Author: areeb

Hello again friends! Today is our last day in Chama – a nice little town in northern New Mexico. We were here last year, at the exact same time. In fact, October this year will be a complete repeat of last October. Except we’re staying in a different campground in Santa Fe, we weren’t wild about the one we stayed in last year. Otherwise, we’re repeating it all again!

We timed our visit here just right for the changing Aspen leaves. We saw the color change in Priest Gulch, moved here, and got to see it all over again. So lucky! We have had absolutely perfect weather, the bluest skies possible, cool (or I should say cold!) nights, but warm and sunny days. We cannot get enough of the golden Aspens. Pictures cannot begin to capture the golden light a grove of Aspens has when the sun is shining through the leaves. It’s like walking into a room full of gold light. We love to just stand in the middle of a bunch of Aspens and soak up the golden light. Yeah I know, we’re kinda weird! But I can live with that!

We’ve also become pretty intrigued by the Continental Divide Trail. It goes right through this area, and we’ve hiked 2 segments of it while here. We hiked one of the segments last year, and it’s one of the reasons we came back to this area, we remembered how much we loved that hike. The CDT starts in Montana at the Canadian border, and goes 3,100 miles through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, ending at the Mexican border. It goes straight through the Rocky Mountains, closely following the actual Continental Divide. I think I mentioned in my post from the Dubois, WY area that we met some CDT hikers at breakfast one morning. Dubois is a popular “re-supply” town for CDT hikers. We were fascinated by their talk of long distance hiking.

Chama is also a “trail town”. I have learned there are “trail angels” all along the CDT, including in Chama. There’s even a registry for hikers to use to reach an “angel” when in need. Trail towns are used for re-supply plus a hot shower and a soft bed for a night. And a few good meals too! Oh, and electricity – that little convenience we all take for granted! Anyhow, we picked up several “trail hitch hikers” during our stay here. The place the CDT crosses the road about 10 miles north of Chama is where they come off the trail and hope for a ride into town, or, in the mornings, we would pick up hikers in town looking for a ride back to the trail.

While they all were extremely appreciative of the ride to or from town, let me tell you, we loved it more than they did. The ride is about 15 minutes either way, and of course we asked each of them as many questions as we could in that time! Where are you from? How many miles a day do you hike (25-30 is the common answer!) Do you hike with stove or stove-less (cold food vs hot food)? Any wildlife on the trail? What do you do for work when you’re not hiking? These young people, and they are all are 20 somethings, are amazing. They were from Australia, several from Canada, North Carolina, Maryland, Washington, Oregon. Most have hiked several other long distance hikes too: the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail were mentioned several times. Some had quit jobs to hike (one young man said, “much to my parents alarm I quit my nice office job in Seattle to do this hike and I’m so glad I did!”) The Australian guy said he worked in a “gear shop” and would go back to it when he was done. Wish I would have asked what a “gear shop” was!

But the best two stories were from the last two hikers we talked to. First, we picked up a hiker yesterday morning, she was leaving town and going back to the trail. We also were going to the same place on the CDT for a day hike (we did 8 miles by the way, cannot figure out how they hike so many miles in one day, over an over!) She was a very nice young lady from British Columbia. Graduated university, and “will probably go to law school when I’m 27, I think I’ll have all the hikes in I want to do by then”. What hikes has she done already?? The Pacific Crest Trail, the Arizona trail, the National Trail of Israel, a trail that goes all through Scotland (didn’t catch the name), a trail that goes all through Jordan and a trail that goes all through the south island of New Zealand. And she’s 25. Oh, and she also “just visited for a few weeks, but didn’t hike” Lebanon.

We thought she was going to win the prize for the most hikes we had heard from anyone. But, we ran into a young lady on the trail that day who wins our prize. She had started in Canada – I wish I had asked where, but didn’t – and she was finishing in Nicaragua! She is “connecting footsteps” from her previous hike that was from the southern tip of South America to Nicaragua, which took her 3 years to complete. She plans to reach Nicaragua in March or April.

To say we are humbled by what these hikers do is a huge understatement. What incredible life experience they are gaining, and how it will shape their perspective of the world. Every one of them said they would do it again, given the chance, and no regrets for taking the time to do it. Bravo!

