On the Road Again...Chicago Bound! - Olympia WA

Well, not quite on the road again but getting ready.

I know it's been a couple of months since I've updated here but believe me it hasn't been because nothing has happened. What a whirlwind of activity it's been - but most of it hasn't really involved RV trips so I don't feel too guilty about neglecting the blog.

We arrived in the Olympia area on Memorial Day weekend, although we have actually been staying in Centralia, which is about 20 miles south of Olympia. There are a couple of campgrounds closer to town, but none that could accomodate our size. It's been so great having the kids in the same zip code after years of living so far away - I love the inpromptu calls and get togethers that we can now have.

Just to summarize the not-so-insignificant events of the past two months, the first was that we had a wedding less than two weeks ago when Bethany and Matt were married on July 5. It was a lovely outdoor ceremony on the waterfront at Steilacoom, followed by the party of the year at the Olympia Ballroom. I wish I had more pictures to post but of course the real ones aren't ready yet so these are just a couple of the ones I was able to steal from Facebook:

Getting ready

New family

The beautiful bride and handsome groom

Can't wait to post the rest when we get them! We all had such a great time. The weather was perfect and every little detail just fell right into place, with just the right amount of mishaps...becauase we all know you gotta have mishaps to keep it real.

The other major life event is that we closed this past Tuesday on the five acre parcel of land that Bill and I bought, just outside Olympia off Steamboat Island. Woohoo! We are now officially Washington property owners. We dropped off the well and septic design plans at the county office this morning and as soon as it's approved we have the installer ready to go on the site work. The property is mostly wooded but there is a large area already cleared for a building site. When we return in September from this road trip, we will have an RV hookup on the site so we can put the moho there and live on site until our home is built. Our plan is to build just a 3 bedroom ranch house (or rambler, as a single story home is called in these parts) on the property, but it will have a kick-ass outdoor space - remember, our son is a landscape construction contractor! We are seeing lots of gatherings in our future... I also plan to have a huge vegetable garden, so we have lots of plans for all that land. Once the space is a little more defined, I will post pictures. We're pretty excited about it.

So those are the two main events that have been keeping us occupied during the past few weeks. However, we've also squeezed in a lot of other things. We attended a Tiffin RV rally back in June in Castle Rock WA, just about 30 miles south of here. We met a lot of other RVers from up and down the west coast and joined a local RV club. We look forward to joining them on campouts this fall when we get back, both around Washington, down the Oregon coast and up through British Columbia - there are so many beautiful areas that within an easy weekend drive for us here.

We spent a lot of time on the many bike trails in the area. Less on the hiking trails, but we did some of that too.

Just a two hour drive from our new home town is the Johnston Observatory that sits right across from Mt. St. Helens. This is the spot (formerly known as Coldwater Ridge) where the impact of the blast took about 40 seconds to reach back on May 18, 1980 when the volcano erupted, ending the life of the young geologist David Johnston that was on the ridge monitoring it. Although we've been there before - in fact 14 years ago, we climbed to the summit - St. Helens will always be one of my favorite places, and I can go there again and again.

Mt St Helens - it lost over 2,000 feet on that day in 1980

Then there was lots of fun stuff. As always, when you are part of the Parrot Head network, you are welcomed as family to new places and last weekend we attended "Laid Back Attack" in Seattle as new members of the Parrot Heads of Puget Sound. What an event! This is the largest event of the year for the local club, with an impressive list of well known musicians from the trop-rock community. It was a 3-day event held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Seattle. Since parrot heads always "party with a purpose", the purpose of this event was to raise money for the USO - and the final tally came in at over $27,000! That's a lot of Coronas and margaritas... We made so many wonderful new friends that we no longer feel like newcomers. And of course we knew a lot of the musicians, since many of them had played in Chicago for our events, or in Key West, Tampa, or other events we had attended. We had a fabulous time and can't wait for next time we get together with all these new friends. Just a few pictures from LBA:

Helping to get things ready is half the fun!

Dave Edmisten and us

Mike & Donna

Jimi Pappas & Bill

Thom Shepherd & me

So now here we are, ready to hit the road again. We'll be leaving very early tomorrow morning and taking about 6 or 7 driving days to get to Pearl Lake, our old seasonal campground in South Beloit IL. Pearl Lake is about 100 miles west of Chicago, so we are actually not taking the moho anywhere near the city. We'll be based there, although we'll be driving the car into the suburbs a lot, since most of our friends are there, and therefore most of our activities will take place closer in. But since we have a great little beach at Pearl Lake, we know people like to come out to visit us there as well, so we'll all have some toes in the water, ass in the sand time as well. Crossing our fingers for good weather for our cross country trip on I-90 - see you all soon!

