Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Fountain of Youth!

 

 

 A little over 8 years ago, during our very first year of RV life, we were searching for a place to winter in southern California so we could visit my sister, Kathy, and her husband, Leo, in the Rancho Mirage area near Palm Springs.  We quickly figured out that renting a space in the area for a couple of months was much more expensive than we wished to pay for a parking spot.  So we broadened our horizons and headed a bit further south to what the internet ad promised was a desert Utopia at the base of the Chocolate Mountains overlooking the scenic Salton Sea.  The Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Resort!  Just the name, the name was calling us, the Fountain of Youth.  So we took a turn south from Interstate 10 out past the farms and fields, citrus and date orchards, vineyards and small communities. 

Then a few miles down the road reality hit!  The road seemed to develop dips and bumps as we drove, the 5th wheel was pitching back and forth, side to side, and we could visualize all the damage inside our rig as doors and drawers were thrown open and all of our belongings scattered.  I slowed way down as we entered a stretch of absolutely nothing but mud, rocks, railroad tracks, and a really bad smell coming off the beaches to our right.  The sky was so smoggy and hazy that we could barely see the mountains that we thought were close by.  I knew by the odometer that we were getting close to our destination when we caught the first sight of the little community known as Bombay Beach.

Map to the Fountain of Youth

When we got close it was an Oh-My-God moment as we were able to get a good look at this apocalyptic wreck of a town that could easily be a set for a Mad Max movie.  I was having very serious thoughts about turning the rig around right then and there.  But it was getting late, and if nothing else, morbid curiosity got the better of us and we continued on to the Fountain of Youth Spa and RV park.  The roads didn’t get any better, in fact they got worse, but we made it and with what is now eight years of reflection (and repeat visits) – so very glad we did.

 

 The History of the Fountain of Youth dates back to 1938 when construction workers, who were working on the American Canal (which runs right behind the park), needed a water source for the concrete required to build the canal.  When they drilled the wells, the water they found was full of minerals and way too hot to use.  So they built settlement and cooling ponds for the water which they left behind once they were finished.  After World War II, work was started on improving a nearby highway system and the left over cooling ponds were rediscovered and used by the highway construction workers for a good “soak” after a hard days work.  The word about this therapeutic soak spread quickly and by the late 1950’s people from all over the country were coming to camp by the pools.

So as with any attraction in this country, a couple of folks saw an opportunity to make some money and the Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Resort was born.

 

 

 This little fountain represents the whole  meaning of the Fountain of Youth – it’s in the central plaza of this little winter haven and is actually the third well drilled here.  It produces hot artesian mineral water at 131 degrees Fahrenheit (or 55 degrees Celsius) flowing at 600 gallons (or 2,271 liters) per minute.  It is the main source for the most wonderful mineral spa nicknamed the “Lobster Pot” (which I use as often as I can).  This same water is also used to heat the pools, showers and laundry rooms after running it through titanium heat exchangers.  For those of you that really want to know what’s in the water they do have a complete analysis posted nearby.

 

 

Today, the Fountain of Youth has 835 full hookup RV sites (or in Canadian - 835 full hookup sites) mixed with semi-permanent dwellings (some which you can rent).  Two pools, with one being a salt water pool, four spas, with my favorite being “the Lobster Pot”.  Two steam rooms, a couple of rec halls, their own post office, cafe, beauty shop, convenience store, etc., etc., etc.

Then there are the activities that range from cruises out of San Diego (transportation provided) to anything or hobby you wish to do (haven’t seen a tiddley winks painting club though).  My main interests lay with the biking/mountain biking bunch appropriately named the “FoyKers” (which stands for Fountain of Youth Bikers, if you want the clean version) and the other group called the “Old Spokes” are the mountain trail bikers. Over the years a couple of the guys have made about 15 miles worth of technical mountain bike single track trails out in the nearby desert and hills.

Linda is involved with the biking also but has additional interests of the various hobbies, line dancing, stretch and strength classes, pool exercise, geocaching, and just plain socializing.  I have also started a craft beer tasting session on a regular basis with the FoyKers which requires that each member host a late afternoon event every once in a while with a single unique craft brew.  So far that has gained quite the support, bikers, no matter from which country, do like their beer!