Meanwhile, we did 3 very nice day hikes while here, including 2 on the CDT. And we came home to our very comfortable, cozy RV to a hot dinner, warm shower and soft bed! No regrets here either! And Gerry met his new BFF, Heidi the Weimaraner. Heidi and her people stayed in the spot right behind us for a few days, and we got them out together to run. So pretty watching the two of them run together! And Gerry is such a flirt!

We went back to our favorite bakery in Pagosa Springs, Colorado – one of the benefits of having been here before we knew a few places we wanted to go to and the bakery was top of the list! We went twice, and took Gerry one time with us – he got his very own grilled cheese! We also visited Tierra Wools. It is a weaving workshop where they make rugs and blankets from the local sheep wool. We were able to see a weaver working on a rug at a “walking loom”. Amazing how it works.

Lots of pictures in the link below for you. Off to Santa Fe tomorrow!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GjWoBWU7yKLcHidP7

Sometimes things just escape words. How do you describe the mountain vista at 12,000 feet after climbing almost 4 hours to get there through beautiful aspen, pine and jumping over babbling streams? What words describe the intense blue of the sky contrasted against the dark green of the fir trees? And, there are no words for the joy and warmth of our hearts, having my brother Dan, and my sister-in-law Christine visit with us. Seeing them experience the beautiful San Juan mountains for the first time was so special, a blessing indeed.

They arrived for a week’s long visit and quickly decided one week just wouldn’t do and extended their trip for another 5 days. They stayed in a cute cabin in our campground, with a porch right on the river. What a blessing to have time together and to share this experience with them. The fresh air, sitting by the river listening to the water rush over the rocks, hiking beautiful trails and watching the Aspen just begin to turn golden are memories we’ll treasure. Funny how the best things are the simple everyday things. Like cooking together, sitting around the campfire, stopping on a hike to gasp for air as we climb into higher and higher elevation. Watching Gerry on the trail, the happiest dogie you’ll see anywhere (cutest too!)

This journey of ours is amazing. Sharing it with family and friends makes it all the more wonderful. Thank you Dan and Christine for allowing us to experience the wonder of the mountains and the love of family together.

Lots of pictures to share in the links below. Enjoy!

Mountain Blessings I: https://photos.app.goo.gl/F2VFPJFL3hWo1yw89

Mountain Blessings II: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7BkLtpm7mfAFXom5A

Mountain Blessings III: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ffMYuV7soyT2HSKk7

Hello Again! Writing you from the Glenwood Springs, Colorado area, we leave in the morning for Priest Gulch campground in southwest Colorado. Just had to fill you in on our adventures the last few days! You may be wondering what do bears, vapor caves and diesel have in common? Not much! Other than it’s what we’ve been doing. Grab a cup of tea and I’ll fill you in!

First – the vapor caves – what an experience! We booked a day of indulgence for ourselves at Yampah Hot Springs and Spa. They have these caves (real caves, not man made) that are full of hot steam and water. I didn’t research it to get all the technical geological stuff about it. But, it’s about 125 degrees in these caves. The Ute Indians discovered them hundreds of years ago and used them for healing. It’s been operating as a hot springs spa since the late 1800’s. You descend the stairs into very dark, hot, steamy caves that have stone benches. There’s a garden hose in the middle of the caves you can turn on for cold water, and small buckets to fill to take cold water to your spot with you. Smells very sulfur-y everywhere. And so you sit and/or lay on the stone benches and sweat. And try not to panic about being underground, in the dark, in 125 degrees of hot steamy air. Yes, people, including us, pay money for this torture! Actually, we really enjoyed it. And then we got a mineral bath (same hot water from below in tubs, so hot you have to work up to getting into it), and then massages. Very nice day of pampering!

We did a great hike the other day, taking the advice of the US Forest Service lady we talked to and went to a trail that wasn’t on my trail app. This is where the bears come in. But first, some background. We ran into a very sweet older lady on the early part of the trail. She was coming down from the hike, we were going up. Stopped to chat with her and she shared a story of 4 years ago, she and her husband, who is now passed away, hiked this trail and ran into a bear on the trail. She turned and ran, he stayed and got some pictures then made movements and noise and the bear ran away. She told us about where it was on the trail, near some old discarded mining equipment. (She also told us about her daughter’s restaurant in a near by little town which we visited that night and was one of the best meals we’ve had out in a long time). Anyhow, we go on with our hike, get to the old mining equipment and stop to look at it. We’re hiking deep in a canyon, with tall canyon walls on each side of us, the trail runs along a beautiful stream in the bottom of the canyon. I look up the side of the canyon to see if there’s remnants of the old mine, and instead see Mama Bear and her 2 Cubs! Mama is a very big brown bear, and the cubs are one brown and one black. She saw us, looked us over for a minute and moved on her way with the cubs following.

