July 25 - July 30 : From Ft. Bridger to Casper, WY

July 25 and our stay at Ft. Bridger was over. We were heading to Colorado and had a week to get there. What to do and where to go? We realized that as we were traveling along I-80 towards Colorado, and that when we got to Rawlins, we would be within 125 miles from our friends Karen and Terry, who live in Casper, WY. So we called them to see if they would like company for a few days. It turned out that they were celebrating Karen's birthday that weekend and were thrilled to have us join the party.

We left Ft. Bridger on Tuesday, spent the night in Rawlins and left the next morning for Casper. But of course, we ran into another complication. We were all hooked up in Rawlins, ready to leave, turned on the generator, turned on the a/c and poof!, popping sounds and burning wire came from behind us in the living area of the rv.

PANIC!!!!

So we turned off the a/c, turned off the generator, checked all outlets, walked around with our noses in the air smelling, trying to locate the cause. Nothing showed up. I unplugged all appliances and started over again. Turned on generator, turned on a/c and waited. No fire, no smell, no smoke, nothing unusual. So we decided to leave and see what happens. An hour down the road, the a/c starts smelling hot and acting funny. Now we knew the problem. WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO.

The temp was 100+, we were staying on the grounds of Terry and Karen's ranch that they had just moved from and had only 20 amp electric service which would barely run one a/c and it was not working. Fortunately by calling around to Casper RV dealers, I found a mobile guy who came out, diagnosed the problem, ordered the parts to be shipped and had it fixed by Friday. HOORAY!!!!

We stayed there through Sunday and had a great time.

The next excerpt will be pictures from our day's trip to Flaming Gorge in the Ft. Bridger area and pictures of our touring of the Casper Interpretative Center that highlights the trails leading west.............Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, California Trail
and Pony Express. Stay tuned!

Love to all of you.

July 21 - 25 : Ft. Bridger, WY

We left the Hot Springs resort on July 21 and drove 161 miles to the Ft. Bridger RV park. That was a long day for us!

And it was one of those drives where we seemed to be stopping every few minutes. First we had to stop for gas.........that was no problem.

Then we were on the road for about 15 minutes and a trucker passed us pointing to our rig. So we figured we had some problem, pulled off at the next exit and stopped on the side of the road, checked everything and saw nothing wrong. To turn around and get back on the highway, we had to go 10 miles out of our way to find a gas station with a big enough area for us. So 20 minutes later we are back on the highway.

About 30 minutes later, Barb had to go to the bathroom (I do allow her potty stops); so we found a rest area and stopped there for awhile.

Our last stop enroute to Ft. Bridger was at a lookout...............

So the 161 mile drive which most of you would make in about 2.5 hours took us 4 hours. And that is a typical driving day for us!!!!

Ft. Bridger RV Camp was just supposed to be an overnight stop for us and turned out to be a very interesting place to stay.......The rv sites were wide and grassy and shady and the people were very nice. And it was adjacent to the fort. We very leisurely set up camp.............sat outside enjoying the shade, met some Mormons on a retreat staying in tents along side our site, and about 3 hours later decided to hook up the water and electricity, etc.

The next morning we got up early to walk over to the fort. A bit of history...............Jim Bridger was a mountain man who traveled to the area from the east to set up a trading post for the folks traveling through the area. He provided a safe place to stay and stock up on supplies before heading on to the west.
He also would bring in beaver and other furs to sell to merchants who would bring them back east to sell.






Eventually the army purchased the land and set up a fort, which was named Ft. Bridger.

It became the home to the army as well as people traveling through the area.

They continued with the trading post even after Jim Bridger left for other parts.

We had a very relaxing and good visit there.

One evening we were watching TV and I looked out the front window and yelled, "Barb, there is a moose in our front yard!" She said, "Yeah, right." But then we both got up and stared and sure enough, this moose was walking down the road inside the campground. Grabbed my camera and we both ran out to watch him, along with all the other rv'ers. I did not get a good picture so got this one from someone else. Now that was really a surprise visit.

We leave here and head towards Rawlins, WY.

Love to all of you,

Tech Support: Red X's instead of pictures and other issues

Several people have commented to me that they are getting red X's instead of pictures. I am not sure what that is; I think it is a problem on the blog site. Either way, if you wait a few minutes, hours or a day, and try again, it will eventually get pictures. So keep trying.

