Category Archives: RV Temporary Digs
Our on land travel while we wait for our new catamaran to be completed.
Buy Our RV! Temporary Digs Is For Sale.
After months of traveling on land and enjoying the RV life as we anxiously anticipate the arrival of our HH55 catamaran, the time is upon us to prepare to leave our RV, Temporary Digs.
Traveling by RV has been a great way for us to enjoy our own space while biking miles and miles of the U.S. We are extremely thankful for this opportunity, but we are antsy to see s/v Ticket to Ride delivered and to make her our home…. TTR is on the delivery ship which is making its way across the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean toward California.
Today I have initiated the sale process of our RV ~ I have posted the RV for sale on both RV Trader and Craigs List. We hope to find a buyer quickly!
The whole time we have been in the RV, we have kept an eye on the fact that we will be selling her, so we have done all we can to make certain she remains in excellent condition.
Someone is going to get an RV that is in excellent shape and priced well!
If you or someone you know is thinking about buying a 5th wheel RV, please be sure to have them contact us.
This floor plan was perfect for us! (Our kitchen seating is L-shape and can be a bed too.)
FYI, our RV is a 2018 Jayco Eagle HT 30.5 MBOK. We had no real idea what that meant when we started looking at RVs, but now we can tell you: our RV is 36′ long and has a bunk room in the middle. The great thing about this set up is that you have an enclosed room in the middle for sleeping or storage but you still have great views from the sitting room of the RV. The master bed is a queen size and there is also a pull out sofa in the main room. You could easily sleep 8 in this RV!
Recliners for those who love to watch TV when away from home.
We chose to give our bikes and kiteboard gear the primo location of the bunk room – easy access and they were safe from the elements and theft.
Here are a couple of pics…. feel free to share them if you know someone who would like a gently used, well maintained and appreciated RV!
Having our own space for cooking was great!!
A comfy queen sized bed.
We removed the bottom bunk for bike storage, but will replace it unused for the buyer.
For additional information, you can find our RV via RV Trader or Craig’s List.
Thanks so much for reading our blog…. we appreciate your time and would love it you could help us spread the word that our RV is for sale near Newport Beach, CA!
Merry Christmas!
“It isn’t the size of the tree that matters, it’s the love in your heart that counts!”
Quotes made up by me. 🙂
Our Christmas tree this year is 20″ tall!
We hope you have a Merry Christmas this year and we especially hope it is a blessed one.
Surprise! We will be mountain biking in Santa Cruz!
Our Christmas be spent in the RV in Santa Cruz, CA and will include our kids this year. Since we consider them, and our families, our greatest blessing, we know Christmas will be wonderful.
Just one of the amazing things we saw traveling the U.S. (Arizona)
Needless to say, 2018 has been a year of change for us, but thankfully they have been good changes and changes of choice. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time exploring the U.S. since selling Let It Be back in May.
Photo taken on a bike ride in the Dolomites, Italy
Another pretty view from our VBT bike tour.
In addition to traveling the U.S., we had the opportunity to go to Italy for an excellent bike trip through Vermont Bike Tours. A special thank you to Terrie and Brad for inviting us to join them and their friends. The people were really fun and the places we visited were great.
Frank at the helm of TTR.
We also traveled to China to oversee the progress of TTR and to sail our boat. We expended a LOT of energy in the building process of Ticket to Ride throughout 2018 and we can hardly wait for her delivery to the West Coast which is expected just days into the new year!
TTR being hoisted to the shipping dock.
TTR is the culmination of the vision of Morrelli and Melvin being brought to life by HH Catamarans, with slight changes to accommodate our specific preferences. There are far too many individuals who contributed to this project to name them all, but we are very grateful to every single person who has helped us along the way.
Ticket to Ride wrapped and ready to load on a container ship.
As we conclude 2018, we are thankful for our many blessings and for the opportunities we have to see so much and meet people from all over the world. We are thankful for prayers answered, especially those for friends who have battled illnesses or who have lost homes to natural disasters. We are conscious of our losses this year, especially of our sweet dog, Captain.