There’s not a lot of “flat” ground when you’re in a canyon – so the bear was heading right towards where our trail was going. We turned around and headed out! Not chancing a closer encounter with Mama and Cubs! Steve tried to get a couple of pictures, but didn’t get them. He ended up with the trees above the bears (he didn’t have time to put on his glasses and he couldn’t see very well). Steve says if anyone asks, the bears were 50 feet away. Just kidding! He guesses they were 200 yards. Close enough to be fun to see, but wouldn’t want them any closer! If we hadn’t talked with the nice lady at the beginning of the trail, I don’t think we would have stopped to look at the mining equipment and look up to see the bears. The trail was very rocky and we had to watch our feet every step, so we weren’t looking up at all until right then. Here’s a link to a few pictures of the canyon and stream: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZHAyespgMkN49J117

So now for the diesel part – since we’re leaving in the morning for a more remote area, Steve went to get the oil changed in the truck and fill up the tanks with diesel. We like to start our trips with both the truck fuel tank and our reserve tank full. We have an auxiliary fuel tank in the bed of our truck, that is connected to the truck fuel tank. So we can carry about 40 gallons more of fuel. There’s a switch in the cab of the truck he turns on when the tank needs fuel, and it will flow from the auxiliary tank into the truck tank. Amazing the things we know now that we had never heard of before this RV adventure began!

Anyhow, I’m cleaning the RV, mopping floors, when he comes home and looks very distraught. “I’ve made a big mistake, Anita”. Oh crap! He looks so sad! What could be wrong?? He pulled up at the gas station, was distracted, didn’t pay enough attention, and accidentally put Ethanol into the reserve fuel tank instead of diesel. Diesel pumps always have green handles. Guess what – so do Ethanol pumps evidently! He caught his mistake and only put a gallon or two in. But – what to do? So he called two diesel truck service places and got conflicting advise. First one said, if you run that Ethanol through your diesel engine you’ll ruin the engine. Oh dear that’s not good! But it’s Friday before Labor Day weekend and he can’t get us in until Tuesday. Really not good. Then there’s the second guy who says, it’s no big deal, fill up the rest of the auxiliary tank with diesel, it will dilute the Ethanol enough it won’t hurt anything. At least he didn’t think it probably, most likely wouldn’t. Hmm…and he was closing for the day and could take us on Tuesday if we wanted. Great.

So….we called our friend Rob back home. If you have been reading my blog, you’ll remember Rob is the super nice guy Steve met at a gas station (are you picking up on this coincidence like I am right now???) before we left for Alaska on our first RV trip. I don’t think we would have made it out of Ohio without his help back then. He taught us how to operate our new RV, made improvements to our truck to support the towing of the heavy RV, installed the hitch for us, and so much more. He gave us lessons on how to hitch and unhitch. He showed us how to operate the leveling jacks. I called him from the road on our “maiden voyage” so many times and he walked me through electrical issues, bent shocks, you name it! He suggested draining the auxiliary tank and not risking running Ethanol through the engine. He gave Steve instructions about how to unhook the fuel line to drain the tank. But, we got to looking at it and were afraid we’d mess something up. So, Steve went to Walmart and got a siphon and pulled all the Ethanol/diesel fuel out of the tank. If you know Steve, you know this was a Big Deal. He bought the right thing, put it together, figured out how to use it, and got the job done. We have come a long way! Thank you again, Rob!!

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Now we’re all caught up. Enjoy the long weekend and I’ll have more reports from our next spot!

Howdy! I think I’m picking up on the western/cowboy lingo around here! People really do say Howdy around here a lot! Anyhow, we enjoyed our visit to Cody and surrounding area very much. We stayed right in the town of Cody, the RV park was okay, not one of the best. But the location was good. We didn’t go to Yellowstone, even though it was only about 45 minutes away. We were there some years ago, with the kids, and didn’t feel the need to go back and fight the crowds. Everyone we talked to who had been to the park talked about the crowds. We didn’t do any hiking in the Cody area either. Steve hurt his knee while we were hiking the week before, and it needed a rest.