Among the Giants- Redwood Forest, Klamath California

We had a several days of uneventful travel, driving north through Utah, then across Nevada and finally reaching California. One thing to note - the scenery changed dramatically as soon as we crossed the border from Nevado into California along I-80. While Nevada is beautiful in its way but very stark, pretty much nothing but barren mountains with a lot of snow caps, as soon as we hit California everything seemed to turn green. Suddenly the mountains were softer and fully forested, covered with evergreens. Northern California looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest. We left I-80 and took Highway 20 all the way across the northern part of the state to Highway 101. While some parts of 20 were a little dicey (steep climbs, sharp descents and hairpin turns) the scenery was stunning.

Northern California along Highway 101

We stopped in Willitts CA for the night and were on our way the next morning. Driving most of the day, we arrived in mid-afternoon at the Chinook RV Park in Klamath CA, which would be our home for the next few days. Klamath is located right in the heart of where the Redwoods meet the Pacific Ocean, which is a beautiful place to be.

Our backyard at Chinook in Klamath

The next morning we drove up into Crescent City to stock up on groceries - got to atttend to business before play. But the next few days were pretty much all play. We spent a lot of time on backroads around the Redwood forests. Some of these giants are not mere hundreds but thousands of years old. We always think of ours as a young country - there is nothing as old as the castles and ruins of ancient cities of Europe. But then you meet trees that have been growing since BC times...and you realize that their stories are every bit as far-reaching as those man-made ones are. And even better - these incredible trees are nature-made which to me is much more impressive than anything made by man.

Stout Grove - Howland Hills Road

As always, I'm frustrated at my inability to record these amazing sights. It's just impossible to take pictures that even remotely show what it's really like. I have to to just let the experience live in my memory.

We don't ususally do the "touristy" things, but we made an exception for the Trees of Mystery  (treesofmystery.net) attraction in Klamath. At only $11 per person to get in, we were able to walk around the trails that included a lot of information on many of the huge trees, and culminated at the end of the trail in a gondola ride all the way up to the top of the mountain, like a ski lift. At the top you  hop off the gondola and walk around the observation area which provides a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean through the trees.

Then you hop back onto another gondola and ride back down.

At the bottom there is a wonderful museum of Native American artifacts and history from the Yurok tribe, who lived in the area. As tourist attractions go, this one was well worth it.

This big guy was carved from a single piece of Redwood

Besides the trees, the ocean was the other attraction in the Klamath area. 

We drove up Requa Road to the Klamath Overlook, where we were lucky enough to see gray whales down below, two days in a row. There is a trail that goes about a half mile down to Klamath Point - well, Bill took a pass on that since the only way back is to climb back a half mile pretty much straight up. But I decided to do it, so he got comfortable waiting up at the overlook and I started down. About halfway down the trail I could hear the seals barking down on the rocks and when I got to the bottom there was a gray whale swimming back and forth between the rocks and the shore. I couldn't get a picture but it was great to stand there and watch her. 

Well, I knew I'd have to start the climb back up sooner or later, so I took a deep breath and started up. It wasn't too bad, but I had to stop and catch my breath more times than I liked. And it pretty well trashed me for the rest of that day. But I made it to the top. Whew!

Our campground was a really nice place to relax, and we had a communal campfire every night with our neighbors and fellow travelers.

We left Klamath this morning and headed north on Highway 101. We are now in Lincoln City, Oregon where we will stay till Sunday. But the Oregon coast merits its own post, so more on that later...

A World of Orange Rock - Long Valley Junction, Utah

But first...

Page, Arizona - Lake Powell/Glen Canyon area:

At Lake Powell we stayed at the Whaweap RV Park just outside of Page, and inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation area. The RV park was beautiful, up on a hill with a view of the lake and surrounding mountains. There is a lot of controversy in the history of this place that was created by damming the Colorodo River in the Canyon. While Lake Powell is beautiful and as much of the canyon that survives is as well, I would love to see it as it was in its pristine state - without the huge monstrosity of the dam that spans it. But there is much beauty that survives. 

The view from our campground

  

Our first outing the next day was to Horseshoe Bend Canyon, about a three quarter mile hike down to the river overlook.

          

Next we headed to Antelope Canyon, which is located in a Navajo owned park. You can only get inside the canyon with a Navajo guide, so we signed on. We were with a small group and were driven about 3 miles down a sand dune road in an open back truck. The ride was an adventure in itself.

Our fellow travelers

We arrived at the slot canyon and our driver and guide, Aikman led us inside. He had tons of information, since he had lived in the area all his life and his great-grandmother was reputed to have discovered the canyon at age 13, while tending her sheep. She is now 93 and lives up in the hills above the canyon and still tends her animals. I love those stories...

Entrance to the canyon

Walking through the canyon is like wandering through a cave. There is only one path which is somewhat lit by the many holes and openings above but is very narrow. In most places we had to walk single file. Everywhere was the bright color reflected by the light and the positively surreal shapes all around us.

Looks like melted taffy, doesn't it?

Look sideways - see the heart shape?