As we transition into 2019, we do so with thanks and great excitement. We can hardly wait to move onto Ticket to Ride! For us, there is something magical about living on the water and we look forward to doing so again.
Thank you to those who have traveled with us through our blog this year, especially since our focus was temporarily directed away from cruising which is the basis for our journaling. We look forward to learning about our new boat and resuming the cruising lifestyle and we hope you enjoy our musings as we move forward.
Once again, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the birth of Christ and blessings to those who celebrate differently. We hope 2019 is filled with joy and contentment for you.
As always, thank you for visiting our blog. If you would like to hear from us more often, please check our FB page: HH55 Ticket to Ride. We look forward to returning to the water in 2019!
Hoodoos, Hikes and Petrified Wood
After leaving China, we arrived in Salt Lake City and settled back into RV life pretty easily. It was really nice to be able to cook our own meals after being away for a month. However, the weather was cold, especially after being in Xiamen where the temperatures were in the 70s.
Snow – an added incentive to leave Salt Lake City.
We spent several days trying to resolve the question of what really happened to our dog, Captain, but we were unsuccessful. After visiting the vet, animal control and the pet sitter, we had to accept that we will never know the truth. We shed many tears as we left Salt Lake City without our sweet Cappy. We were very happy to leave SLC as it is the place we will always remember with sadness, anger and regret.
This photo gives you a glimpse into the size of Bryce Canyon.
Our destination was Bryce Canyon and it was beautiful! We still felt the chill of late fall, but there wasn’t any snow and the cold weather brought beautiful clear skies.
Layers of color are revealed as the mudstone and sandstone erode.
Bryce is known for its’ “Hoodoos” which are formed through a weathering process primarily of freezing and melting of water within the walls plus the erosion of rain. Bryce experiences around 200 freezing and melting cycles each year and these cycles create cracks that rainwater seeps into and begins to erode.
Off season and cool weather meant very few hikers.
Walking the trails in Bryce and driving around the Canyon, we found the colors and light-play beautiful. Initially we thought the cold temperatures would deter us from hiking, but actually down in the canyon we were protected from the wind and were quite comfortable.
That’s I walking down to the gateway in a hoodoo.
One benefit of the cooler weather was a lack of crowds. Being delayed in arriving at Bryce allowed us to see it with fewer people around. We enjoyed the quiet we could find without crowds and often had minutes at a time without running into other hikers.
The canyon floor felt more lush.
This bright orange area seemed to have formed in a spiral.
The switchbacks coming out of the canyon were the most crowded area we saw.
Sunset was coming as we were driving the rim road.
Bryce Canyon was absolutely beautiful and interesting. Visiting on such a quiet day with a slight bite in the air and a crisp clear sky as well as having the opportunity to hike through the canyon for a couple of hours made this a truly delightful day.
The next focal point on our tour was the Petrified Forest. I wasn’t sure what I would think of this but Frank was charged to see these old fossils. Turns out he was right – the Petrified Forest was amazing!
Don’t be fooled…. that log is a rock.
We stopped in the town of Tropic, UT at the town center to see the museum. Although the museum was only one room, it had a good amount of information and seeing the samples of petrified trees alone was worth the stop.
Reflections on the polished surface aside, this is pretty amazing.
Three rings of petrified trees are on display and each has been polished to a high gloss so the colors are bright and clear. I had no idea these fossils were so colorful and pretty.
From the museum, we headed to the actual Petrified Forest for a two mile hike that would thread us through the remains. The Forest has over 5.2 million tons of exposed tree-rocks that are strewn about the Petrified Forest. We were in awe of these trees-cum-stones.
Fourteen pieces of “wood” lining this path are stones.
Looking at many of the stones, you could imagine they were really pieces of a tree that a child had left crayons on and the crayons had melted leaving a rainbow of colors.
Love this array of color!