I am also working on the best way to allow you to make comments on this blog instead of sending me an e-mail message. I just have to figure out how to control who can comment and what is said. Right now, if you want to set up an account with the blog, you can comment, but I know most of you will not want to do this for your own security. So stay tuned I will let you know when I have it figured it out.

If sometimes you cannot get into this blog at all, try going to www.google.com and then typing in the blog web site. Don't know why this would be necessary but .......... that's the internet for you!!!

If you run into any other problems, please let me know by e-mail.

Thanks for all of your comments and support. I am enjoying doing this and hope you will continue to enjoy reading it.

July 19: Antelope Island in Salt Lake City

Our visit to Antelope Island while staying at the hot springs resort was our only siteseeing adventure. So we drove the 90 miles to Salt Lake City for a day's outing. Antelope Island is located in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. First we took a drive around the island; the views were lovely. There was a contrast in landscape; you could stand in one spot and see dry desert plants, then turn to see the green landscape from the springs that come up in sporadic areas, then turn again to see the salt from the Lake. Along the lake shoreline between the salt and the springs we could see buffalo grazing. If you look carefully at this picture, along the bottom are the dry desert plants, then an area of semi dried grass, then the green of the trees from the spring. The white is the salt from the lake and the blue is, of course, the lake.

And at the visitor center we saw several nests with baby swallows.





We then signed on to take a "wildlife safari". The mode of transportation was a restored WWII land/sea vehicle. We stayed on land the whole time. We went to the area of the island that is restricted and where all of the "wild" animals roam.


We saw quite a few buffalo, mule deer and even a jack rabbit.
Since this was called Antelope Island, we expected to see herds of antelope, but there were none to be seen.


It was a fun outing.

Love to all of you.

Reminder: Click on photos to see larger size.

Water Spots-----FINALE

Last night was the last night. As most of you know, the conditions that I absolutely hate to drive in is darkness and rain...............So here is the story.

Yesterday, we went to Antelope Island which is right in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. There are presumably many animals to see on the island, including buffalo, pronghorn, deer, wolves, coyote and many others. In addition, there is a sunset wildlife safari on an land/sea WWII amphibian boat that takes you to parts of the island not open to the general public. The tour started at 7:00 pm and ended at 8:45 pm which meant we were driving home at night in the rain. More of this adventure in the next posting.

But let me tell you about our water spot adventure. As we drove home in the dark, a storm came in with heavy rain and winds. We got back to the motorhome about 10:45 pm and the sprinkling system starts at 11:15 pm. So we threw on our rain ponchos, grabbed our flashlights and out we went to cover the sprinklers. There are 6 heads on each side of the motorhome; we put out all of the chairs and step stools and tables with our old tire covers on top and a rock on top of that in the midst of this rain storm. The main problem was finding the sprinkler heads in the dark.........wish I had taken pictures of us searching through the grass with only the light of the flashlight. Well, we got them all covered and the only water spots were on us from the rain..................it was an adventure!

Love to all of you.

July 18 @ 5:00 am

Woke up to a glorious sunrise and no water spots. We outwitted the sprinklers. Hooray!

OUT, OUT, DAMN SPOT (WATER)

We are currently still at the Hot Springs Resort 90 miles north of Salt Lake City. We arrived here on July 9 and will remain until this Friday, July 21. Last week, Barb left from Salt Lake to fly to St. Louis to visit with her mom. She had a good visit there. Her mom is doing very well. The main activities for the two of them are dominoes and bingo. And, of course, mom always beats Barbara!

This resort is out in the middle of nowhere. The closest town is Tremonton about 15 miles away; it has a grocery store. The next closest with good shopping is Logan, which is about 25 miles away. We are surrounded by farmland, cows and hills and mountains. It is really a very picturesque area.




We have been amazed by the beautiful sunsets, sunrises (yes, I am up at 5:30 am to see them) and even a double rainbow.

See, that is our motorhome there at the end of the rainbow.