We had to take Gerry to the vet also – a persistent cough that we had checked out while in Minnesota too. He gets a very congested cough and sounds like he’s gagging. Then it goes away for a few days then it comes back. Anyhow, he got a cortisone shot and another round of antibiotics. Hoping it will take care of it.

So enough of the boring stuff! We did drive the Chief Joseph Highway, and also the Beartooth Highway. Both are beautiful mountain drives. The Beartooth crosses into Montana, and ends in the cute little town of Red Lodge. We had lunch at the top of the Beartooth pass, which is about 10,900 feet. There were small areas of snow still, but most is gone for the summer. It’s one beautiful view after another. We had done the Beartooth Highway years ago on a trip with the kids – it was nice to see it again and remember being there with the kids. Both of these mountain passes are definitely to be done in the truck only – way too steep and hairpin curves for the RV.

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We found a great fruit stand in Cody also. A very nice guy who grew everything on his property in Paradise, Utah and came to Cody for a few days to sell it. Some of the best tasting berries ever. We bought tons and I froze a lot of it. I’m pretty sure we were his best customer of the week!

The highlight of our time in Cody was a trip to visit good friends Don and Patty in Nye, Montanta. Nye is about 2 hours from Cody so we packed up Gerry and our hiking shoes and off we went for an overnight visit. We’ve visited Don and Patty at their Montana home several times in the past and always love it. (They also live in Columbus some of the time). We have taken the kids there a few times and they have fond memories of camping, horseback riding and hiking there. Gerry made friends with the Yellow Labs Kody and Hunter and they were nice enough to share their home with us all. We hiked one of our very favorite hikes, the Sioux Charley. It’s a beautiful hike along a rushing river. The next morning we hiked their property, another favorite. We climbed to the high point on their property, which is about an 1,100 foot elevation gain. Simply spectacular there, meadows, forests, mountains, big sky! It doesn’t get any better.

And, Gerry decided to roll in cow manure while we were hiking!! Got himself a pretty good coating of nice fresh cow crap! So he got an outside bath with the hose and some soap. 🙄

A wonderful visit and so nice to see them again. Gerry had a blast and promptly crashed in the truck and was asleep before we were half a mile down the road!

We left Cody yesterday, and drove to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Very long day of driving, about 10 hours. We’re here for a few days and then will move on to Priest Gulch campground, in southwest Colorado, which will be our home for the month of September. Glenwood Springs is about 3 hours west of Denver, just west of all the ski areas of Aspen, Breckenridge, etc. I’ll let you know what we find here. We did try to hike today, but had to turn back…too hot for Gerry. He just can’t take the heat. It was high 80s, maybe 90. And we’re at about 6,000 feet elevation. It was a very dry, desert-y (is that a word?) kind of trail too – our least favorite. I recall saying before, the 5,000 – 7,000 elevation can be the miserable zone – foothills, not mountains, and hot and dry! Anyhow, that’s what we found today, and Gerry was not liking it at all. Not sure if his heat intolerance is related to the coughing issue, but he really can’t take the heat. So 1/2 mile in, we turned around and came back home to the air conditioning. We went to a local farmer’s market and stopped in at the US Forest Service office and got some recommendations for better hikes, more in the mountains and with water along the trail. So we’re hoping for a better hike in the next day or two.

In the meantime, enjoy pictures below and enjoy the end of summer. Can’t believe it is almost the end of August already!

Sioux Charley Hike https://photos.app.goo.gl/KE8nHAVVizkV9TFZ6

Don and Patty’s: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PRn38nJqjUTuyK4g8

Chief Joseph Highway and Beartooth Pass: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zWtsoQrh3QAVhZDx5

Hello! It’s been awhile, I know! Sorry! I’ll give you a quick wrap up of where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing so we’re all caught up….. 🙂

After we got home late fall last year from our second season of RV living, we enjoyed holidays at home in Ohio with family and friends. Always great to see everyone and the RV went to indoor storage. I have learned it’s very hard to find indoor storage for RVs, but that’s another story.

We had planned to return to Port Saint Joe, FL (in the panhandle) again for January and February in the RV, but, they had a big hurricane in the area and were still recovering. So we decided to go the other direction and instead booked a house in the mountains of New Hampshire. We left the RV in storage and drove to Littleton, NH and stayed in a winter wonderland. Lots of snow, and we did all kinds of winter activities: snowshoes, skiing, cross country skiing, hiking with spikes on our boots. Gerry even got his own set of boots and a special winter coat – the snow was deeper than him most of the time and he really didn’t enjoy the cold all that much! Guy and Katelyn and Samantha came for a visit too – we drove through a snow storm in the mountains to get to the airport to pick them up. And then our car wouldn’t make it up the steep driveway at 3:00 am when we got home, so all the kids had to push the car in the snow. That was an exciting way to kick off their visit! But lots of fun in the snowy mountains including snowmobiles while they were there.