 The park does have nice facilities with amenities galore but the real reason we return here are the people.  We have made many friends – many good friends - that keep drawing us back.  There are many nicer parks, many closer to civilization, many that are much more scenic, but this one is unique.  If you want to be 40 miles or more from anything civilized, surrounded by survivalist rundown towns and abandoned home sites, tucked up next to a Naval bombing and shooting range (we feel the blasts and hear the shooting!), on or really near the San Andreas Fault (we get “shaken not stirred”), and the Border Patrol outnumber the actual residents, and similar to other businesses, the  rates increase every year! - not to mention the Salton Sea which is shrinking at an incredible rate and has massive fish kills each year (The beaches are not sand, they are made up of dead fish bones and dried up barnacles) - then this is the place for you!  We personally love it – we are a hardy bunch. 

 Between all the socializing and activities, we have had an opportunity to visit the local attractions over the years and have altered our initial opinions of them from “nasty” and “bizarre” to a more moderated “eclectic” or “unique”.  It is true – if you get exposed to enough weird crap you really do get used to it.

A few short miles and back trails across the desert is a little rise of wind eroded hills called the “Bat Caves”.  These little caves look like some old dried up dinosaur bones stuck into the hill and then partially buried.  They seem to have a certain draw for the winter residents as there are roads and trails cut through the desert from many directions to get there.  Yes, they do have bats!   

 

 

Not too far away from us is Joshua Tree National Park.  Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act, it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua Trees or Yucca Brevifolia, for those of you who prefer Latin, and it is native to the park. It is a fairly large park and covers a land area of 790,636 acres (3,199.59 km2).  The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.

There are quite a few critters that have their homes in Joshua Tree. The birds, lizards, and ground squirrels are most likely to be seen because they like their pictures taken and are largely active during the day.  But, it is at night that the interesting desert animals come out to roam.  Mostly nocturnal, these animals include: snakes, bighorn sheep, kangaroo rats, coyotes, and the dreaded black-tailed jackrabbits. (There is nothing as scary as a P-O’d jackrabbit!) 

 

Head north from FOY, towards Chiriaco Summit, on Interstate 10 you will run into the  General Patton Memorial Museum.  I was very interested to visit this place because my Dad, Douglas, served under Patton for a while during World War II. 

If you get all of your information about Patton from the 1970 movie of the same name, you know this: he had pearl-handled revolvers; he cursed and swore; he was the only WWII American general feared by the Germans; he channeled past warrior lives (he believed he was a reincarnated warrior) into his battle strategies; and he had serious anger management issues.

There's much more to the real George S. Patton, but you just can't help straining it through the filter of George C. Scott's scene-chewing portrayal.  So it's a shock, for instance, to find out that the real Patton had a high, rather squeaky, voice.  (Dad never told me that!)

A statue of a helmeted Patton stands in front of the American Flag, at his feet is a tank tread, and his bull terrier – William, the Conqueror, aka "Willie".  The museum grounds also feature Patton's Christian altar, made of stone and facing the desert and mountains.  (Which is also a virtual geocache.) 

Inside are several rooms of exhibits and a half hour film on US desert warfare training (which returned to this part of California right behind the RV park at the Naval Bombing range to simulate Afghanistan and Iraq conditions – they train the Navy Seals there). The best souvenir is reported to be .50 caliber machine gun bullets fashioned into key chains. (No, we did not buy one). 

 

 

 

 

We had the opportunity to meet the legend Leonard Knight in 2006 as he was busy painting and repainting his bright Biblical messages on the sides of Salvation Mountain. Down on the southeast side of the Salton Sea, near the little town of Niland, his mountain pokes up into the bright sun.  We were the only visitors there at the time and he gave us a private and very enthusiastic tour of his creation.  Of all the tours we have had around the world – some at incredible and historical locals – this is one that we will always remember.  We went from location to location, vehicle to vehicle, through the piles of paint, mud, hay and mixing pits with Leonard enthusiastically explaining every step and the history of each along the way.  At the time he was in his early 80’s and we had a hard time keeping up with him and his passion for this place he made.

Leonard was a classic lone wolf dreamer, intent with a passion for completing his vision. He was extremely friendly, welcoming all who visited. He slept in the Salvation Truck, a decorated vehicle with a house on the back.  The truck, like the mountain, is lettered with Biblical quotations and a large "REPENT" warning.  The sight of Salvation Mountain -- his three story tall, 100-foot wide riot of concrete, adobe and paint -- greeted him each morning.

February 10, 2014: Leonard Knight was reported to have passed away – his Salvation Mountain still stands and is being preserved and cared for by a local foundation set up to care for his eclectic and weirdly wonderful creation.

