off from going to the Ower’s farm to weed. She ended up going on Tuesday, after pickleball in the morning although the temperature reached 101 degrees.

I had an interesting afternoon on Tuesday. My Facebook feed showed a video ad for Curt Mangan guitar strings. I clicked on the video and watched how they make round core nickel wound strings. What really got my attention was their small factory – it’s right here in Cortez, Colorado! I looked at their website and found the strings were available at a music store in town. I drove to the store to get a set of these strings to try out, but it was only open Wednesday through Saturday.

I looked up the factory location and drove there thinking they may have a retail outlet. I found an unassuming metal building set back about a quarter of a mile off Mildred Road with no signage. I parked and checked out the building – it wasn’t open to the public. As I stood there by a screened, large loading door, a voice called out, “Can I help you?” I peered inside and saw it was Curt Mangan. I told him what I was looking for and he said he didn’t sell retail onsite, but invited me to come in. He asked what strings I wanted – I told him I was after a standard 10-46 set. He said, “Follow me.”

We went into a room that was obviously a packing and shipping area and he checked a shelf and found an empty box. He said, “Wouldn’t you know it – no 10-46 sets. Come with me.” We walked into another area – I would say the metal building covered nearly 5,000 square feet – and he started pulling individual strings packaged in white paper. When he had a complete set, he put them in a colored package and then inserted the whole thing into a plastic sleeve which he sealed with a machine. Then he handed me the set of strings!

Then we started talking about guitars. I told him my first “good” guitar was a Fender Stratocaster that I factory ordered from a music store in Longmont, Colorado in 1976. I said I never really bonded with Fender guitars and now I play Gibsons. He laughed and told me everyone needs a Strat or a Telecaster – they’re the foundation of electric guitars. Then he told me he had the Fender franchise in Longmont in 1978!

I told him a story about finding the receipt from Longmont Music for the 1976 Stratocaster and showing it to my guitar teacher about 10 years ago. I paid $425 for the guitar. Jeff, my teacher, asked me if $425 was for a made-in-America Strat. I laughed and told him that all Fenders back then were made in Fullerton, California. Today, you can buy a Fender made in Corona, California for big bucks or a cheaper version made in Mexico or Squier-branded one made in Asia. I checked an inflation calculator online and found $425 in 1976 is equivalent to $2,000 today – about the low end of a made-in-America Stratocaster, so they haven’t changed all that much unless you get into the Custom Shop variants that can cost upwards of $5,000 or more.

We had a nice talk, then Curt asked me if I had time for a tour! I could hardly believe it. He took me through the manufacturing process and showed me the machinery they use and how they make strings. He has a small workforce. I’m not sure how many employees he has – most of the workers were gone for the day. He told me at this time of year, they start early and knock off around 3pm due to the heat.

Curt told me he got out of the retail music business after a few years – he said it’s super competitive and hard to stay profitable. He went to work for the Ernie Ball Corporation in their Music Man guitar division. Ernie Ball is another guy with a great rags-to-riches story, but that’ll have to wait for some other time. He stayed with Ernie Ball for about 15 years and while he was there, he learned that musical instrument sales were cyclical – they went up and down. But strings seemed to be in steady demand. He studied guitar and bass string technology and, in 2004, he started producing strings.

I changed my strings a couple of weeks ago, so I won’t try out the Curt Mangan strings for a while, but I’m looking forward to trying them. If I like them, I can order direct from them online.

Curt’s notion of every guitarist needing a Stratocaster or Telecaster guitar stuck with me. I’ve been kicking around the idea of putting together a Strat-type guitar and doing research on the project. I bit the bullet and ordered a custom body and neck from BYO in New Hampshire. They’ll build the body and neck to my specifications – I went for a swamp ash body and maple neck with Indian rosewood on the fingerboard. With their lead time, it should work out for me to have the parts when we return to Mesa in September.

