Saturday September 3, 2016
Pancake breakfast was great. There were over 100 people drifting in and out through the hour and a half breakfast was served. We took a drive to sheep lake hoping to see some Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep – no luck. Moved on to the Falls River Visitor Center and the huge souvenir store and restaurant. Stopped by Bob and Lorine’s cabin and visited with them for a couple hours. Bob’s brother and his wife were visiting from Lincoln Nebraska. Quick trip home for dinner and then off to the YMCA Camp for the Brad Fitch Concert which was a tribute to John Denver. This is the 15th year he has had this tribute concert and by a show of hands many of the people who attend this concert have attended for the last 10 years. The concert started at 5:00 pm with a warm up act of 2 gals playing mandolin and guitar and singing old favorites. PRC
The morning started out with the pancake breakfast at the RV Park. We visited with Bob and Lorene. Bob’s brother and sister-in-law were visiting for the weekend.
We went for our last ride in Rocky Mountain National Park to Sheep Lake and the Falls River Visitor Center. We are going to miss the majesty of the park.
Our day ended with a John Denver Tribute concert at Estes Park YMCA Camp/Resort. The group was Cowboy Brad and the Tropic Cowboys. Cowboy Brad looks superficially like John Denver and sounds very much like him. We learned that John Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico and went to high school in Tucson. It was a fun concert. JY
Sunday September 4, 2016
Scheduled our second Sunday brunch at “The Other Place” and this time we reserved a table overlooking the pond. It was raining a little so we were glad we changed our trail ride from a breakfast ride to a dinner ride. After breakfast we stopped in town to check out the arts and craft show. Some very interesting stuff and some really nice photography. Back to camp to get dressed for our dinner trail ride.
Arrived at the stables and it looked like rain but the clouds blew over and the sky was blue for the whole ride. We wanted to take water with us so they provided us with saddle bags. These were not your typical saddle bags as there was one hole in the middle between the two bags. Trying to figure hers out June Yvonne asked me where does this go. Making an assumption that she would know what I was talking about I said it goes over the horn (meaning the horn of the saddle). She looked at me and said WOW! Am I riding a Unicorn?
It was a 2 hour trail ride with a steak dinner waiting for us at the hour and a half point. The steaks were delicious along with baked beans, garlic toast, fried potatoes and cowboy coffee. After the ride we drove back to camp and retires early because my partner’s legs were sore from riding Richard, a fat horse. PRC
We treated ourselves again to Sunday Brunch. Afterwards we spent time at the Estes Park Arts and Crafts Festival. As you can imagine it was very crowded because of Labor Day weekend. We admired the wares but managed to buy nothing. We already have lots of t-shirts and I’m trying not to buy anymore earrings.
That night we did a dinner trail ride. It seemed appropriate as we are in the Rocky Mountains. My horse was “Richard.” I have very little experience with horses and I appreciated his patience with me. I had a difficult time sitting correctly in the saddle as my legs were too short to fit in the stirrups…
Oh before we started the ride we put our bottled water in packs. Peter said to put the pack on the horn. I knew he meant saddle horn but sometimes I just blurt things out. So I said are we riding unicorns? (I guess you had to be there.) JY
Monday September 5, 2016
Up late as usual and had scrambled eggs & hash browns for breakfast. Today was prep day for our travel day tomorrow. Packed the back of the truck up and worked on the blog a little bit. We had decided not to cook anything for the Monday pot luck so we went into town and got fried chicken and dinner rolls. On the way back from the store dropped June Yvonne off at the Club House where Bob and Lorine joined her. They did prep work for the pot luck while I took thee groceries home.
After pot luck stopped by Bob and Lorine’s cabin and chatted with them for about an hour and a half. We had a great time and said our good bye’s and talked about possibility of see them in Nebraska if we decide to go to the Maritime Provinces in Canada next year. We took pictures and said good bye. We really have enjoyed their company and visiting with them.
On the way back to camp we stopped and visited with Al and Cynthia from Denver. They are a nice retired company and we wish we could have spent more time with them. They were funny and very personable. We said our good bye’s to them and hope we can meet up with them sometime in the future. PRC
Sure enough I woke up sore from the trail ride and had a hard time getting around that day.
We spent a couple of hours visiting with new friends Peter had made. As I’ve said before, he has become quite the social butterfly. As with many folks we have met on this trip, we could have spent hours talking with them. They are from Colorado Springs and retired. She was a lab tech in a hospital and he worked for the city or county. However, his side job was an organist in Las Vegas.