And now for story of the spots............the site that we are located on is very nice, with lots of grass and a small tree. We really enjoy sitting out and drinking our coffee in the morning and drinking our wine in the evening. Now you may ask yourself, how are they able to keep the grass so green when it gets up to 95 degrees every day..........well, I'll tell you. They water the grass four nights a week.......with hard water. And do you know what hard water that has dried does to the finish of a motorhome!! So each morning we wake up to water spots..........oh, I did I tell you that it is hard water, didn't I?

The first night this happened we were totally unprepared. One of the sprinkling heads was set to send the water all the way across the yard, so it watered not only the whole side of the coach, it also watered the car too. So that morning we got to wash both sides of the motorhome and the car. What fun!

Our solution was to find ways to cover these sprinkler heads. So that evening we lined up buckets, plastic bags, rocks and anything else we could find. We used the picnic table to deflect the water from one head, we used the step stool with a tire cover over it for another. We turned the bucket upside down with a rock on top of it and the small step stool with a grocery bag over it for two others. I am sorry to say that the sprinkling system is more clever than we are. We were able to divert the height of the water, but we still had water along the bottom basement doors on both sides of the coach.

So each morning we go out with our Protect-All cleaner and many microfiber rags and clean the spots off. Oh, did I mention that these are hard water spots and do not come off very easily. An hour later (we have been starting around 7:00 am), we can finally sit down and have our cup of coffee. And try to figure out how to outsmart these sprinkling heads. We have been here about 8 days and have not figured this out yet. See, there is more to RVing and fulltiming than just siteseeing and having fun.

However, the nice part is that at 9:00 am we head on down to the hot springs pool. The water is about 95 degrees and like the Great Salt Lake, we just float in it. Our muscles are no longer sore and in fact Barb's arthritis pain is feeling better. So we can just float on our backs, close our eyes, and daydream.

When we leave here on Friday, we head to Ft. Bridger, WY for the weekend. We do not know what is there; it just happens to be on our route. That is the fun and adventures of full timing.

Love to all of you.

July 15: April in Las Vegas with Zack and Ashley

We were in Boulder City/Las Vegas for the month of April. We spent time with Robyn and Scott and the grandkids. Robyn and Scott are very busy with their new business, Mad Science. It is a children's entertainment program that teaches science and does science experiments. They do birthday parties, after school activities, assemblies, summer programs and have recently started a chess club for children. They are loving and enjoying the work and we are very proud of them.


We loved our special days with the grandkids.




Ashley wanted to go to the bookstore and read books and then find several to take home with her.







Zachary was very excited about going on a hike in Red Rock Canyon. He loved using Barb's binoculars.

We found a waterfall that flowed into a pool of water and, of course, Zack and I walked on the rocks across the pool.





We had many other experiences while visiting with them. Zack and Ashley are both learning to play chess. Zack plays on a baseball team and while we were there, was the catcher. Ashley, who is always dressed in pink, played with her dolls, read her books and spent time on the slides and swings.

We also introduced them to fishing. We purchased fishing rods for them, Superman for Zack and Barbie for Ashley, and took them to a lake in Boulder City. Barb and I spent 2 hours in Walmart the day before trying to buy the right hooks, sinkers, bobbins, line, and whatever. After about a half an hour of throwing in the line and catching nothing, we were assisted by two elderly men who took pity on us. They cut off the hooks and sinkers we were using and put on the right ones. Instantly both kids caught fish.............a great experience for them! And for us!


We will continue to plan visits to Las Vegas in the Spring of each year, though not always at the same time. When we are full timing we just have soooooooooooo many places we want to go.....on of which is to Brussels to visit Susan, Peter, Nicolas and Caroline. More about them and pictures of them in a later posting. We also want to go to Mexico next year; there is resort there that is part of the membership parks that we purchased. More about that later too.

I am really enjoying sharing our adventures as full timers with all of you. When Barb gets back here from St. Louis this evening, I know she will want to add on to my comments. So stay up to date and keep reading.

Love to all of you.

July 14 Evening: Pictures from Boulder City

As I am writing this journal, I am trying to figure out how best to be current and also to give some information as to what our previous travels have been. Tonight I realized that I want to include pictures of the places I mentioned in this afternoon's journal.




So I need to start with the Las Vegas visit in April. We stayed at the Boulder City RV Park which is about a 30 minute drive to Robyn and Scott's house. Boulder City is a quiet small town most known for being the residence of the construction workers who built Lake Mead. From our campsite, we could see the Lake.