We left Cortez around 10:30am on Wednesday. The ongoing road work had moved past the La Mesa RV Park entrance and we had no trouble getting out. I made a quick turn into the Maverick station to top up our tank with diesel fuel. Diesel was $3.39/gallon – at this time last year we paid $2.21. Thanks, Joe – I see inflation rearing its ugly head.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the temperature in Cortez reached 101 degrees. We had the generator running to power the roof air conditioner as we drove. Our route took us through Dove Creek and into Utah where we hit US191 in Monticello. From there we went north through Moab. Seeing what happened to Moab is a bit heartbreaking for me. It used to be a funky, cool little town that was a gateway to great hiking, biking and off-roading. Now they’ve over-developed it to the point of making it into a Disney-like tourist trap.

We arrived in Thompson Creek off of I-70 around 2pm and checked in for the night. We needed a 50 amp hook-up, it’s much too hot for dry camping. Today we’ll move on to Vernal, Utah and spend the night at a state park with electric hook-up. Friday we’ll go to Rock Springs, Wyoming. We didn’t plan to go there originally as we’ve been there twice before. But when searching for festivals, Donna discovered that this weekend is the Brews and Blues Festival there and we want to attend. We did it once before and it was a hoot with surprisingly good bands.

It should be a little cooler there, but we can still expect daily highs around 90 degrees.

Cedar Breaks

We took another sightseeing excursion from Iron Springs RV Park on Tuesday. We drove into Cedar City on highway 56 and went south on Main Street to UT14. This highway began climbing almost immediately and was mostly uphill for 21 miles. We entered the largest National Forest in Utah – the Dixie National Forest.

As we drove through the forest, Donna commented on the aroma of the evergreens. There were Englemann spruce trees, pines and firs. There were also quaking aspen stands – many of their leaves were starting to turn yellow. The deciduous trees along the creek bottoms were showing vivid fall colors already. We hit the summit of UT14 at 9,910 feet above sea level. The air temperature was much cooler at that elevation.

We turned north on highway 148 and continued to climb another 400-500 feet as we entered the Cedar Breaks National Monument. It occurred to me then – I hadn’t seen a single cedar tree around Cedar City, nor did I see any in the Dixie National Forest and the Cedar Breaks National Monument. What was up with that?

At one of the information kiosks at a scenic overlook, I learned that early settlers in the area mis-identified the ubiquitous juniper trees found here as cedars. So, Cedar City and Cedar Breaks National Monument are named based on mis-identification.

Cedar Breaks is called a natural amphitheater, but it looked like a rugged canyon to me. The drive through Cedar Breaks National Monument is 7.5 miles long and has four scenic overlooks. We entered and my America the Beautiful Senior Pass got us in for free. We drove to the north end of the monument, then turned around and made stops at each of the overlooks. The overlooks have a parking area and a short paved path to the viewing area. I shot a lot of photos – here are some of the sights.

Donna at an overlook – check out the elevation

The colors of the rock are due to layers of shale, sandstone and limestone exposed by erosion. Cedar Breaks is on the west side of the Markagunt Plateau – the same plateau as Zion to the south.

On the way out, we needed a comfort break before making the drive back. We parked at the information center near the entrance and walked to the gift shop thinking we would find restrooms there. We didn’t – they told us we had to go to the other end of the lot and we would find a building with restrooms there. We did. Then we decided to walk back past the gift shop to the Point Supreme Overlook. The time it took us to detour to the restrooms and back to the overlook cost us.

As we got back to Midget-San, a few rain drops fell. There wasn’t any rain in the forecast, but in the mountains, weather can change in an instant. As we drove out of the park, it started to rain harder. I could see blue sky just ahead and figured we should just push on – stopping to put the top up would take just as long as driving out of the rain. I soon regretted this decision as hail started falling. The hail stones mostly bounced off the windshield or flew overhead as we drove, but a few got us. I was hit on the nose and ear and it stung! Donna took a few to her cheek. We were out of it after a few minutes and the car quickly dried. Before we got out of the showers, we saw a few motorcyclists on the side of the road donning rain gear. Little did they know they would be out if it just a few curves down the road.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. In the afternoon, I secured everything in the trailer and loaded the Midget. We hit the road again Wednesday morning but we weren’t in a hurry. We were only going about 100 miles to Fredonia, Arizona. I made a stop at the Sinclair station to top up the fuel tank before we hit I-15 south. We took about 60 gallons of diesel fuel at $2.31/gallon.