 

 

 The beaches on the Salton Sea are a rather gross affair with garbage, abandoned marinas and parks, fish skeletons, dried barnacles, and birds trying to pick off what is left over of the dead things.  Not to mention it is rather rank!  Because of the constant evaporation, it is said that the Salton Sea is six times saltier than the Pacific Ocean. 

 

 

 

 

South of the park, near the bottom of the Salton Sea, is a geothermal mixture of mud, ash and water that pleasantly burps, croaks and spits little globs of mud at you. Welcome to the Mud Pots! The Mud Pots are near the town of Calipatria and are formed in geothermal areas where there is water pushing the ash or mud up to the surface forming mini volcanoes. This is a virtually undiscovered area where one can get up close and personal as the mud pots burp, gurgle and croak without a sign to mark their presence and without a fence to protect them.  When they are really active it is awesome! 

This area is on the San Andreas Fault and there are groups of power generating stations in the area using geothermal techniques to generate electrical power.  On cool days you can see the steam coming from the cooling towers from miles away.  Pretty cool!  (no pun intended!)

 

 The FoyKers are a diverse bunch of bikers from different parts of the continent that meet each year down at the Fountain of Youth.  The members change every once in a while but the objective is always the same – pleasant and casual bike rides throughout the local area.  We have our favorite rides and have started annual group rides such as the Joshua Tree to Mecca ride, Stone Hedge, Shoe Tree, (and the underwear tree) Fig Farm, etc.

 

 

We participated in our first annual FOY Christmas parade this year.  We got all of the bikes rigged with lights on the wheels and each of us donned a Santa hat and happily peddled around the route wishing all a “Merry Christmas” and throwing out a few beads and candy canes along the way.

 

 

 

There are no signs leading to Slab City.  But as you are heading south deep into the desert, take a left at the little town of Niland, CA.  Go past Salvation Mountain, which I spoke of earlier and which serves as an entry and guardian of this place called Slab City - the last free place in America.  For years, a rather eclectic and diverse group of people have been drawn to the abandoned Marine base, following the tire tracks of countless RVs, trailers, vans, and campers - you pass a landscape of the vehicles that have taken root there, their tires now soft and rotting on the desert floor.

Slab City gets its name from the numerous concrete foundations that dot the land, the only reminder of Camp Dunlap, a World War II Marine artillery training base.  The state is somewhat of an absentee landlord of this 600-acre patch.  Population estimates are anywhere from several hundred to a few thousand people with the high point being around the year-end holidays.  The state still owns the land, and the people living in Slab City are technically "squatters" but the government has left the settlement alone.  There are no services, so the state is not spending any money to keep the place up.

There's no running water, no power lines, no sewage service, and no trash pickup -which can give the place a look that makes a Mad Max movie set (aka Bombay Beach) look civilized. Throughout the area rusted bicycles, bottles, cans, and box springs peek through small mountains of twisted metal and garbage.  Everything you need to survive, from propane to water, you need to buy or bring with you.  The snowbirds made up one of the first communities here years ago, mostly retirees that flocked here in the winter.  In fact, Low Road (one of the roads in Slab City) gets its name from a club called ‘Loners on Wheels’.

As the spring moves along and the desert flowers start blooming, the temperatures will start to rise and in May can reach close to 120 degrees here - that's when the snowbirds and temporary residents will depart.  And then only the rattlesnakes, scorpions and Slab City's most hardy residents will remain.

 

 

Just to the west of here on the other side of the Salton Sea and close to the town of Borrego Springs is the artwork of Ricardo Breceda.  It is another of those rather “unique” things you run into around here.  At last count there was roughly 130 of these metal sculptures scattered around the area and as you can see they are quite large (that is Linda standing by the serpent) - a road actually goes through it near the tail.

Ricardo seemed to like the old critters like the giant bird, Aiolornis, camels, the Columbian Mammoth, the elephant-like Gomphothere, and the Sabertooth Cat (Oreo’s ancient relatives).  The fossils of all these animals have been found nearby in some of the most extensive and well-preserved paleontology sites in all of North America.

Ricardo’s work is not restricted to just those animals that roamed here in ancient times; his sculptures include the history and culture of the area, the desert environment, and some just pure fantasy.  If you get a chance it’s worth a visit.  