However, once you touched the tree, you realized it was indeed stone and a much more dense and solid one than the rocks around it. Petrified wood measures 7.8 on the Mohs hardness scale…. diamonds are a 10 on the same scale. One cubic foot of lava rock weighs about 50 pounds. One cubic foot of petrified wood weighs between 160-200 pounds. Yep, that is solid!
Frank agrees; these fossils are solid!
Also, these trees are over 200 million years old! That is dinosaur time frame…. so chances are, these stone-trees were once living trees munched upon by brontosauri! That’s pretty crazy to think about.
It looks like bark but it feels like stone.
Once again, the Petrified Forest was empty. We saw only three people on our hike and they were in a big hurry. Pretty quickly we were the only people walking the paths and we explored a very long time. I wasn’t sure I would get Frank away before sunset!
The sun was setting as we descended the last hill to the parking lot.
Our final park visit was Zion National Park. Zion is as pretty as Bryce Canyon is but in a different way. Capturing Zion’s beauty was more difficult because it is difficult to portray the sheer magnitude of the walls.
Silly observation ~ I love the color coordinated red of the pavement.
Plus lighting is bright and shadowed in the same frame. Our eyes can adjust for this, but I don’t have sophisticated photo software that will adjust separate areas of a photograph. My pictures are minimally adjusted, so the photos of Zion do not do it justice.
This ravine is deeper and taller than it seems in this photo.
We only had one day in Zion, but we used our time well. We hiked the Overlook Trail for the grand scheme of the park and here are some of the sights from that trail.
Desert Bighorn Sheep. Pretty cute!
The swirls were very interesting.
Yep, soon I heard, “Oh it bit me!” Hope she is ok.
Frank enjoying the summit.
Our view at the top of the Overlook.
This looks like Frank might be having an amazing moment!
Next we walked the River Walk, which although touted as “easy” (so something we would usually skip) was well worth the walk since the scenery is different from other parts of the park.
This is prettier in person where your eyes adjust for the shadows and light.
You can certainly understand this artist’s inspiration.
This heron was slowly stalking something in the water.
How is that for camouflage?
Did you see them before the zoom in?
Finally we walked as much of Angel’s Landing as we could, but the sun was setting and we weren’t about to get caught in the dark!
This walk was a bit strenuous but the sights were great.
The squiggly walk….look how plants grow everywhere.
We only made it as far as The Wiggles, but it was good exercise and there were more great views.
I am sure we will catch flack for this, but we have decided to wait and visit the Grand Canyon on another trip. We want to make some family visits before TTR is delivered to California and we don’t want to rush through the Grand Canyon. Our thought is that another year we will make reservations to stay in the Park and spend several days there. We think optimal visiting time at the Grand Canyon would be late September when the crowds have thinned a bit and the temps have cooled but are not cold.
Additionally, there is only so much sightseeing we can do in a limited amount of time before it feels like we are just checking off boxes instead of really enjoying the destinations. I would rather delay seeing the Grand Canyon to a time when I will not feel rushed and we will have time to appreciate its splendor.
~HH55 Catamaran Update~
Ticket to Ride at the HH facility in Xiamen
We impatiently await the delivery of TTR to Long Beach, California. She should arrive early in January. Once Ticket to Ride is unloaded from the cargo ship, the mast will be re-stepped, rigging will be tensioned and TTR will be put through her paces to make sure all is well. To say we an excited about our new home is an understatement.
!!!!!!Five or six weeks until delivery!!!!!!
California Here We Come ~ In Bits and Pieces ~ Kernville First.
I’ve decided to begin doing short posts because we have had surprisingly limited internet speeds and that makes blogging very time consuming. Plus, those who know Frank know we always have to stay busy and finding time to write when we aren’t driving or doing is difficult.
Once we left Grand Junction, we high tailed over to California, choosing to save exploring Utah for the fall when it might be slightly cooler than it is now. Everyone knows California has some beautiful places and we wanted to explore a few from the RV.