We didn’t want to miss the last potluck in the RV Park as we were leaving in the morning. And I didn’t want to cook as we were leaving in the morning. So we brought chicken from the grocery store.
We were going to spend time catching up with the blog but ended up spending time visiting with friends… JY
Tuesday September 6, 2016
We did not get as much prep work done as we would have liked so we got up early to get it done. It was a long drive to Moab (about 400 miles) so we wanted to get an early start. I made one last check inside the RV before locking the door and there was a big puddle of water on the floor coming out of the bathroom. On further investigation it was coming from under the shower. Got out the tools and found that the PVC compression fitting from the pee trap had been cross threaded into the metal drain pipe from the shower and after all this time had finally forked itself loose. Got the water mopped up and decided to fix it in Moab. Just as we were getting ready to leave Lorine called us and said a large black bear just walked by their cabin and was headed down the road to our site. We got in the truck and left the park but did not see thee dear.
The drive t Moab was long however the first half of the drive was through beautiful scenery around Vail and other ski resort towns. We went through the Eisenhower Tunnel which was long. You watch the landscape and vegetation changing as we got closer to Utah. We will really miss just about everything about Colorado. We arrived in Moab about 5:30 pm and set up camp. Had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and home to bed. Very tired from driving. PRC
It was a sad day. I ended up loving Estes Park and the Rocky Mountains more than I expected. How could you not? We woke up at 5 am to get ready to leave for Moab, Utah. This is the last leg of our 3 month + summer RV trip.
Before we pulled away from our site, we received a phone call from Lorene. They are located at the head of the RV Park. They informed us that they just saw a bear outside their window and it was heading in our direction. We would have liked to see her, but no such luck.
We were on the road for about 10 hours before reaching Moab. We went through Vail, CO and shortly afterwards the scenery began to change to scrub and less greenery. The morning in Estes Park started out at about 48 degrees and by the time we reached Moab it was 80 degrees.
Probably because it’s the end of the trip and I was so enamored with Colorado, I was feeling ready to come home. We spent a month in New Mexico and a month in Colorado. I feel a strong connection to NM because I know so many people there, I appreciate the culture and history, we had a lot of fun there, and it is the chili capital of the world after all. Colorado – what can I say? I hadn’t expected it to get so under my skin. It’s just so damned beautiful. Of course it’s nothing like my home state of Arizona. We experienced cool weather while we were there which is a real treat for us desert rats. Not that I don’t appreciate AZ for its diversity – there is a beauty in the starkness of the desert and we also have the cool mountains and forests of northern AZ. However, I completely understand why people fall in love with Colorado.
I’m sure I will appreciate Utah more tomorrow. JY
Wednesday September 7, 2016
We are really getting the hang of vacationing as we did not wake up until 10:00 am. We are turning into lazy bums. J I worked on the shower for a while and got the problem with the cross threaded pipe fixed. I ran the shower for about 10 minutes and there were no leaks. I was brushing my teeth and noticed water leaking from someplace else so I looked underneath the shower compartment again and noticed a leak in the back in a place where I could not reach. After a lot of cleaning up and running the shower again suddenly realized that there must be a gap in thee caulking around the base of the shower and that is exactly what it was. Took out all the old caulking as best I could and set the heater in the shower to dry everything out and will re-caulk it tomorrow with some silicone.
Met our new neighbor, Barbara, and found out she wants to do the Camino two years from now on her birthday. Of course we were delighted to tell her all about our trip and when she came over we showed her some of our power point pictures. It turns out Barbara knows Sherry Townsend who was the chief at the County Detention Center where June Yvonne worked. What a small world.
BBQ’s steaks for dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening while catching up the blog. PRC
We started coming our of our funk today and appreciating Utah. We included pics of the views from the Spanish Trails RV Park. It is pretty in Moab – warm during the day but lovely in the mornings and evenings.
We had planned on going into town to check out some tours. However, we didn’t leave the RV Park as our shower was leaking. This project ended up taking longer than expected’ Thank goodness the showers here are at the park our roomy and clean.
We made a new friend today. As I’ve indicated many times before, Peter has come out of “his shell.” He met our new neighbor. Barbara worked in Texas corrections for many years before retiring. Turns out that at one time she was a deputy chief in Travis County, Texas. She knew our chief in Maricopa County Juvenile Probation. Small world, but in addition, she is planning on doing the Camino soon. We loved talking to her about the Camino. This helped to raise our spirits from our mild home sick funk. JY
Thursday, September 8, 2016
We drove into town to the Moab Visitor Center to see what tours were available. We got a lot of good information and watched a 15 minute video on Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. From there we walked a couple blocks to the tour company recommended by the Visitor Center. After talking with the owner for a half hour we booked two tours. An all-day raft trip down the Colorado River and an all-day jeep tour of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for souvenirs – June Yvonne got a good deal on a really nice teal colored Columbia shirt and a nice blue visor.