And back out the other end

Aikman told us many of the Navajo legends about the canyon, and he also showed us evidence of how flash floods have shaped it over the years. There were high water and high sand marks, and some branches stuck in the rocks way above us, left behind by floodwaters. He was a great guide and storyteller.

Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon, Utah

On Friday, we departed Page and were quickly over the Utah border. The drive up Route 89 was one of the most scenic roads we've ever been on, with ever-changing mountains along the way. We passed through the town of Kanab, Utah which is in a valley surrounded by the distinctive orange hills. And that was only the beginning.

We pulled into Camp Lutherwood in Long Valley Junction on Friday afternoon. Lutherwood is about halfway between Zion and Bryce, so it would be easy to drive the car back and forth each day. Getting to the campground was a bit dicey, since the approach involved driving two miles down a dirt road with curves, turns and some steep hills - still in the moho, towing the car.



Right about when we started really wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we came to the end of the road and found the campground. Things quickly got a lot better. It's a small park in a very scenic area, surrounded by mountains. Karen and Carl, the couple who are the campground hosts came out to meet us and from that point on it was like we had reunited with old friends. Carl helped Bill get the moho situated in our spot while Karen and I chatted in the office about the nearby national parks and other sites in the surrounding area. It's great to get information from someone who is knowledgable about the area, and they were the nicest and most accomodating camp hosts we'd ever met.

Some of our neighbors

A little rough on the Honda!

After setting up we decided to take a ride into Zion National Park, which is about 35 miles south. It was about 3:30, so we weren't going to spend much time there but we thought it would be helpful to get our bearing and plan our visit. And what a place it turned out to be...

Zion National Park

We have been fortunate enough to have traveled all over this country, all of our lives. We've been to many national parks and countless amazing places but Zion absolutely blew us away. This is not a collection of great areas - it's being completely immersed in awe. From the minute you approach the park, there isn't a single inch that isn't spectacular. I wish I could have taken pictures with my eyes, because I just wanted to save everything I was seeing - and no camera can do that. Here are some humble efforts that in no way even scrape the surface of what we experienced:

The smaller tunnel

Waterfall at the Emerald Pool

The main road through the park is 12 miles long as it winds around, down, up and through the canyons. Everything around is shades of orange and red - it's as if the world is bathed in orange light. I couldn't get a picture of the long tunnel, but it runs 1.2 miles through the heart of the mountain in almost total darkness - lit only by a couple of open overlooks along the way. It is just staggering.

We spent the next couple of days exploring Zion. Like many national parks today, there is a shuttle that runs through many of the areas that cars are not permitted into, and you jump off and on at will. It's a really good system, and with shuttles only a few minutes apart there is never a long wait. I have to wonder if it ever gets old for the people who work or live there - I can't see how. 

On Sunday morning we woke to a freak snowfall that had swept out of the Rockies overnight. Just a couple of inches in the campground, but very cold and windy.

We weren't planning to leave before Tuesday anyway, and by mid-morning we felt safe going out in the car. Now, we have driven on snow and ice all our lives but who knew that a dirt road turns to mud and becomes as slick as ice when it's wet? Not me! I was driving out in the car and the road had no snow on it so it appeared perfectly fine, but the car started skidding around on the first curve and totally freaked me out. I think it took me almost a half hour to get all the way out to the highway (2 miles!), in low gear and going about 5 miles an hour. But we got out ok, and since the campground is at an elevation of about 7800 feet, we only had to drive about 15 minutes down the road when the snow disappeared and the weather got a whole lot warmer. We had dinner in the little town of Springdale, just outside the west entrance to Zion. By the time we returned to the campground that evening all the snow had melted and the road was almost dry and much better.

Bryce Canyon

Monday we drove up north to Bryce Canyon. My friend Cheryl had told me earlier that after visisting Bryce she had a whole new appreciation for the color orange and I thought that summed it up pretty well. If Zion is bathed in orange light, Bryce looks as though the whole world around you is on fire. It is very different from Zion - towering spires and "hoodoos" which are tall skinny spires of rock that protrude from the botton of the arid basin. Some are taller than a 10 story building. 

We hiked up and down some of the trails to get to the best vantage points. There were many times when we just stood and looked out in silence because there just aren't words to describe it. 

Just outside of Bryce is Red Canyon. We just drove through that part because we could see snow coming in and we wanted to get back down to the highway before it hit. Bryce is at a considerably higher elevation even than our campground, and there was a lot of snow around some areas, especially in Red Canyon. 

It was cold in Bryce!

On the way back to the campground we drove through a snow squall but luckily we got through it before there was any accumulation on the road. We couldn't believe that it was still cold and snowing in mid-May, but that's life at elevations like this. The weather changes drastically just a few miles below as the elevation drops. 

We're gearing up to head out of this part of Utah this morning, and we'll be around Salt Lake City for our stop tonight.