Scenes as we drove to Kernville.
Kernville is on the southern edge of the Sequoia National Forest about 50 miles east and slightly north of Bakersfield, CA. The drive to Kernville was scenic and easy with a one night stop in Hurricane, UT just to break up the drive.
When I think of California, I envision the coast, so I enjoyed seeing the arid, mountainous aspects of the state.
Can you imagine trying to cross this terrane in a covered wagon?
Our RV park in Kernville was the Kern River Sequoia RV Resort. The campsite backs up to the Kern River and our particular site had a small stream behind it. The stream was a very popular spot for neighbors to plop their chairs in the stream while the kids played in and around the water.
I forgot to take a pic of the campground but you get an idea in this picture.
Our sons joined us for the weekend so our family was together for the first time since Christmas in Bonaire. That was quite a treat!
As usual, we stayed very busy, mostly mountain biking. Frank transferred the mountain biking bug to Clayton way back when he was in high school, but Hunter was slower to get hooked. However, after this trip, Hunter has also succumbed to MB Fever.
Three amigos prepping for a ride.
I dropped off the guys at the top of Cannell Trail and they spent the next several hours bombing down the mountain then riding back to the RV. Cannell is listed as an Epic Trail by IMBA (International Mountain Biking Association) and it needed to be done. Frank reports that this isn’t the best Epic he has ridden, but they still had a great time.
Cappy really wanted to run the whole trail!
Captain really wanted to run the trail, but it was too long for her. She trotted along behind Frank near the drop off point until it was time for them to leave. The trail was beyond my comfort zone and I was the designated drop driver, so once Frank, Hunter and Clayton left, Cappy and I hiked a bit and enjoyed the scenery.
Clayton, assessing the mountain?
Hunter looks very serious about this ride.
Do those cute ears make you think of Yoda?
Our campsite was well shaded and the little creek behind us was great for cooling off for both us and the dog.
Why don’t you get wet instead of taking my picture?
Floating the Kern River was pretty popular but we only had a couple of days in Kernville and biking took precedence over all else. In addition to two mountain bike rides, Frank and I enjoyed a few excellent road rides after the kids returned to work. (It is really strange to have our kids leave for work and we just continue to play!!)
Not a bad view as we biked along the road.
I find it very difficult to reconcile the visual effects of the mountains and the streams when I am biking. Often it looks like I’m riding downhill but feels like I am riding uphill because of the illusion the landscape creates on the incline. Generally Frank reads the grade better than I do, so I follow his lead on which direction to ride first so I’ll have a downhill ride on the way back. But it is hard to believe him when my eyes are trying to tell me I’m going downhill!
I guess this is a gentle way of increasing my trust in Frank’s decisions because once I turned around on the rides, I was very surprised to find just how uphill the ride was on the way out. Going home was definitely downhill ~ woohoo!!! Even when the road appears to be going downhill, if I am riding against the flow of the river, I know I am moving uphill….
Does anyone else experience difficulty determining uphill from downhill when the mountains converge near the road you are riding?
Anyway, Kernville was an excellent first stop in California. Of course it was heavily influenced by having the family together! I’m very happy we will be in California and in closer proximity to the kids for a few weeks!
~HH55 Catamaran Update~
Although there is a looonng way to go, the most recent update from HH shows some exciting progress on our cat. Apparently the interior painting is now complete and exterior paint will begin this week. Very exciting! I just have to remember that even though these steps make it look like we have made a big leap toward completion, there are many less obvious and vital steps before completion.
Starboard aft berth.
Facing forward in the master hull; two sinks inboard, the head outboard, then the shower.
In the second photo, you can see some of the customizations HH has made on our hull. LIB was set up as a four cabin, four head boat which was perfect for chartering and actually was very comfortable for us while we lived on board. However, on out HH55 we have chosen to reduce the number of heads and showers to just one in each hull.