One of our favorite activities is to take the 3 mile hike along the Lake Mead railroad pass. You can see from picture above that we are high above the Lake. It was over this pass that the railroads bought the huge turbines for Boulder Dam.




Many of the cactus were beginning to bloom.





The colors were vibrant.




And since I had to stop to take so many pictures, the hike took several hours.

But oh, it was fun!!!

Beginning Entry July 14, 2006

Barb and I have decided to keep a record of our travels so that we can share our full timing experiences with family and friends. Rather than send e-mails that you may or may not want to read, we thought a blog would allow us to post our travels and experiences and let you decide if and when you want to read them.

This first entry will sort of summarize our most recent adventures since April 2006. In future days I will back track and perhaps describe our activities in greater detail.

April 2006: We left Apache Junction, our winter residence for now, and headed towards Las Vegas to visit the kids, Robyn, Scott, Zachary and Ashley. We spent a month in Vegas visiting and playing with the grandkids. Our special moments with them were the days we got to take each one out alone and do what they wanted to do. We took Zachary on a hike at Red Rock Canyon and built a flower pot and planted flowers. Ashley went to the bookstore and the library to read and purchase books. Her favorite activities!

May 2006: Then we were off to Palm Springs and San Diego to visit friends. Along the way we stopped in Laughlin, NV and Parker, NV. While in Parker we listened to a 1.5 hour talk to purchase a membership in the Colorado River Adventure membership park and instead of saying "thanks but no thanks," we said "Yes". So that meant we stayed in CRA parks for free while in those areas. Great deal! More about this later.

June 2006: For those of you who are used to hearing us talk about South Dakota and the Black Hills, I am sorry to say that for the first time in 8 years we are not going there. Our choice this year was to visit family in California. So we saw family in Las Angeles (stayed in Acton), Fresno (stayed in Coarsegold), and San Francisco (stayed in Pacifica). Notice that we do not stay in any of the cities but instead, chose camp in areas outside the city. Both Acton and Coarsegold were in the high desert areas, warm during the day and cool at night. But the views were splendid. Pictures to follow. Pacifica was a wonderful experience since we were camped on a bluff overlooking the ocean. It was great to see the family and have time with them.

July 2006: Okay, we are now more current. We left California right before July 4 and wanted to be sure we had a place to stay over the 4th..........so the Lake Tahoe area was the choice. And guess what Barb did the entire week we were there..............We actually stayed the Gold Ranch RV park (in Verdi, NV) which is right next to the Gold Ranch Casino and only 5-10 minutes from several others. So each day Barb spent the afternoons/evenings playing poker. The first day she won $70 in open play and then came in 3rd in a tournement .......$300. Not bad, huh! However by the end of the week she gave it all back to the tables........so she broke even. And had a wonderful time. I did get her away from the tables for one day so that we could drive around Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful and we had a great day. And of course, I do have pictures to include.

Moving right along which is what we do so well and love........we left Verdi, had several adventures along the way including an absolutely awful campground and are currently just outside of Garland, UT at a hot springs resort. The resort is out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hills, mountains, farmland, and open space and just so happens to have a hot springs in the area. So at the Hot Springs resort, we can go to a mineral pool that has natural temperature between 95 and 105 degrees. They try to cool it down to around 95 degrees.

July 14, Today: Barb is in St. Louis for 4 days visiting with her mom. And I am here at the hot springs creating a Blog. What an adventure. The temperature here right now is 95. The nice thing though is that by evening it will be in the 80's and by night time it cools to the 70's. By time I awake, it is 50. So the a/c goes off at 6:00 pm and we sleep to the fan and fresh air. Mornings stay cool until about 10:00 am. This morning I took a 20 minute walk around the campground, did some stretching exercises and then spent 30 minutes in the pool doing water exercises. I could get spoiled by all of this.

Now the last 3 days have not been so glorious. The good and bad of this park is that every site has grass, that is the good, and the grass gets water 4 days a week, that is the bad. You see, when the grass get water, the motorhome gets watered. That means water spots that are dry in the morning and require cleaning each day. So I have washed the lower half of the motorhome each day and in fact have waxed it also...................

I will sign off for now. And add to this later. Actually I think I will try to add pictures and then publish this.

Love to all of you,