October 12, 2017
We are on the edge of the mountain range near Colorado Springs, CO. It is warm- 70s every day, but cold at night. Very dry air, but smoggy, too. We expected to spend two nights here, but loved this campground and may be here for 6 nights. Cheyenne Mountain State Park- it sits just under Cheyenne Mountain…and do you know what sits under and in Cheyenne Mountain? NORAD and other “hush hush” military stuff….google it- it is fascinating. We can see one tunnel entrance from our campsite; that is how close we are. This is a fairly new campground. Below us is Army base Fort Carson and north of here is the Air Force Academy.
So, we have been shopping- every day, until we just about drop. This camper needed different things than the truck camper- lots of cupboards, but stuff can’t be sliding around, a new generator because the other one was built into the camper, a huge cargo bay for all the mechanical and outside stuff, etc.
We went to the Garden of the Gods the other day- spectacular…and free! We did pay to watch a “time travel” video of how these rocks and the Rockies were formed- this place (and most of the Great Plains) were covered in water- TWICE! Volcanoes, tectonic plate shifts, subduction and several eras of dinosaurs all contributed to the Rockies. “Kissing Camels” on the left, “Three Graces” second, and the last photo was not named, but it looked like a woman working to us.

This is the Siamese Twins formation:

Took the Pikes Peak Highway up to the top- 19.5 miles, 8000 ft elevation climb to 14,115 ft! It was 75 degrees at the bottom and 34 degrees and blowing 30-40knots at the top. COLD!

We averaged 15mph, took about an hour- there is a race up this hill and the record was set by Sebastien Loeb- he did it in 8 minutes- topped out at 195 mph, took the sharp corners at over 25mph. google the video. The length of our truck barely kept us in the lines on some corners!

 

October 7, 2017
We are in our new home! And we love it! It is so spacious…compared to our truck camper 🙂 We’ve gone from about 140 sq. ft. to about 200 sq. ft.- 40% more space! and full headroom in the sleeping area, and tons more storage, and quadruple the window space. WOO HOO! We are living ever so large! This rig is an Outdoor RV Timber Ridge 24rks travel trailer- 24ft long inside, 29 ft long outside including the hitch. So, we are much longer, but this rig is designed for four season, off road traveling.

This is a link to see pics of the new rig:

http://outdoorsrvmfg.com/timber-ridge-24rks/

And here are some pics of the odd rig- the Eagle Cap truck slide-in camper:

It took us a very long day to do the swap- from “orientation”, to configuring the hitch, to paperwork and then moving all of our stuff from one rig to the other- trying to find the right spot in the new rig-lots of re-shuffling to be done in the days ahead.
Oh, and Rhylee? Well, he has been a real trooper. He took a nap in the new rig the day before we moved, and we bought him a new bed, too. During the move he couldn’t figure out which camper he should be in, but frequently crawled under the table of the new one and took a nap- the boy is happy so long as he can keep tabs on the two of us!
October 10th, 7am, 10 degrees outside!!! WHAT? It was 15degrees at 10pm. The forecast was for a low of 24! The campground water was already frozen up, but we had water on board, now very cold water. We ran the heat a little higher than normal all night- it runs through the floor, which kept the water lines and tanks from freezing. This rig is supposed to be 4 Season…we shall see as the day warms up and we see if anything froze and broke. This is CRAZY!

 

 

Oct 5, 2017
When we are traveling through an area and not stopping for long, we look for free or cheap overnight places. We use a couple of apps on our phones and a couple of websites. Many places like Walmarts (not all, but many), Cabelas, Cracker Barrels (mostly back east) and truck stops will let you overnight in their parking lots. These work great usually, sometimes a little noisy from trucks and road traffice, but convenient.
However, there are also TONS of public lands that are open to campin;, sometimes a small campground, sometimes just a wide space in gravel road, mostly out west here where there are millions and millions of acres of Forest Land, Wildlife Refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands. Everyone we have stopped at has been a “hidden gem”. Two back in Nevada, two in Utah and two, so far in CO.
Two nights ago we slept beside the Colorado River- canyons beyond us, and hundreds of goats- yes goats! on the other side of us. This is a 7 spot campground (only 4 spots occupied) run by the BLM, mostly for river rafters- $7.50. We were headed to the edge of a mesa, but missed the turn and ended up at the bottom of the canyon.

Last night we slept in another tiny campground at the beginning fo Curecanti National Rec Area, which is a dam/watershed system- $4- 4 sites occupied. Along the Cimarron Creek which runs into the Gunnison River, which runs into the Colorado River.

Our photos do not do these places justice- we look at each other and are speechless over and over again at the raw beauty around us, and our good fortune at being here (without crowds).

We drove the most scenic of scenic byways today of all the ones we have driven in the past 9000 miles! From Delta, CO to Poncha Springs, CO, about 100 miles. The Gunnison River has been dammed in about 4 places and has created a huge Recreation Area for about 25 miles, then into rolling mountains and beautiful valleys with ranches, fall colors in the Aspens, and evergreens, then a climb from 7400 ft to 11,300 at Monarch Pass down again to 8000 ft. At least three different landscapes, beautiful lookouts all along the way and amazing road climbs!