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We spent all spring in Ohio, and the RV went to the dealership for routine maintenance and repair of a few little things. I have to say (and I hope I’m not jinxing us!) the RV has been just great, and very few issues, and nothing major. We got a new truck in the meantime, exact same as the first one – Ram 3500 diesel, dually. Steve felt it was best to be sure we didn’t have any problems down the road so we got the 2019 version of what we already had.

We did take the RV out for a short trip to North Carolina in late May – early June. About 3 weeks in the mountains of North Carolina. We got out for several hikes and our friends Dave and Jeannie came for a stay with their dog Roscoe too!

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Our official 3rd RV season got underway on July 21, 2019! A little later than we’d like, but Steve needed to be in Ohio for work. This season we’ll be out until about mid-November, and are going west again – after visiting with Guy in MN and Samantha in CO, we’ll spend time in Wyoming, Montana, the San Juan mountains in Colorado, and northern New Mexico. We’ll be visiting some new places and also going back to some favorites in the San Juan mountains and New Mexico.

So we headed straight to Minnesota to see Guy and Katelyn (who are engaged!!!!) We closed on the second house for Aspire Sober Living. You may recall we launched Aspire Sober Living last summer with Guy, and the one house we have is operating smoothly and we wanted to expand. After months of looking, Guy found the perfect house and we were able to be there for the closing and spent about a week helping out with projects to get the house ready for occupancy. City of Saint Paul licensing should be approved in a few weeks and he’ll be off and running with house number 2. So happy and proud of him, and we had a great visit with Katelyn.

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Then it was off to Denver to see Samantha. She moved to a new apartment in June, started a new job in April, and bought a new car in June…lots to catch up on with her! We spent a lovely week with her, and took in a few spectacular sunsets at her apartment – she has a great view of the mountains and the sunsets are amazing. We also made it to Rocky Mountain National Park and a short hike near her office in Boulder with Gerry.

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We arrived here in Dubois, Wyoming after a 2 day drive from Denver. A nice little town about 45 minutes outside Grand Tetons NP. We’ll be here for a total of 9 days, then we’re off to Cody, WY. We’re visiting Grand Tetons National Park and enjoying mountain hiking again! It feels like it’s been a really long time since we’ve been in the RV and in the mountains. We love it! And yes, the campground internet is still crappy everywhere and makes doing things like this blog difficult. But, hey, if that’s all we have to complain about, then life is good indeed! The RV feels like home and we are so happy in the mountains. We love the big sky and the air is clear. Lots of wildflowers here too, which is a nice surprise. We saw a mama grizzly with her cub along the road the other day, and inside Grand Tetons National Park we saw a moose and an eagle.

Here’s some pictures of this year’s adventure so far, hope you enjoy! I’ll keep you updated as our trip moves along…I’m sure there’s plenty of hikes and adventures to be had!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ak1eTP4fLEAM7kMt7

Hello, Hello!

As I write this we are in Oklahoma City, OK, wrapping up some business Steve needed to do here, and leaving in the morning for Ohio!  It will take us 3 full days of driving to make it back to Columbus.  Wow…can’t believe how fast time goes sometimes.  We’ve been on the road this time for 5 months.  It will be great to be home again and see family and friends and enjoy the holidays.  At the same time, it will be a little sad moving out of the RV.  We love it so much and love our life on the road.

Our last couple of weeks were spent in northern New Mexico.  We left Santa Fe and went to Taos for a few nights, then to Angel Fire for about 2 weeks.  We really enjoyed our time in both places.  Angel Fire is only about 30 minutes from Taos, in the mountains, near a ski area.  AND best of all, we had visitors!  Samantha was able to drive down to see us for several days, it was less than 5 hours from Denver where she is living now.  And our very dear friends Shawn and Julie made the long trip from Ohio to spend several days with us.  They had to fly to Albuquerque and then drive 3 hours to Angel Fire.  That is dedication!! 🙂

We had a great time with everyone, and enjoyed hiking and exploring the area with them.  We also were able to go to a hot air balloon festival in Taos with Shawn and Julie.  It was super cold that morning but a beautiful, clear blue sky which made the balloons really stand out in the sky.  The RV resort we stayed at in Angel Fire was one of the nicest we have been to.  It was only a couple of years old, beautifully done with lots of amenities like a very nice hot tub which we visited several times and watched the stars come out.