Our route left I-15 and headed southeast on UT17 through Toquerville, La Verkin and Hurricane. Out of Hurricane, we made a steep climb on UT59. We followed this road to the state line where we made a stop at Subway for lunch. I hadn’t given any thought to the time change, but since we crossed into Arizona, we gained an hour.

Arizona time is equivalent to Mountain Standard Time year-round – they don’t observe Daylight Saving Time. So, in the summer months, Arizona time is the same as Pacific Daylight Time and in the winter it is Mountain Standard Time. This can be confusing at times.

We took our time eating lunch. There was no sense in arriving at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia before noon. We ended up driving into the park around 12:15pm. The office was closed, so I phoned the number on the door. The park owner told me to pick an open pull-through site and text the site number to him once we were in.

The pull-through sites are long with lots of space to enter and exit – the park is basically a dirt lot. It’s level, but the sites are narrow. It’s laid out in such a way to allow an island between adjoining sites to have a shared water spigot and hook-ups. The sites alternate facing east or west. The downside to this is neighboring doors face each other and the picnic table areas are shared space. We set up and will spend five nights here before moving down around Flagstaff.

Before we left Cedar City, Donna found fresh tilapia from Ecuador at the Smith’s grocery there. She made an old favorite that we haven’t had in a while – tortilla-crusted tilapia.

We’re in for more hot, dry weather. The forecast calls for daily highs around 90 degrees. We’re still at an elevation of about 4,800 feet above sea level, but the elevation isn’t making it any cooler here.

Today we plan to drive up to Kanab, Utah and meet our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) for lunch. We haven’t seen them since spring. Our paths have crossed several times over the years and it’s always fun to meet up with them.

Wild Visitors

After I wrote my last post on Wednesday, Donna and I hiked down a trail to the beach. It was only about half a mile, but the soft, powdery sand made it a tough slog in places. We could see a large spherical object ahead high and dry in the sand, but couldn’t tell what it was. When we got closer, I could see it was an old, damaged mooring buoy.

Although these steel buoys are quite heavy, they’re buoyant when they’re foam filled or sealed airtight. They’re usually anchored to large concrete blocks and boats or ships tie up to them.

The level of the Great Salt Lake is low right now and the beaches are expansive.

Near the water,the sand is full of brine flies. We saw people swimming to the north near the beach access and Island Buffalo Grill and also saw one person on a paddleboard.

Back at our site, we had a visitor.

I saw another large coyote earlier, then this guy came wandering by, presumably looking for mice or any other easy meal.

Later, while I played around with ham radio, Donna brought Ozark the cat outside in her expandable carrier. It’s the safest way for Ozark to enjoy some fresh air and the outdoors – the coyotes would make short work of a cat here.

Ozark the cat enjoying some fresh air outdoors

Later, Donna made a simple dinner by grilling green chile turkey burgers topped with avocado and served it with grilled zucchini, peppers, onions and corn with cotija cheese.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might recall back in 2018 when I had to replace the house battery bank for our coach. At that time, I opened my wallet and stepped up to Lifeline AGM batteries. I haven’t regretted it. These batteries are maintenance-free and really perform. When we’re dry camped, I run the inverter all day and night. The batteries never fall to 50% or lower. I charge them by running the generator for two to three hours in the morning – when we make coffee and have breakfast – and another two or three hours in the evening – when Donna prepares dinner.

I watch the state of charging on the Heart Interface monitor. There are three stages of charging with our smart charger. It starts with a bulk charge and the monitor shows 14.0-14.5-volts and up to 100 amps. This current measurement is showing amperage at the voltage going into the batteries, so 100 amps at 14 volts is about 1400 watts. Our generator can produce up to 7,500 watts (7.5kW). If you remember my post about 30-amp and 50-amp service, you might wonder what 7.5kW equates to. If we apply Ohm’s law and do the math, we see that our Onan Quiet Diesel generator puts out 62 amps@120V on two legs (L1 and L2) – about 30 amps per leg. Anyway, our battery charger goes into the second mode – called absorption – after 15 minutes or so. This mode charges at constant voltage while amperage drops – this mode takes longer, up to three hours. Finally the charger reaches the final stage, float charging. This mode charges at low amperage and about 13.3 volts. The Lifeline AGM battery bank reaches this state anywhere from 90 minutes to 180 minutes of charging time.