 

The Wisdom of “Oreo”

 

 

 

Oreo - our 15 year old Tom Cat, has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years. He likes being part of the Blog and will over time provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and cats eye view observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few off-paw comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

Tarantulas  

My female pride member doesn’t like these giant, hairy spiders sneaking around and crawling by our house.  So since she feeds me (I’m special) I keep an eye out for these guys for her.  If I miss one and she happens to see it she goes into a frenzy that my male pride member calls the spider dance and I really have to scamper to keep from getting stepped on!  This handsome (at least I think so) and mostly harmless male tarantula was out searching for a suitable mate when my male pride member encountered him on one of the bike trails in the area.  From what I hear on the catnip vine most of these excursions don’t normally end well with their search ending as lunch for an owl, hawk or coyote.  Even if they make it through the lunch line and find a mate – he may end up as an after sex meal for the lady Tarantula that he searched so hard for.  Just can’t please those women can we guys?

These guys are the most notorious of the Spider family and are also the biggest.  They have a body length of 3 to 4 inches or a little larger and are pretty aggressive looking, but that's where it ends, in looks.  They can sting you but it's mild like a bee sting.  Go figure – the biggest, meanest looking spider around is nothing but a wuss.

Enough about bugs!  I need to go find my female pride member – I’m hungry!

 

Oreo 

 

 

 

One of the more spectacular things that we absolutely love about this area is the amazing sunsets, and occasionally an outstanding sunrise, – words cannot do them justice!

As we look to the holiday season and the new year, I have a tendency to look at my lovely spouse, and occasionally my reflection in the mirror, and see the patina of life in our faces with all the adventures and misadventures, good times and bad, friends and family, and of holidays past.  Each of those little lines represent very precious memories that are extremely light and easy to carry in our life of travel.

 

 

To you – our family and friends, you bring the sparkle to our eyes, the smile to our faces, and those precious memories that are so easy to carry.

This is wishing you the very best Christmas ever and a most wonderful and adventure filled New Year.

 

Home is where we park it!

       Lee & Linda

Mountains! Canyons! and the Red Rock Parks of Utah!

 

It was time to leave the Grand Junction, Colorado area and head west to the national parks and playgrounds of Utah. So we said our goodbyes to our new and old friends in the area, packed up from our summer stay, and took the short move to Moab and Canyonlands National Park area.

 Once we got settled at the RV park in Moab, our first foray in the area was to Canyonlands National Park. If you like high (really high!) vistas and observation points with endless views this is the place for you.

Canyonlands is just a vast wilderness of rock in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. Over thousands of years water, wind and gravity carved the once flat land into hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, arches and spires. In the middle of all this are the two rivers that did quite a bit of the artwork you see here – the Colorado River and the Green River.

 

 

The park is set up into three regions - Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze and each region has to be entered from a different direction – you just can’t drive through the entire park without a major detour. Since we only had a limited time in the area we decided that a day in the Island in the Sky portion of the park was enough for now. 

 

The park was established in 1964 and a large part of it has never seen modern day tourists.  It’s so rugged that only the early Indians, river explorers and uranium prospectors ever dared to wander around the seemingly endless canyons.

 

The mountains you see in the background are the La Sal Mountains which we were told were actually close to a hundred miles away as the crow flies.

 

We drove from observation point to observation point taking time to enjoy all the views and, of course, to get pictures that we could pass on to you. But as always the pictures just can’t capture the vastness that you experience when your standing near the edge of the cliffs looking out over the canyons.  (Like the little guy standing in the upper left hand side there).

 

 

 

In one of the sections we ran into these small potholes that were eroded into the sandstone.  We were told there are even little creatures that live in these things and go into hibernation when the water dries up.  In parts of the park these potholes went on and on and on.

 

 

 

 

This is a view of us peeking over the cliff at Shafer’s Road which winds down from one of the observation points to the Colorado River and lower canyons. Steep inclines/descents, very narrow, dirt, no guard rails, and a really long way to the bottom -  we did not take the truck on this one!

 

 

 

 

 The next few days were spent around the town of Moab near the RV park we stayed at. For you folks that have never visited Arches or Canyonlands National Parks - Moab, Utah is the little town just down the road.  Moab started off as a small Mormon settlement along the Colorado River to grow some grain and minister to the local Indians in the 1860’s.  The Indians ran the settlers off after a few years and no settlers came back to the area until the 1880’s and then as the years passed uranium, vanadium and radium (which the Indians were using as body paint – they had rather short lifespans) was discovered in the area. At first this stuff was used primarily for luminous paints and medicines. But then in the 1940s the good old Cold War started up – nuclear weapons became the things to have and Moab became the uranium capital of the world with close to 800 mines in the area producing high grade ore. By the time the lack of demand and federal regulations shut the mines down in the 1970s there was a 16 million ton pile of uranium mine tailings sitting northwest of town. (Rather radioactive stuff!) There are still special trains working on hauling this pile away to a special storage site.