Sharing our RV experience with family and friends means so much to us.  Catching up on each other’s lives, sharing coffee in the morning then heading out for a long hike up the mountain, coming home and preparing dinner together….how can it get much better than that??

We’ll be taking the RV in for service a few days after we get home.  We have a list of mostly pretty minor things to be tended to like the trim that has fallen off and the fresh water tank that keeps filling up when it shouldn’t.  Then it will be off to storage until I don’t know when….we haven’t planned our next trip yet.  I’ll keep you posted!  In the meantime, here’s some photos from our northern New Mexico adventures:

Lots more pictures in the links below:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/p7k97jKCxa9kDBCK9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KU1WWrDmhxArVMYY7

 

Hello again everyone!  We have been in Santa Fe for a little over a week now.  Today is a rainy, cold, windy day and we’re sitting by the fire (love it), having a cup of Peppermint Tea (are we the most exciting people ever!! 🙂 ) so I thought I would catch you  up with our visit in Santa Fe.

We’ve enjoyed our time in Santa Fe.  We’ve only done one hike here so far, we’re hoping to get one in tomorrow if the rain stops.  We leave here in two days to head north to Taos and Angel Fire.  It’s snowing there today!  We loved the hike we did, Nambe Lake.  It started at about 10,100 feet and went up to about 11,300 feet.  Beautiful trail, in the mountains, up to a beautiful frozen lake.  There was about 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground.  It was about 7.5 miles round trip and we loved it.  That’s the good news.  The bad news:  a) somehow our pictures on our phones at the frozen lake all turned out in black and white.  On both our phones.  Don’t know what happened.  We were so excited to get back and look at our pictures and found that when we got to the lake, they all are black and white or some monochrome color setting.  The were in color up until then….I don’t think we are meant to be picture taking people!!!  The bad news:  b)  there was this beautiful stream, clear water babbling over stones for much of our hike.  Couldn’t resist drinking the water.  We did this often in Alaska with no problem.  Well, by that evening, Steve was sick, and has had a fever and tummy trouble for 3 days now.  I didn’t get sick, but I only drank a small amount of the water, Steve drank a lot.  Note to self:  do not drink the water no matter how clean and beautiful it looks!  We have since learned livestock live on that mountain in the summer.  🙁  Hard to tell what was in that water!  Lots of pictures of our hike in the link below.

We also have caught up with a high school friend of Steve’s, Chris, who lives in Santa Fe with her husband.  They were friends all through high school, college and early adult life, but lost track of each other after Chris moved to San Francisco then Santa Fe.  She is head of retail operations for several museums in Santa Fe.  We had lunch with her one day, and just as we were sitting down, I got a phone call from doggy daycare.  It was Gerry’s first visit to the local doggy daycare, and since it was a rainy day, they were playing inside.  He caught his dew claw on the indoor turf, and tore it off.  So after lunch we were off to the vet.  He tore it clean off, so it just needed a bandage and he also got a cute little bootie that kept it dry and clean outside.  He’s feeling just fine, got the bandage off the other day and got to go back to daycare for the fun he missed the first time!

We had dinner with Chris and her husband also, at a great local restaurant that has been here for many years.  They are both so nice and it was fun to get to know them.  Catching up with friends and family as we travel is one of the benefits of this RV lifestyle.

We’ve been tourists here too.  They have a great Farmer’s Market here, twice a week, and we’ve been both days.  I can report the local vendors revenue has increased significantly due to our visit!  It’s one of the best farmer’s markets we’ve been too, and we took full advantage and stocked up on lots of great things.  We’ve visited a couple of museums, walked around the historical plaza, and visited San Miguel Chapel, the oldest church in America.  It was built in the early 1600’s.  Santa Fe is an “artsy” kind of town.  Lots of public art along the streets and in the parks, galleries everywhere and vendors selling jewelry, art, pottery and all kinds of crafts everywhere.  We’ve enjoyed browsing and buying a few gifts.

Chili peppers – they are a big deal here!  And it’s harvest season so they are everywhere!  We’ve sampled many – they roast them in these big roasters everywhere.  They are good, and I’ve been adding them to my cooking too.