 

Bonneville Salt Flats and Beyond!

September 23, 2017
Bureau of Land Management Land is amazing! No services, but no people either, and it is free! We camped two nights along the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats, near where they do the land speed record racing.

Rocky ridges and mountains behind us- a never-ending view across the flats to Salt Lake City and the mountains beyond. We hiked up in behind and found a huge meadow surrounded by the mountains/hills.

 
Now we are at Rockport State Park- Juniper Campground- the junipers are small trees here and the air is filled with the scent. We are on a resevoir on a small lake. Spent a week here with weather varying from 30 degrees all night long to almost 70 one day.

Derek is deploying on Sunday- first to Fort Bliss, TX for another month of training, then off to the Middle East-the exact location is classified. Although, it looks like he and about a dozen others are being moved back to Artillery after training in Infantry for the last 6 months. His Artillery job- Fire Directon Control, using a computer to direct artillery where to shoot- hopefully a slightly safer job than infantry. We spent several days with Derek at the campground around the campfire and in Salt Lake City. The departure ceremony was short and (bitter)sweet as stated, however the whole process took 5 hours from soldiers arriving, the ceremony, waiting for the plane to arrive and then the boarding ceremony. This gave us more time with Derek, however was also very stressful for families, especially children saying good bye to a parent. Derek’s father and his wife were there, too. The pic of the stuffed bear? well, an organization called Operation Gratitude supplied them. Some soldiers took them as Cuddle Buddies, others gave them to their child. Derek (no surprise here) did not want his, and was okay with me giving it to a family with two children but only one bear. So, an almost newborn will have a bear while he waits for his Dad to come home in a year- the Mom was very appreciative.

 
And we are off again- to Colorado- and oddly enough to by a new rig. We have always been researching and thinking about what the next “Home” would look like…and it kind of fell into our laps with an offer to good to refuse. This is a 30ft. travel trailer, heavy duty for off road, and bigger fresh and grey water tanks, and many other features that we are ready for. The manufacturer (small company with not many dealers) found the exact model with the most of the options we want in Poncha Springs, CO. They made us a good deal on the trade-in and options, so here we go!

 

Mid- September
Medford, Oregon, then Klamath Falls, Oregon and then Goose Lake Oregon- a shallow lake that birds love. One night stops as we continue to try to move away from the smoke…then the winds shift and we’re back in it!
Across some of the Nevada high desert- really desolate and barely inhabited. No gas stations for 100 miles of highway! We’ve landed in a free, primitive campground in Nevada- Sheldon Wildlife Refuge. Views of mesas, sagebrush and rolling land with nothing on it. Apparently, they mine opals around here- go figure.

One night in Winnemucca for supplies, fuel and laundry. And some conversations with the locals- today it was windy and in the low 60s, after a summer with 70+days over 100! Interstate 80 East, because there is NO other road east- the high desert continues with slight changes- we can see gold mining complexes in the distance. Nevada mines most of this country’s gold!

Found a tiny little canyon off the highway to spend the night on the Humboldt River in Carlin Canyon- amazing! Got off the highway before the winds started gusting to 50mph, then it rained hard and the temps dropped to 34. Woke up to snow in the mountains, decided to stay another day to avoid icey roads in the higher elevations. We’re 4900 ft. and the snow is at 7000 ft.
As we continued east the mountains were truly snow covered all around us! Lamoille Canyon Park was recommended to us as a very green area compared to the High Desert, so we took the side trip up into the snow (we reminisced about our snowy weekend last October in Upper Jo Mary, Maine!) and decided we just had to spend the night in a sweet little forest service campground!

Crazy for sure! Rhylee loved it! We’re at 7500 ft here and the canyon walls tower over us- nearby Ruby Dome is 11,247Ft.

Sept 12-15, 2017

(Photos to come. We are down a computer…)

WOW! These are some BIG trees! We are in the Northern California National and State Redwood Parks. Our campground is right in the a Redwood Forest! 200 ft. tall Redwoods tower over our camper. These are newer growth trees, since logging at the turn of the century- 1900s. Many have grown around huge stumps that are 10-15ft across.
So often on our travels we have become speechless (hard to imagine, right?) as words can not possibly describe the “biggness”, “expansiveness” and overwhelming awe that is inspired by the many places we’ve been. As we both pointed out huge tree after tree- “there’s another one”, “look at that huge tree”, – we realized that every where we looked were amazing treess- hence this picture of Clare pointing with all 10 fingers at huge trees!
Did you know…(we did not)…that Redwoods get 1/3 of their water needs from the fog that enshrouds the coast almost every day until at least noon? And this are gets over 100 inches of rain every year- so that means the trees drink up another 50inches of rain through the fog!
The understory of the forest is quite interesting as well- lots of ferns- 7 different types, from small ones to 3 foot high big bushy ones. A type of maple with sprawling trunks, huge leaves, and heavily covered in moss- they would look big, but next to a redwood, not so much. Wild Rhododendren and other leggy shrubs and that is about it in the Redwood Forests.
We have finally experienced absolute silence! Our campsite is in a “closed” area of this campground. Since we had it reserved and it affords a tiny bit of sunlight for our solar panels, the Ranger allowed us to be here, even though the surrounding 20 sites are closed. There has been no wind, very few birds and only a few people walking by occassionally- this is quiet!
Jedediah Smith Redwood Park- on our way east. Some of the Star Wars Speedchaser scenes were filmed here! Super tall Redwoods here in a beautiful grove. Breathtaking!