 

Today, Moab is a huge extreme sports and outdoor enthusiasts sandbox.  With rafting in Cardiac Canyon, four wheeling, road and mountain biking, hiking, motorcycling and even some of the up in the air stuff like parasailing, parachuting and hang-gliding.  As you can see they even have some geocaching for the milder hobbyists BUT–you have to ride or hike some pretty rough stuff to find them.

 

 

 Moab is known for its mountain biking and is developing new trails at the rate of 25 miles per year – that alone has attracted over 350,000 mountain bikers in the last year and to think we were two of them!

While we were there I had the opportunity to attend a mountain bike festival with all the greatest and latest goodies and new bikes – all I came away from it with was a new hat (I do love freebies!).  Then it was back to town with a promised stop at the local brewery (Linda bribed me!) for a taste of their very fine (and expensive) Strong Scottish Ale.  After a day of riding it was very good indeed.

 

 

Then the next day it was back on the road again to visit the next National Park on our route – Capitol Reef.

 

This was the last of the national parks in Utah for us to visit.  We have a couple more of the national monuments to visit here but the parks are checked off.  We do have a number of areas within the parks to visit or revisit though.  So I’m sure we’ll be back.

 

 

Capitol Reef National Park is another park that has the extremely rugged red and white rock formations throughout the area. It is at a rather high altitude with the majority of the 70 mile long park at approximately 6,500 ft. (or 1,981 meters). If you do come to visit be sure to take that into account if your going to do some hiking.  The air is kinda thin in places!

 

 

 

Near the visitors center in one of the valleys within the park and the area is called “Fruita” where the early pioneers used to grow fruit. They really had to dig deep to come up with that name!  But anyway you can still pick and keep the fruit from these orchards when the fruit is in season. (Yes, there is a small fee attached.)  It seems that while we were there all the fruit had already been picked and eaten by the European and Oriental tourists – so we settled for an ice cream cone from the concession store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were driving around the park we were at an overlook one day and I ran into a guy from Alabama - t-shirt, shorts, sandals, really white legs, floppy hat, and all red in the face from the exertion and altitude. He seemed rather disgusted that all he could see was rocks, rocks and more rocks and was wondering if I knew of something worth seeing in the park before he and his wife headed out to the other two parks -(which are all rocks) and 200 miles of driving for the day. I wanted to tell him that he should have just looked at the parks on the internet, he would have saved himself a lot of driving, time and would have seen much more that way. I didn’t though, I just smiled and thought “dumbass!” then pointed in the direction of the visitors center.

 

On one of our stops as we wound our way around the park we ran into these guys just hanging around – just like they have been for hundreds of years.

There is quite the collection of petroglyphs within the park and this is just a small sample.

 

 

 

 

We took a hike to the Hickman Bridge which is a natural bridge (or arch if you will) back in one of the canyon areas.  It’s a pretty rugged hike but the views and interesting formations we found along the way were worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The part of Utah that this park is in was at one time the hideaway of Butch Cassidy and his gang, the Wild Bunch.  There are so many canyons and washes that it is easy to see why this gang was so hard to find and why they chose this area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our big adventure for Capitol Reef National Park was hiking the Grand Wash through the middle of the park.  The hike is about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) one way through an ancient wash with

 sheer canyon walls rising up around 200 to 300 feet (60–90 meters) on both sides.  In places the wash got quite narrow and the rock formations and different types of erosion really made for an interesting jaunt.

 

We didn’t make it all the way through the wash – I pooped out on Linda and we decided to turn around. The next day we found out that we were just around the bend and a couple hundred yards from finishing the whole thing when we had decided to turn around.  (We had to go back that way anyway to get to the truck.)

 

One of my big finds along the trail. Kind of like a Jackalberry tree fruit. Or a really big Horse Apple from the Osage Orange tree – only harder!

 The next day we were heading out and down the road to St. George for family visits and the dreaded doctor visits for the good old “poke and probe”. 