When we boondock, it’s easy to think if it as “free” camping, but it isn’t really free. The generator run time has a cost – it consumes fuel and hours on the generator eventually lead to preventive maintenance. We usually average a little over half a gallon of diesel fuel per hour and I change oil and filter at 150 hour intervals. I figure it’s about $9/day. We don’t boondock very often, so going to solar power to charge the battery bank doesn’t pencil out. If we boondock 30 days per year, that’s only about $270/year for the generator. It would take a long time for a solar installation to break even at that rate.

Our neighbor at Antelope Island State Park may have to sharpen his pencil though. He told me they had been there for two weeks. He started his generator at 7am and ran it until well after dark each day!

In addition to the coyote in our site, we had a mouse feeding by the front door (much to Ozark’s delight), then Friday morning, a bison wandered by.

Bison are often referred to as buffalo, but the zoologists tell us they aren’t really buffalo. By this, they mean they aren’t related to the water buffalo of Asia or the cape buffalo of Africa. I still think of them as buffalo though. The same can be said of pronghorn antelope. The zoologists maintain they aren’t true antelope as they have no connection with the antelope species of Africa. They’re antelope to me though.

Friday morning we packed up – I had loaded the Midget in the trailer Thursday afternoon. We stopped at the dump station on Antelope Island. I had pre-scouted the dump station, but it turned out to be tighter than I thought. We came through unscathed though. As we were pulling out of the dump station, three rigs lined up to dump. Our timing was impeccable – waiting for three rigs to dump could have taken up to an hour.

Our route took us southbound on I-15 past Bountiful and into Salt Lake City. The interstate was the usual jungle of cars travelling too fast and too close together. We went west on I-80 and escaped the city along the southern edge of the Great Salt Lake. We turned south at UT36 which took us through Tooele. I last came through here in 2009 when I came to the World Superbike races at Miller Motorsport Park by motorcycle from Mesa, Arizona with my friend, Mason. Tooele has really grown since then.

We made a quick stop at the south end of town for lunch at Subway. Then we were on our way again. Once we left Tooele, the road became very quiet with little traffic. ID36 eventually runs into US6 and we continued south. Our destination was an unusual place. We planned to stay overnight at Fort Deseret State Park. Donna found information on dry camping there.

What we found when we arrived was surprising. Although it’s designated as a state park, there are no offices or buildings of any kind. There are no services – no water, no restrooms or vault toilets – not even a trash can. It’s just a flat, unpaved lot with a couple of old picnic tables and a couple of placards at the ruins of Fort Deseret. The ruins are just what’s left of the adobe walls that surrounded the fort.

Our original plan was to go to the Saint George, Utah area from here. That plan evaporated when we found out all of the RV parks and campgrounds in the area are booked full. This wouldn’t normally be the case after Labor Day, but 2020 is anything but normal. One park manager told Donna that many people changed their plans and extended their stay in Saint George because of the wildfires west of there. Many others that planned to go to Yosemite, for example, halted their trip west there. Also, people from California and parts of Nevada had escaped the smoke and ash by taking their RV to Saint George.

So, we’re on to plan “B”. Today we head down to Cedar City where I booked an 80-foot long pull-through site for the next four nights. This will allow us to catch up on laundry and figure out our next steps. We’ll have a week to get to Lake Pleasant, Arizona west of Phoenix.

The skies are still smoky and we can expect daily highs in the lower 80s in Cedar City. The overnight lows should be in the mid-50s – just right for sleeping with the window open.

Smoke on the Water

My previous post included a photo taken at the swimming area at Legacy Park in McCall. You can see across Payette Lake to the pine-covered ridge at the north side. On Sunday evening, I saw a video clip on the local news taken from the same point where I stood to take the photo, except you couldn’t see more than 200 yards across the lake due to smoke from wildfires. Smoke is everywhere out west; it’s unbelievable.