In an effort to retain personal space and convenience when we revert to sharing a head, we redesigned the forward area of the owner’s hull. We changed the head from an enclosed area that included one sink, one shower and a toilet in the following way: 1. we removed the doorway into the whole area to make it feel less congested, 2. we enclosed the head for privacy but still allow access to the shower if someone is using the toilet and 3. we added a second sink so we have our own spaces.
Although we had our own heads on LIB, we think these small alterations to our HH55 will allow us to easily share one bathroom and reduce the total number of heads on board.
We very much appreciate Gino Morrelli’s help reworking the spaces in our Morrelli and Melvin designed HH55. Gino knows every space and weight of these boats and he was instrumental in helping us figure out where to make interior changes that would make this awesome boat work for our purposes.
Thank you for stopping to read our blog. We would love to hear your comments. If you would like to hear from us more often, please check our Facebook page.
Comparing Life on Land to Life Afloat ~ Seven Weeks into Our Temporary Land Life.
So I thought others might be interested in our comparison of RV Life to Sailing Life. BUT I must first acknowledge that we are only a few weeks into this RV adventure and we are FAR from experts. I hope we will improve as time passes and our experience increases.
CROWDS: Perhaps the most glaring difference between RV Life and Sailboat Life for us is the sheer number of people “doing it.” We are amazed that there are so. many. people. on the road! And consequently in the camp sites!!
Our very first RV “Park” was a rude awakening!
RESERVATIONS/SPACE: Having lived on our sailboat for three years, we are accustomed to choosing a place to visit, checking the available anchorages on a chart and heading in that direction. Once we arrive, there may be other boats in the anchorage but we always found plenty of room to drop an anchor.
WHEN RVing ~ DO NOT ARRIVE WITHOUT A RESERVATION. Period!!!
We have learned, these last few weeks, that RV sites are in great demand and you must have a reservation or take your chances of not finding a spot to stop. So far we have not had to resort to a Walmart parking lot, but that might still happen.
We will never experience this much space when our RV is parked.
RULES: I am not certain if my travels outside the U.S. have caused me to become aware of how many rules there are in the U.S. OR if there are just a TON of rules in every RV Park.
Regardless of which is true, we are amazed at just how strict the rules are in RV campgrounds and how zealously they are enforced.
~Keep you dog on a leash at all times (Yes, even if she is well trained and lying at your feet by the picnic table.)
~Only one vehicle per campsite. (Yes, even if you are just unloading a bike that your son brought with him and will be stored on the RV.)
~Changing your reservation means a default of your downpayment. (Yes, even if you cancel weeks in advance).
Eccetera, eccetera, eccetera!!!
There were at least five more rule signs along this short driveway.
WEATHER: RVing takes less awareness of weather and conditions than sailing requires. While sailing, we were always aware of the sea state, incoming storms, what the wind and weather forecast were at our destination and along the way to our destination.
When we pack up our RV and prepare to drive, we just point and drive and allow the weather conditions to bring what they may. So far we have been very fortunate that the weather as we drive has been mostly dry with little rain. But still, we aren’t nearly as aware of upcoming weather as we were while living on a sailboat.
One of the few days we experienced rain as we drove.
CONVERSE CONCERNS: RV and Cruising have opposite concerns. For many sailors, top priority is having enough fresh water, food and energy on the sailboat and management of waste is relatively easy. While RVing we have ample access to water, electricity and food but limited ability to evacuate waste and gray water!
Food is plentiful in the US grocery stores and buying more or whatever you desire is never an issue. In our sailing travels, we could always find food, but we might not be familiar with the foods we found or how to cook the food we bought.
AUTOPILOT: The greatest convenience that we miss from our sailing life is autopilot. We loved setting the sails and course and allowing Jude (the name we gave our autopilot) to take the helm (wheel). With Jude on the helm, we could relax, walk around the boat, read, cook, etc and simply make periodic checks to insure that Jude was on course, the sails were still well set and there weren’t any ships or objects in our way.