 

        The Wisdom of “Oreo”

Oreo - our 15 year old Tom Cat, has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years. He likes being part of the Blog and will over time provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and cats eye view observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few off-paw comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.

A very long time ago (in cat years) my pride and I started full-time RVing. We have run into some rather fun, interesting, unique, and strange things along the way. Some, my pride actively sought out, (why – I don’t know) others we just happened across. Some of the human race considers these pieces of “art” - others are intended to represent the local human or animal culture - or way of life or business. Then there are those where the reasoning just isn’t sound (even for a dog!) and are just plain “odd”. All are intended to catch your eye and your interest.

 

It’s Halloween! - or close to it anyway. So it’s time for me to tell you a cat ghost story about the Ghosts of The Last Supper.  We ran into these guys a couple of years ago as we were headed north. Being a cat, and a rather intelligent one mind you, I’ve always considered suppers as a rather important part of my day. That’s the meal where my pride members pay me my tribute from their table in the form of chicken, fish or other delectable meats. (I do like the Cornish hen.) So when they told me we were going to visit something called The Last Supper it really had me worried!  We went to a desert ghost town in the old gold and silver mining area of Nevada called Rhyolite, just northwest of Las Vegas.  There a European artist by the name of Albert Szukalski made the figures by wrapping live models in plaster soaked fabric to achieve this rather disturbing scene. It scared this poor old kitty and it will be burned into my little (but highly sophisticated) brain forever.  My pride member told me it was probably a rather strange interpretation of some guy named Da Vinci - a masterpiece – like that makes any sense to me!

  

 

And there's another Szukalski sculpture made the same year as The Last Supper – a shrouded "Ghost Rider" holding a bicycle.  This one kind of fits my male pride member since he really likes his bikes, but he hasn’t learned to keep those round tire things from running over my tail yet. This one wouldn’t have been too bad if my pride member hadn’t started humming the “Riders in the Sky” song after he saw it. He went on for a day and a half!  Wow! - that was irritating. That’s about it from me for now – time for my kitty snack and a good afternoon nap.

Oreo

 

That’s it for now, we have finished all of the doc poke and probe appointments and we both came out squeaky clean, so to speak. So we are good until the next time. We will be heading down to the Salton Sea area next week (our winter home this season) and having a little fun along the way.

 

Home is where we park it!

Lee & Linda

One last time–Colorado!

 

Summer has slowly slipped away and fall is starting to show its colors up on the mountains so it is time to wind up our duties as camp hosts in Colorado and start the winter migration following the buckshot dodging geese on a southerly path to our winter home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we left the area we had a number of things we wanted to do and things to see in this place called Fruita, Colorado before we even thought of packing up. 

 

Linda had wanted to go hiking in the nearby canyons with one of the rangers for some time and finally got an opportunity near the middle of September.  So she and Ranger Hillary with friend Daniel headed out to find a canyon noted for its sandstone arches.

It turned out to be a bit of a misadventure as they never did find the arches and seemed to veer a bit off the designated path.  But all was not lost as they had an excellent hike and discovered areas and things that were a complete surprise.

 

Along the way they encountered a rather unexpected sight in the form of homes – complete with garages built into the sides of the sandstone cliffs.  You can even see the satellite dishes attached to the rock!  Kinda like modern day Hobbits! (or in some cases Trolls).

It turned out to be quite the lengthy hike with many overlooks and viewpoints along the way.

 

 

 

Around each corner they discovered new and interesting rock formations – it seems like there are lots of those out here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for me, I wanted to finish a project that I had started when we arrived here.  With all our volunteer assignments we try to leave a little bit of us behind – in this case a Cottonwood log engraved with representations of the activities available in and around this park.  As you can see it has concerts, biking, hiking, rafting and lots of lizards. 

It’s on display at the entrance to the visitor center.  So if you are ever at Fruita, Colorado and stop at the State Park there be sure to visit my log.