September 11, 2017

Finally…it is a beautiful sunny day, here in Bandon, Oregon, yet we are sitting in the camper working on the blog. We have internet here – no close mountains and a real town. So, we added photos to previous blog posts, Rhylee got his page going again- after some quiet times, life has picked up for him, and more photos on the photo page.

We are still trying to avoid the wildfires and smoke, and have decided to head to Northern California to the Redwoods- maybe those tall trees will keep the smoke up there!

We are safe and happy; finding a routine of 3-4 days in one place, take the camper off, and sightsee, walk beaches and explore. Rhylee is happy so long as he is with us, really with us- like side by side, and no waves are hitting him- although he did do a nose dive in the sand yesterday 🙂

We are looking for the next version of our mobile home and may have found it- doing lots of research- it’s a heavy duty travel trailer meant to go backcountry.

Feel free to comment on the blog. Email us and let us know what’s up with you!

August 27, 2017 thru Sept. 11

Nehalem Bay Beach- the campsites are sheltered behind the 30ft dunes. Miles and miles of white sand that squeaks when you walk on it.

We got Dungeness Crab one day- we could have caught our right off the dock, but didn’t want to wait for two hours- or work for it! 3 crabs weighed over 5 lbs and that gave us just over a pound of meat!
Tillicum Beach was next for Labor Day Weekend- 3 hours south- we had one night reserved and were hoping to score one of the “first come first served” sites for the rest of the weekend. We did, but it is stressful and not fun- we had to keep walking by the non-reservable sites looking to see if they looked like they were packing up, or- re-upping for another night- it’s a crazy system for a busy campground! Here we had an ocean view, even if it meant the camper was in another precarious perch!

50ft eroding soft rock cliffs drop down to miles of beach again. We are back in hazeand smog from the wildfires- air quality alerts and we see the soot on our windows and solar panels and feel it in our lungs when we walk. All of the directions we can head next have wildfires – there are even roads closed through the mountains.

Sunset Bay Beach down near Coos Bay…never saw a sunset- smoke and fog every day, all day, rain one day. The beach looks a lot like Lucia Beach in Owls Head- a tiny pocket beach with tidal pools. Along this same shore is a Botanical Garden- spectacular and a Reef where hundreds of seals and sea lions hang out.

 

On to Bullards Beach in Bandon, OR- trying to avoid wildfire smoke and figure out how to get east in the next few weeks to see Derek. It is the Cranberry Festival here, so town is mobbed- a little bit like Camden during Windjammer Days. We are having sunny days finally, with a touch of fog in the morning.

 

 

August 21, 2017

Our campground is at the eastern end of the Columbia Gorge on the Washington side- essentially a desert! There are irrigated vineyards and other farms, but everything else is brown and very few trees except along the river. The river is warm enough to swim in, and when it gets windy the windsurfers and kiteboarders come out.
We visited two dams- Bonneville was the biggest- we checked out the power plant and watched fish go up stream in the fish ladders through huge windows into the ladders- Chinook, steelhead trout, and lamprey.
We could see snow covered Mt. Hood from our arid campground and decided we should cool off. The ski area was still open; they ski every month of the year! One slope is treated with salt to maintain it for the months. It is glacier snow and we could see the blues layers in places where the snow had been there a long, long time. On the way down we found a back road around the mountain; even though one map said it was paved but we knew better- 12 miles of gravel roads and many miles of single lane on gravel and paved! However, we had spectacular, close-up views of the other three sides of Mt. Hood.

On the was to Vancouver, WA we stopped at Beacon Rock and hiked it- 860 feet up and not even as big around. 100 years ago a man decided to build walkways up and around this rock to the top- look at the pics:

August 27, 2017

It only took 9 weeks and 5,899 miles, but we finally made it to the other ocean! We are at Nehalem Bay State Park Campground in Manzanita, Oregon. Our campsite is on one side of  the huge sand dunes and then we have 5 miles of sandy beach. We hear the surf all day and all night- very sweet. Reminds us of home! The ocean is about 55 degrees, a bit too cold for swimming.

Heading south to a couple other coastal campgrounds, then the plan is open- huge wild fires further down the coast and at Crater Lake are encouraging us to head elswhere.