Now that we are on land, the RV requires full time attention from one of us as we are driving from one destination to another.
We really miss autopilot!! (Maybe I will embrace driverless cars after all.)
DAILY EXPENSES: The initial cost of buying a sailboat is much greater than buying an RV, especially if you buy a new boat compared to a new RV. Of course, there is a big range of initial costs available for both a sailboat and an RV depending on size, quality, etc.
However, we have found that the daily expenses of living in the U.S. and traveling from one RV campsite to the next is much higher than we experienced while sailing. On our sailboat, we refueled perhaps once every six to eight weeks if we ran our generator often. Diesel at a boat dock is more expensive than on land, but we usually spent about $250 when we refueled s/v Let It Be.
Driving our RV, we try to make our location changes a maximum of about 300 miles and we will spend about $115 on diesel each day that we travel that distance. If we had a smaller RV and truck we could reduce this figure, but we chose this RV so we could easily carry our bikes and other toys and so our kids could comfortably visit us.
When we dropped anchor on our sailboat, we did not incur any fees. If we picked up a mooring ball, the fees varied by location with the least expensive being $0. per day and the most expensive $35. per day. Ninety percent of our time on LIB we spent at anchor and incurred no fees for our location.
RV campsites range in price as well. We prefer to have full hookups so we have fresh water and can dispose of waste and gray water. We have found campsites run anywhere from $45 to $110 per night with full hookups.
We have joined a few ‘clubs’ to reduce our RV park fees, but many sites disallow discounts during peak season, which is now. Also, we might find campsites are less expensive during the off season. Time will tell.
BTW, our RV is not equipped to survive ‘off the grid,’ so long stays without electrical support is unrealistic at this time. IF we decide to RV long term, we would consider fitting our RV with solar power and additional batteries to give us the opportunity to find unsupported campsites.
After only a few weeks on the road, these are our thoughts when we compare RV Life and Cruising on a sailboat. Frank and I enjoyed the space and flexibility we found while sailing. As we await the arrival of our next boat, we are going through an adjustment period as we learn to live with very close neighbors and arrange our locations far in advance as required in an RV.
The magnitude is amazing.
However, we have truly enjoyed having the opportunity to travel the US with our own stuff in tow and stay with friends along the way.
We have enjoyed being in our “home” country and being completely at ease with the nuances that come with being in your homeland.
Easy communication because we are native speakers is a nice change too.
Dramatic and majestic.
Finally, the beauty and breadth of the United States is truly a wonder and we are blessed and happy to have this chance to visit a small portion of our country. As we adjust our thought processes, plan our travels further forward and move into a slightly less busy RV season, I think we will enjoy RV Life more.
~ HH 55 Catamaran Update ~
The news from HH concerning the progress of our catamaran has been a little quiet lately, but I’m pretty sure that is because they are currently sea trialling HH55-04, s/v Utopia.
s/v Utopia during sea trials in China. (Photo credit HH Catamarans)
This picture of Utopia shows some of the choices her owners made that differ from our choices. Obviously, one difference is that Utopia has been painted white and our boat will be blue. Utopia has been outfitted with North Sails but we have chosen to have our sails made by Doyle Sails. Also, Utopia, has a super sleek, removable bimini over her aft helm stations. The owners wanted light weight, minimalistic biminis that they can remove if they are racing. We have chosen to have more substantial binimis and alter the helm seat itself to make it more comfortable for long passages.
Sea trials will take place over a three week period, then s/v Utopia will be hauled, packaged and shipped to the U.S.
Seeing Utopia on the water makes us very anxious to take delivery of our new catamaran!
Thank you for visiting our blog. Feel free to comment or ask questions. We love hearing your thoughts.
Friends, Fires, Bike Rides ~ Colorado Captured Part of Our Hearts!
After a quick but fun stay in Angel Fire, we pointed Temporary Digs northwest and drove to Durango, CO. In 2015 we rented a VRBO in Durango and stayed there for six weeks before we moved onto s/v Let It Be. We had a great time then and were really looking forward to returning to some of our favorite places and bike trails.