I wasn’t able to post over the past few days in Mountain Home, Idaho due to spotty Internet access. Spotty is being kind – our current location only has 3G, but it’s far better than Mountain Home which was like a dial-up connection 25 years ago. There was a Verizon LTE cell tower about half a mile away from the Gem State RV Park and that tower had several cells (nodes). Each node was directed to cover a slice of the 200 degree fan of coverage from that tower. However, the node pointed at the park had the largest slice and covered the most densely populated area of coverage. It was overwhelmed by cell phones most of the day.

When I wrote my last post on Saturday morning I was lucky to have a decent connection for an hour. Fortunately, Donna had completed an article for Escapees RV Club before we left Grangeville.

We left Mountain Home on Monday and continued to head in a southerly direction. I didn’t want to blast down I-84 – the speed limit here is 80mph and I don’t drive the coach that fast. After topping up our fuel tank with 67 gallons of diesel, I followed a route that took us down a nice county road that mostly paralleled the interstate. It took us through a lot of farmland with potato fields and some cattle. Idaho is the largest producer of potatoes in the country.

We followed back roads all the way to Rupert, Idaho. These county roads were mostly smooth with speed limits of 55-65mph. It was easy driving with very little traffic. We passed through a small town called Bliss which had a deep valley to the south. The valley was filled with dense smoke and I couldn’t make out any details of the terrain there.

We found the Elk’s Lodge in Rupert. I checked in at the lodge and was told we could dry camp for free. We set up in a level area with a golf course behind us and had happy hour at the lodge. Donna prepared a simple dinner of garlicky tomato and zucchini with parmesan and Italian sausage. She found the best corn of the season at the Mountain Home farmers’ market – the farmer told her it was picked that morning and would be the best we’ve had. He was right.

We left Rupert Tuesday morning and this time I took a route down ID81. This state route was similar to the county roads we took the day before. The speed limit was 65mph, the road surface was decent and traffic non-existent. After crossing the Utah border, I had no option but to get on the interstate at Snowville. I-84 had miles of construction and only had one lane open. It merges with I-15 at Tremonton and we stayed on I-15 through heavy traffic in Ogden.

We left I-15 south of Ogden proper at exit 332 and went west through an area called Syracuse. We were on a wide boulevard lined with shopping centers and businesses. It gave way to a residential area and narrowed to one lane in each direction. The road ended at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park. The entrance to the park is at the start of the Davis County Causeway. We had reserved a 90-foot-long pull-through site at the Bridger Bay Campground. I checked in at the entrance and the girl working there told me to go seven miles across the causeway and take a left when we reach the island, then take the next right. We found our site without any difficulty.

Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. It has an area of 28,022 acres and is roughly 15 miles long north-to-south. It’s home to bison, mule deer, antelope and other wildlife including coyotes and badgers. Just as we entered the island, we saw a bull bison standing behind the entrance sign with a statue of a bison on the other side.

The campground is dry-camping only. We’ll boondock here for three nights. After setting up, we took a drive in Midget-San to have a look around. We started by going up to Buffalo Point. You can see in the photos the amount of smoke over the Great Salt Lake.

View south from Buffalo Point – lots of smoke

Bridger Bay from Buffalo Point – campground is on the edge of the beach to the right of center

We made a loop past the beach access area, the Island Buffalo Grill and visitor center. Then we drove 11 miles down the paved road on the east side of the island to Fielding Garr Ranch. There weren’t very many cars on the road, but there were some day-use tourists that thought nothing of stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of bison.

View east across Farmington Bay to the mainland

The smoke made an interesting sunset last night.

I spoke too soon about internet access here. I’ve been struggling to complete this post as the Verizon signal fades from 3G to 1X with no internet. I’m giving up at this point.

Steep Grades and Flaming Gorge

The trailer was packed and ready to go Wednesday evening, so we were able to get a relatively early start on Thursday. We pulled out of the James M. Robb Colorado River State Park around 9:30am. We headed back west on I-70 about five miles before exiting onto CO139 north. The road surface quality and condition was variable on this road – downright bumpy at times. This highway took us over Douglas Pass, more than 8,200 feet above sea level – not especially high by Colorado standards. But, we climbed through some very steep grades along the way.