We had made nice friends with Barbara in the RV next door and had invited her for dinner. We were going to have BBQ’d pork chops so we stopped in town and picked up a couple of items. Dinner was nice and relaxed and Barbara was really interested in our Camino experience. She read the entire Camino blog and had questions for us and took notes while we talked. June Yvonne and Barbara had a lot in common with regards to their work history. PRC
Our day started out with breakfast in town. Afterwards we spent time walking around the main drag. First we went to the Moab Visitor Center and booked a couple of tours including an all-day rafting trip and a guided trip to Canyonlands and Arches National Park. We walked through the usual tourist shops and managed not to buy any earrings or t-shirts. We did buy a couple of essentials though – a Columbia hiking shirt on sale and a visor. Hopefully I will do much more hiking this year.
We stopped by a True Value store as Peter needed caulking to continue working on the shower. Then we stopped by the grocery store as we invited Barbara over for dinner. Peter grilled pork chops from the freezer and Barbara made a healthy salad. Having the 2.8 cubic foot freezer sure has come in handy for this 97 day trip. JY
Friday September 9, 2016
An early start – our river rafting trip with Adrift Adventures started at 6:50 am. We met our river guide and the other two passengers – a young couple from Paris, France. We all loaded up in the van pull the trailer with raft. After a length drive we arrived at our launch point. There were many other rafters getting ready to launch but our guide had us in the water way ahead of anyone else and because of that we only saw one other group on the river. The first couple hours were on a peaceful current that brought us closer and closer to the rapids. Soon the water started churning and even though we weren’t at the rapids we were getting soaked. Then we hit our first rapids and thought we were wet before – now we had to start bailing the water out of the raft.
Our guide assured us this was just a warm up and we pulled over to a sandy beach area in the canyon to have lunch. Actually it was a pretty good spread with plenty to eat – no ice cream though. Lunch was devoured, packed up and we shoved off into turbulent waters. It wasn’t long until the next rapids – we knew it was there but couldn’t see it and then there were solid waves of water over all of us. More bailing. Throughout the next hour we experienced another ten rapids with some of them being very scary especially when sitting at the front of the raft. As we entered some of the larger rapids the raft dove into a hole in the water with a three to four foot wall of water directly ahead. The water was breathtakingly cold and we looked like drowned rats.
We developed a nice relationship with Christine & Harold, the couple from Paris and we decided to have dinner together after a showers and a change of clothes. They had never eaten Mexican food before so that is what we had. We had the sampler platter to see what they liked and ordered the entre based on their taste. It was a great evening and we had lots of laughs comparing America to France. They also told us interesting stories of their travels to Japan and Brazil. At the end of dinner we had our picture taken while wearing huge colorful sombreros. PRC
Our day started early to get started on the all-day rafting trip down the Colorado River. There were only four passengers on the trip including a young couple from Paris. Our boatman, Cam, was very safety conscious and a lot of fun. A young woman Brooke was also along on trip training for her license. There was enough canyon scenery and white water to keep us interested and sopping wet.
The trip was fun and we totally enjoyed getting to know the young Parisian couple. In fact we invited them to dinner after the rafting trip.
Dinner with Christian and Harold was at a Mexican restaurant. Christian wanted to go for Mexican food as she was not familiar with it. Of course I was happy to oblige in making suggestions. (The food was mediocre for my tastes.) I really haven’t had good Mexican food since New Mexico.
The conversation with these young French adults was so interesting. It helped that there English was pretty good. When they couldn’t understand a word in English, Harold asked me to say it in Spanish. This worked out well as French and Spanish are both Romance languages and sometimes sound very similar.
Peter and I and Christian and Harold were both fascinated with each other’s cultures. We discussed the difference in vacation time between France and the U.S.A. Christian was surprised to learn that usually an employee earns a week vacation time the first year. She said it made her sad… I told her that this is probably why Americans are more stressed than Europeans.
The evening ended by exchanging photos, e-mails and addresses. We hope to see them someday again. JY
Saturday September 10, 2016
A catch up day for chores and laundry. Cleaned the RV from top to bottom. June Yvonne made some great soup. Tomorrow we are going on an all-day jeep tour of the parks.
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