Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Third Annual Natural Disaster Tour

We passed through Pensacola today, 5 hours after they had 22 inches of rain in the previous 26 hours.  That's about the same amount of rain in just over a day that Phoenix gets in three years.  One person died after driving her car into the flood, I-10 was closed for a while, and several roads were washed out.


There were also several tornadoes, all farther north of us.  The closest we got to them was in New Orleans, where there was a tornado watch on the opposite (North) shore of Lake Ponchartrain.  38 people died in the tornadoes in several states.

Regular readers will recall that in 2012 we narrowly escaped Superstorm Sandy, and in 2013 we witnessed close-up the Black Forest wildfire in Colorado Springs.  I guess the good news is that the excitement is now over for this year :)

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Arches National Park

June 2013

Our 4th park in Utah was Arches.  Not as awesome as Bryce, but very cool.  Besides the arches, there are other weird and interesting formations




We hiked into some little slot canyons



and saw some guys climbing


There was a triple arch

and lots more.

Moab Petroglyph Tour

June 2013

There's a "tour" around Moab, Utah of the various nearby sites where the former residents of the area carved  figures into the rocks, or petroglyphs.
 A lot of petroglyphs are obviously animals that the people hunted. 

 Or pictures of themselves, or perhaps their leaders.
 Or important things in their lives, like the river or the sun.




And then, in town after dinner - pretty good Mexican restaurant, Miguel's, Baja style - we saw a car on the street:
More pictures.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky

June 2013

The second part of Canyonlands.

This is a view of the ridge behind our RV park in Moab:
and the valley and mountain range in front:
We hiked here, too, to get to the view of the Island:


and other interesting things





More pictures.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Canyonlands National Park - Needles

June 2013

Canyonlands National Park has four sections, divided by rivers with no auto crossings.  We visited the Needles section and the Island in the Sky.  The entrance to the Maze is on the other side, hundreds of miles away by car, and the roads to it are not paved.  The 4th section is the rivers themselves.

The needles are a ridge topped by hoodoos.


We went on a hike to the top of a hill with a 360-degree view for many miles.

A raven visited us at the truck.  Ravens are Vicki's friends.

Another hike took us to an old camp.

On the way out, we passed Newspaper Rock, covered with petroglyphs.


And Ship Rock, near the main highway back to the RV park.

And an arch.

More pictures.


JC and Caryn wedding

May 2013

JC and Caryn were married May 26, 2013 at a place called Boojum Tree.

The bride and groom, with Pablo and Miguel, Caryn's kids from her previous marriage:
 Cutting the cake
More pictures.

Root 66 RV Park

May 2013

We park our RV for the night in a variety of places, from campgrounds in the woods to luxury resorts to Wal-Marts and truck stops (well, just once in a truck stop.  We had to try, didn't like it.  Noisy, and bright lights all night.)  One of the unique ones is in Sun Valley, AZ.  It's a gravel parking lot for an abandoned motel at the exit on I-40 (the old Route 66), handy to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

It doesn't have a web site, but some patrons have reviewed it.

Not even in the same ball park as Omusee Creek, but a solid second place among RV parks.  (Wal-mart is in a class by itself, simply because of the lack of hookups.  We need electric in order to run the A/C, so even Omussee Creek and Route 66 can rank ahead of Wal-Mart, depending on the weather.)

Hubbell Trading Post

May 2013

Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest operating trading post on the Navaho nation, since 1878.  They have a small museum, and sell native art, groceries, and touristy stuff.




No relationship to the telescope, which is spelled differently.