The driveway for Lightner Creek goes down this hill.
We stopped at Lightner Creek RV Campground where the sites are in a valley along a stream with steep mountains all around. This was our second visit to Lightner Creek; our first was in 2010 when we rented an RV for two weeks and explored bike trails in Colorado and New Mexico.
The campsite at Lightner is beautiful and shady.
When we left Angel Fire, we were aware that there was a fire about 10-15 miles north of the city of Durango, but it was 2,500 acres and we weren’t too concerned about it. Unfortunately by the morning of our first full day in Durango the fire had grown to 7,500 acres!
The plume of smoke from the fire north of Durango.
There was smoke visible when we were riding trails, but it was in the distance and not an issue. We had planned to stay in Durango for a week but four days into our stay we were hiding indoors until about noon to allow the smoke to clear before venturing out. By 1 pm we were able to ride, but the fires were still growing and the smoke was increasing.
Smoke was becoming more prevalent as the days progressed.
We decided to shorten our stay in Durango since we felt the fires were negatively affecting our plans. The dry conditions and winds had caused the fire to grow to 25,000 acres. Firefighters were working hard and doing what they could to contain the fire and prevent it from destroying any homes, but the smoke was an issue for us. I am so thankful for the hard working men and women fighting the fires, directing it’s course as best they can and protecting homes that could be destroyed. What an exhausting and dangerous job!
You can see the smoke is heavier in this picture than the last one.
Since our departure, Durango has had two days with rain and June 19th, was the first day since the fire started on June 1st, that the footprint of the fire has not increased. The Durango fire has scorched more than 34,000 acres already, so hopefully it can be contained.
Anyway, we packed up Temporary Digs a day earlier than we originally planned and headed north and slightly east to Carbondale, CO to visit with Terrie and Brad, friends from the Sail to the Sun Rally we did in 2016.
We had to alter our route to Carbondale due to the fires but the drive was absolutely beautiful. It is impossible to capture the exquisiteness and scope of the landscape but I managed to capture a few photos.
A rock dam along CO133
The view from McClure Pass, 8,800 feet.
Ok, this is actually New Mexico, but it is gorgeous and I wanted you to see it.
Although we met Terrie and Brad on the Sail to the Sun Rally, we have a lot in common other than sailing, so visiting them in their lovely Colorado home gave us a chance to hang out and have some fun.
Here are some highlights from our visit.
We went to the Carbondale Rodeo!
Very occasionally we went to the rodeo in Texas but they were usually pretty large and a bit of a drive. So when Brad and Terrie suggested the Carbondale Rodeo, we were on board. My two favorite events of the evening were barrel racing and the kid sheep riding. Those little, tiny kids were tough! I think the youngest child was only three! They were all good sports though and were very tough when they fell off the sheep.
Sundown from the rodeo stands.
We explored by bicycle and by car, generally played the tourist/sightseer and enjoyed the company of our hosts.
Photo op during a bike ride.
Carbondale has plenty of biking opportunities both mountain and road. There is a Rails to Trails path, The Rio Grande Trail, that runs from Aspen, through Carbondale and all the way to Glenwood Springs. All together this trail alone is 42 miles one way. If I lived in Carbondale, I am sure I would find time to ride my bike to Aspen and back or maybe put my bike on a bus and get back that way.
Terrie and I took a couple of road rides while Frank and Brad mixed up the road and mountain bike rides. I would love to have access to so many excellent bike paths and trails on a routine basis and I know Frank would also.
The views were breathtaking or was the oxygen in short supply?
Of course we drove up to the continental divide which is were the rivers on one side flow to the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side head to the Pacific Ocean. So I guess you could say this is where both our Atlantic and our Pacific sailboat cruising life are nourished.
The range on the right is the actual continental divide.
Professional photo from a SpaceX photographer.