At the little town of Rangely, we hit CO64 and headed northwest. At the town of Dinosaur, we hit US40 and entered Utah shortly after that. This took us to Vernal where we found US191 north again. North of Vernal US191 has some of the steepest grades we’ve encountered. The road sign stated 8% grade and 10 switchbacks over four miles. I think they understated the grades. I had to keep a close eye on road speed and engine coolant temperatures as we climbed up through steep switchbacks on a narrow roadway. Donna snapped a few pictures from the passenger seat trying to capture the rugged terrain.

The highway below us after we climbed up a series of switchbacks

We made a steep ascent from the road below

We were traveling through the Ashley National Forest in the Uintah mountain range. We made a rapid descent into the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

Closer look at the reservoir with the bridge we would cross on the east end by the dam

The Flaming Gorge Reservoir was created when a dam and hydroelectric power station was completed on the Green River in 1964. The reservoir straddles the Utah-Wyoming border and covers over 42,000 acres. It’s at an elevation of 6,040 feet above sea level. Traveling over the mountains, we saw several mule deer along the roadway around here.

View of Green River as we crossed the Flaming Gorge Reservoir bridge

The road surface on US191 improved dramatically once we crossed the Wyoming border. Once we were in Wyoming, we saw antelope in the fields by the highway. I can honestly say I’ve never traveled in Wyoming without seeing antelope. The highway brought us to I-80 about five miles west of Rock Springs. We found the Sweetwater Events Complex. The RV campground was nearly empty. I paid for three nights with full hook-ups and 50 amp service. With my Escapees membership, the discounted rate was $27.80/night.

Car races were scheduled at the small dirt oval on the far side of the complex on Friday night and Saturday night. The grounds are large enough that the race track is too far away for us to hear the cars. That’s a good thing – the races were scheduled to run from 7pm to 11pm. On Friday, several rigs came in with race car trailers and set up near us.

Donna took a 15-mile bike ride Friday morning. Her Strava app, which tracks her rides and provides statistics, showed her as Queen of the Hill. She made a climb on one portion of her ride faster than any other female Strava rider recorded there. After her ride, we took a drive in Midget-San to the town of Green River. It’s about 17 miles west of Rock Springs. It was warm – the temperature reached the low 80s. Green River has a population of about 12,000 – making it half the size of Rock Springs. Green River is located on the north bank of – you guessed it – the Green River.

We stopped at Taco Time and got lunch to go – a chicken fiesta salad for Donna and a chicken soft taco for me. We took our lunch to the Expedition Island Park in town. This park is on a small island in the Green River. It was clean, well-kept and a lovely place to sit at a covered table and eat lunch. To drive onto the island, we crossed a one-lane bridge into the parking area. As we approached the bridge, we saw a deer standing at the far end. As we drove across, the deer hopped down to the river and splashed its way downstream.

South side of the island looking down stream at the pedestrian bridge

North side of the island looking downstream at the one-lane bridge

Looking upriver from the one-lane bridge

Remember what I said about not hearing the car races? What we did hear was the aftermath. The racers with RVs near us came back to their rigs after the races ended at 11pm and the party was on. They were very noisy well past 3am!

Speaking of racing, the Formula One season is finally underway. The pandemic had it shut down. This is the latest start to the season ever for Formula One. I watched the qualifying from Austria this morning and I’ll record the race tomorrow morning.

Donna made chicken with peppers and tomatoes over quinoa pasta for Thursday night’s dinner. It was simple dish and very tasty.

Chicken with peppers and tomatoes over pasta served with broccoli

Last night, we had cheeseburgers made from the ground beef/bacon patties we bought from the Ower’s farm. Excellent burgers!

The weather here is abundant sunshine with the temperature forecast to hit the mid-80s. I’ll start packing the trailer later this afternoon and load Midget-San. Tomorrow we’ll head out to Pocatello, Idaho where we’ll continue to have warm weather.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Utah

Going Home

Hoodoo and Pink Ledges Trail

Bryce Canyon

World’s Fastest Indian Was Here

Another Jetpack Blow-up

Unexpected Tour

Cedar Breaks

Wild Visitors

Smoke on the Water

Steep Grades and Flaming Gorge

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