 

 

 

As always there is mountain biking involved whenever possible and I finally got to ride in the area of Fruita and its multitude of trails.  This one is a connector trail which led to Kesslers Run which in turn led to Western Zippity and ended up on Mo-Jo.  Not sure who comes up with the names for these trails but they do get inventive.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a small uphill section of a trail called Chutes and Ladders, I did actually make it up this one a number of times.  I had to one way or another as it led me to one of my favorite downhill runs called PBR (Pumps, Bumps and Rollers).  Three miles of outrageously fun downhill with a few nasty surprises along the way.  I did wear all my pads for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were entertained one evening by one of the campers who decided to serenade us (as well as the whole campground) with the haunting sounds of an extremely well played set of bagpipes.  He would march back and forth one of the berms within the park playing as he went – playing continuously until the sun dipped below the western mountains.  You could have heard a pin drop in the campground – even all the kids and dogs had stopped to listen to this guy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had mentioned in past blogs that the Grand Junction area is host to many events and festivals, and for most of the summer it was a weekly event to have a festival somewhere in the valley.  Many of which we attended.  One of the events to help close out the season was held in the old downtown area in conjunction with the weekly farmers/open market.  It was called “Men in Heels Race” and held to help raise money for organizations concerned with domestic violence.  If you can imagine 37 teams of 5-6 men all wearing heels (duck taped to their feet) and some dressed up in boas, skirts, tutus, wigs, superhero outfits, and even a little mini football team (yes, in heels!) racing around a course for the best time.  All set to background music of “He looks like a lady” blaring out of sound system speakers. 

 

It was absolutely hilarious!  There were policemen, firemen, business owners, construction workers, local TV celebrities and even a couple of heel and dress wearing auto techs all trying to run full out and make it around the corners without crashing.  A couple did need medical attention by the time it was done.  All for a very good cause!

 

The last festival we attended during the season was the 100th Annual Fruita Fall Festival.  Just like many of the other festivals this one had all the vendors, carnival rides, small car show (and tractors!), bands, the nasty (and expensive) “fair food” and my favorite the 1st Annual Outhouse Race. 

 

Imagine, if you will, an outhouse on wheels with one “Potty Pilot” riding inside and four “Potty Pushers” pulling and pushing down a parallel course before getting “pooped”.

What we do for entertainment!

 

 

The Wisdom of “Oreo”

Oreo - our 14 year old Tom Cat, has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years. He likes being part of the Blog and will over time provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and cats eye view observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few off-paw comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.

Since my pride and I started full-time rving over eight years ago, we have run into some rather interesting, unique, and/or odd things along the way. Some, my pride actively sought out, (why – I don’t know) others were just there. Some are considered pieces of “art” - others are intended to represent the local human or animal culture - or way of life or business. Then there are those where the reasoning just isn’t sound (even for a dog!) and are just plain “odd”. All are intended to catch your eye and your interest.

 

As we were making our East – West migration one year we ran across the the Warrior Rabbit of the Nebraska Sandhills!  Really – I’m not sure what is more disgusting, stuffing a cute little bunny and sticking antlers on it or taking a picture of it.  I had to bite my male pride member on the big toe for this one – he deserved it.  This would be like stuffing me and putting Buffalo horns on my poor body, putting me on a shelf in a public place and calling me a “Bufitty”.  That’s a picture that won’t leave me for a while!

What's really sad is that there are humans (and I do mean only humans) that really do believe this.

 

 

This next oddity we found at a place called “Hole in the Wall” Utah.  Just a bit south of Moab. Have I ever said people are weird?  At least the guy who built this thing has “Balls”.  (No I could not let that opportunity pass.)  Multi-colored bowling balls that is – lots of them.  And an awful lot of spare time.

The reason for this one really puzzled me as there wasn’t a bowling alley for many, many miles and Saguaro cactus aren’t native to Utah.  It took a while but the old Kitty common sense kicked in and I decided that the owner must have been an old professional bowler from Tucson, Arizona who missed home. 

I could go on about this place for a while because they really had lots of weird people stuff.  My pride member said they make and display this strange stuff because they want to attract more people who like strange stuff and are willing to pay for it.  Those people really need a mouse to play with!  I caught one for my pride member to distract him from these types of places one time and I even brought it up to his bed to play with – I think he liked it a lot because it was still alive and jumping around and he and his mate (my female pride member) had a great time hopping around and chasing it with a shoe, whacking at it until they finally did enough damage to toss it outside.  I’m going to have get them another one soon – they need to work on their mousing skills a bit - and it’s really good entertainment for me!

 

OREO

 

 

With all that, it was time for us to hit the road once again and explore and experience more of this wonderful area. We are moving on to the national parks of Utah and the wonderful playground/adult sandbox called Moab. Then down to St. George and beyond.

We leave you with one of the sunsets as seen from the base of the Colorado National Monument, Colorado.

 

Home is where we park it!

Lee & Linda