We randomly asked someone to take our picture and learned that he is a contract photographer for SpaceX…. kind of ironic since Frank was wearing a SpaceX hoodie and one of our sons works for SpaceX. Guess this will be the best photo we get for a while. 😉
We spent time exploring Aspen because you just have to see Aspen while you are nearby, plus it started raining and that was the perfect excuse to stop to have drinks and share an appetizer. Aspen lived up to its’ reputation of being both pretty and expensive. Some of the homes were stunning in their size, style and setting; as they should be since some come with a $20m price tag!
Terrie and I checked out a few shops and I found a very pretty embroidered top but I just didn’t think I really needed a $345 shirt for hanging out in the RV!
The scenery as we explored between Carbondale and Aspen was amazing and SO different from the flat islands and waters we have seen these last few years aboard LIB. We enjoyed using the natural background to grab some pictures.
We can’t imagine more generous or fun hosts than Brad and Terrie.
On a personal note, I had not had my hair professionally cut in more than 18 months so I asked Terrie if she could get me and appointment with her hairdresser. It was such a treat to have my hair cut and styled! I might just have to keep that up while I am in the States. (Thank you, Terrie for arranging the appointment. And thank you, Stacie, for fitting me into your schedule!)
This really only scratches the surface of what we did while visiting Carbondale. I wish I could somehow share with you the warmth of the welcome we received from Terrie and Brad. In addition to feeding us, giving us shelter, loving on Captain and introducing us to their friends and neighbors, Terrie and Brad found a place for us to park Temporary Digs so we didn’t even have to pay storage! WOW!! Thank you so much!
Carbondale is one of the first places we have visited where I felt like I could actually settle down once we finish our sailing life. The surroundings are fabulous, there is a lot to do in Carbondale, there are other towns nearby for additional activities, tennis is available if I want to take it up again, the biking is varied and excellent…. but I would have to learn to live with cold weather in the winter! I would definitely have to experience wintertime before I could seriously consider settling in Colorado. It was really nice to find a place that Frank and I agree has potential as a place to live once we decide to move back to land.
There was not a bit of shade on this ride down the Spanish Trail.
Our final stop in Colorado was Grand Junction. It is much more arid and brown than Carbondale, but it has some great places to ride bikes and the town is quaint. Our stop in Grand Junction was a quick one as we are moving fast toward California where we will visit our children.
The magnitude is hard to grasp until you see how small the train looks.
We divided our time in Grand Junction between bike riding, getting a few bike adjustments accomplished and making reservations for our next RV campgrounds.
Who knew Bible Study Camp included cutting horses?
At the KOA in Grand Junction, Temporary Digs backed up to a horse arena and stable area and every day I watched folks working their horses and teens taking lessons. I actually went to the arena and to see if I could ride or take a lesson, but the lessons were part of a Bible Study Camp (???) and obviously I couldn’t join them.
Listening to the horses neigh and seeing them every day made me miss those times when I rode as a youngster…. perhaps once we are back on land for good I will look into horseback riding once again.
Here are a couple more pictures from our bike rides in Grand Junction.
The Gunnison River makes a U-turn.
Frank’s ride through Colorado National Monument, “The Monument.”
Aptly named “Balance Rock.”
Unusual shapes in Monument caused by erosion.
Although early settlers thought these were giant man-made structures, the unique shapes are caused by erosion of the protective Kayenta Formation layers which revealed the softer Wingate Formation layers seen in these smooth, rounded pattern. (Luckily I can read the information signs.)
Sunset is a great time to ride in Grand Junction.
Frank and I both thoroughly enjoyed our stops in Colorado and could easily spend much more time here. The temperatures are great, especially compared to Texas in the summer, the terrane is varied and interesting, the options for outdoor activities appeal to us and the people have been very nice.
That concludes our too quick trip to CO. I have a feeling we will swing back through here in the fall, but for now we are pointing TD toward California…. I can hardly wait to see Hunter and Clayton and have some family time!!!
I think I could fall in love with Colorado!
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