No, we did not make it to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.  We had planned to, and even had a reservation at an RV park outside Albuquerque that we cancelled.  We just weren’t sure it was going to be worth all the trouble…big crowds, have to be there at sunrise, weather not great.  In fact, our RV neighbors here in Santa Fe made the drive (over an hour each way) twice to see the balloons take off only to have it cancelled each day due to weather…maybe we’ll make it another time when we’re out this way again.

So that’s what we’ve been up to here in Santa Fe.  We’re off to Taos and Angel Fire in a couple of days, and Samantha will visit us in Angel Fire for a few days.  Then, our friends Shawn and Julie are coming to visit.  Can’t wait to see them all and I’m sure we’ll have lots to share from their visits.  In the meantime, it’s still raining here and I’m going to get another cup of tea.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Gerry resting in his favorite chair after the vet:

Steve and Chris:

Santa Fe: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LBwvNJvkLH8YA2ts9

Nambe Lake Hike:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/pbmvLbBDjjMnEMQcA

 

Howdy folks!

 

We hit the jackpot with our stay in Chama, New Mexico…we hit perfect weather, and full fall color.  We drove to Chama from Sedona (took us 2 days of driving).  What a total different setting.  That’s one of the really fun things about this RV living…one day you are in the red rocks hiking in 100 degree temperatures and then 2 days later you are in full fall color in the mountains and building a campfire!  Switching from air conditioning to furnace and digging through all your shorts and t-shirts for the long johns!

We had never heard of Chama and had not planned to go there, but one day in Arizona we were watching a PBS show (after Bill installed our new TV!) that highlighted Chama and the surrounding area.  We knew it was our kind of place and changed our plans to spend a week there.  So glad we did.  Chama is in the northwest corner of New Mexico, about 10 miles south of the Colorado boarder and the San Juan mountains.  You may remember we stayed in the San Juan mountains in Colorado earlier in our trip.  That was on the west/southwest side of the San Juans.  Now we were on the south side of the mountains.  I think it is fair to say we love the San Juan mountains.  🙂

Chama was a cute little town, and the RV park we stayed at was great.  The RV park was at 7,800 feet elevation.  Lots of trees and big sites and campfires were allowed!  Almost everywhere we’ve been has had fire bans, so we were excited to have a campfire again.  We did tons of hiking and exploring the area.  You’ll see in the pictures we were totally enamored with the Aspen trees, they are so beautiful.  You may also notice Gerry is sporting a colorful outfit in many pictures too.  Elk hunting season opened while we were there and we wanted to be sure Gerry (and us too) was very visible while we were out hiking.  We also put his bear bell from Alaska on him to help be sure we didn’t surprise anyone.

One of our hikes – Red Mountain Lake – was at a pretty high elevation – we started at 10,500 and went to 12,300.  It is one of our favorite hikes yet.  It was cloudy, foggy, cold and windy at the top, with a beautiful mountain lake.  We also hiked a section of the Continental Divide trail.  The Continental Divide trail is 3,100 and runs from Canada to Mexico.  This was also one of our very favorite hikes and ranks in the top 5 of all time.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and happy fall!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5vsGFwz5BFzDfmoy7

Hi everyone!

I’m seriously trying to get caught up on my blog posts.  I have spent my “computer time” trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out my storage issue and also transfer pictures from the computer to the external hard drive I purchased.  All attempts have failed.  I have officially given up trying to figure it out until we get back home and I’m going to get help.  Cell phone pictures will have to do.   Hey!  I hear those snickers out there!  I admit, computer storage and computers in general are not my strong suit!  Somehow I manage to keep our banking and mail handled online, but this whole picture storage thing has me beat.  Anyhow, onto much more interesting topics like my sister’s visit while we were in Sedona!!

After I got back from St. Paul, Steve and I did a quick, above the rim only (no hiking) trip to the Grand Canyon with Gerry.  A few pictures are included in the below links.  It was okay, but crowded and, I guess, we are not that “wowed” by the Grand Canyon.  Did I just say that out loud?  I guess I did!  We kept waiting for that “wow” moment, when we went to the north rim, and again when we went to the south rim.  Didn’t happen.  And Steve said the same, even when he and Bill hiked the Bright Angel trail a bit.  And when Laura, my sister, came to visit, she and I drove up to the south rim and hiked a bit of the Bright Angel trail (pictures below).  Still no “wow” there.  Glad we saw it, but I don’t expect we’ll ever go again.  I guess it’s just not our thing.

We did, however, have a fantastic visit to Sedona.  Love it there.  We stayed for a total of 2 weeks, however only one week was actually in an RV park right in Sedona.  For the week before Laura came, we were just outside Sedona in Camp Verde.  It was a very nice campground, and only about 20 minutes to Sedona.  BUT, the campground we stayed at in Sedona was fantastic.  Rancho Sedona, right in the middle of town, right on Oak Creek.  I had tried a few times to get a reservation there with no luck, so had given up.  But our new friends Jeff and Lori, that we met back in Colorado and hiked with for a few days, insisted we keep trying, that a trip to Sedona without staying at Rancho Sedona was not the same.  So I tried one last time and they had just had a cancellation!  We got a prime spot right on the creek.  Cool evenings and mornings, sound of the running creek in our windows, beautiful trees everywhere.  A great home base for Laura’s visit.  Thanks Jeff and Lori!

I had heard Sedona was beautiful (it is); I had heard it was new age-y (it is); I had heard there were energy vortexes (vortices? not sure how to spell plural… and there are).  Even though we had heard these things, experiencing them was even better than I had expected.  We did tons of hiking.  It was hot, but beautiful.  We found several vortex spots while hiking.  We all (Steve, Laura and I) experienced the energy at the vortexes.  Sometimes the energy was moving in counter-clockwise circles, sometimes in clockwise circles, sometimes it felt like it was moving both ways and pulling in both directions.  A very cool experience each time.

One hike, at Boynton Canyon, was really great.  At the beginning of the hike, there was an old guy with white hair, way up high on a rock point playing a flute.  We sat with several other people and listened to the flute echoing off the rock walls.  Amazing and moving.  As we were leaving to continue our hike, he came down off the rock point he was on and stopped to talk to us.  He gave us each a heart he had carved out of the red rocks, and gave us each a blessing.  Amazing.  We then did the hike and found several vortex spots that were very strong for us all.  Quite an experience.

On Laura’s first day in Sedona, we hiked Bell Rock.  More of a climb than a hike, you pretty much rock climb to the top.  Beautiful, and we also found a vortex spot there.  As we were climbing up, there was a young lady with beautiful blue hair, with her boyfriend and her mom in front of us most of the way.  When we all got to the top, I noticed she was setting out stones and crystals on the ledge and doing some type of ceremony with them.  We got to talking, and she had just the stone I was looking for – a Rose Quartz.  I bought (very inexpensive) it from her on the spot!  She sells stones and crystals online, and was infusing them with the good energy at Bell Rock before she sold them.  Sedona Magic!

We also got to visit with some family we had not seen for years and years.  Our cousin, Gina, lives in Phoenix and came up to Sedona for a day to visit.  It was great to see her again and to reconnect.  We also had dinner in Phoenix the night before Laura flew back home with Gina, a couple of aunts, and assorted cousins we had not seen for years.  Some we had never met before!  It was great to reconnect with family again.  One of the benefits of this RV lifestyle is that we get to visit with friends and family we may not have had the chance to see otherwise.

It was fantastic having Laura visit.  As much as we love our RV life, we do miss home and family and friends too.  Having visitors means so much, and sharing our adventure is so much fun too!  Pictures below, hope the links work.  Enjoy!

Lots of pictures in this link:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/nJXXzDxtrQfUS5WE7

Howdy all!

Wow, September flew by and here it is early October already!  We are loving our Southwest adventure…let’s get caught up!

In my last post I mentioned I was flying to St. Paul to help Guy furnish the sober house we are launching.  It was a great trip, wonderful to spend time with Guy, see Katelyn again, and to help get the house ready for residents.  Aspire Sober Living is officially open for business now and several residents have already moved in.  Could not be happier or more proud of Guy and the work he is doing.  🙂

Our friend Bill came to visit Steve while I was gone.  They visited the Grand Canyon for a hike and Bill installed a new TV and wall bracket for us (you will recall in my last post how the other one fell off the wall and shattered).  All of you know we are completely un-handy and it was so nice of Bill to get that job done for us.

It’s great having visitors to share our adventure, and to have a touch of “home”.  A few pictures from Bill’s visit are below.  I promise to get more updates out soon!!

 

 

Bill’s Visit:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHq9KTpuaXx8RRXk8