We made it! Trip stats

Jenny thumbed back through her camping journal and came up with these stats. From June 24th to August 26 we visited 19 states, staying in 17 state parks and 1 national park. The MP has 6,360 more miles on it. We stopped 24 times for gas which ranged in price from $1.69 to $2.89. We didn't have too many maintenance issues, however, we did stop in Elkhart at the Phoenix plant to have a minor problem attended to. This trip was different than our other trips in that we ate virtually all of our meals at home. Different states are taking the Covid threat differently. We absolutely couldn't afford to become statistics while we were on the road so we were somewhat paranoid. This trip is in the can. Davejennyjournal is on hiatus. 

Crooked River SP Georgia

This place is right on the GA/Fl border. We have been here many times. The campsites have full hookups so I can flush the holding tanks before we put the MP 2 into storage. We have been out over 2 months now and we are both ready to live in our home without wheels. I had a sweaty bike ride and took these pics. I saw 2 of these tortoises on the ride.

Blackwater River SP Florida

Last night we were camped in the cone of uncertainty for both of the storms churning in the Gulf. We left there pretty early. Baton Rouge was clear and calm. It started to cloud up on I-12 north of New Orleans. It started to blow and rain the other side of Mobile and it rained buckets when we entered Florida.  Jenny & I donned our rain suits for the setup here but things have settled down considerably. We were able to get out and walk around some this afternoon. We've got a pretty good drive tomorrow that will put us in Southern Georgia, a short 3 hours from home. 

The usual suspects

In addition to Larson, Jenny, Jerome, Jeff and Jim & Anne were kind enough to pose for pictures. We are out of San Antonio making a mad dash across the Gulf Coast to avoid getting tangled up with one of the storms headed in this direction. We were going to take it fairly easy but shifted gears after listening to the WX forecast this morning. We still should be home on Wednesday. 

Larson's driveway day 2

There is a park about 5 miles from here via a paved path along the Salado creek that has many miles of dirt single track. I was out there for a couple of hours and brought back some of the dirt.

San Antonio

Just a quick post. We made it to SA around noon and the MP is parked in larson's driveway. Not sure how long we will be here. That's really up to Jenny. I just took this pic in the kitchen. I think they are discussing perpetual motion or something. Larson is 96.

Pecan Valley RV park, Junction TX

The North fork of the Llano river flows through the park. I would have included a pic of the river but I know that there are some people who read this blog that may not understand what is considered a river in Texas. I think it is flowing but it is hard to tell. There are pecan trees. A lot of pecan trees. We are in San Antonio tomorrow. I need to visit a liquor store.

Planning is key

The picture says it all. It did not even occur to us that there was even a possibility that the campground at the Guadalupe Mountains would be closed. We didn't call or check the web site. The park is so isolated and the campground is so austere that it doesn't make any sense to close it down. Of course, it doesn't have to make sense. We drove another 60 miles to Van Horn and are comfortably ensconced in a commercial campground in sight of I-10. There is a severe thunderstorm overhead at the moment and the MP 2 is a rock'en and a roll'en. 

Last day in Santa Fe

Started the day with a good ride on an extensive trail system that I rode on last year. We then had lunch with Chris & Rick at an outdoor restaurant downtown called the Teahouse. They had excellent tea. Also good food. There were several hours of world problem solving at their house but, sadly we had to depart before all of the current issues could be resolved. Many thanks to them for hosting us. Hopefully we will be able to return eventually and finish up our world peace initiative. We will be in Texas tomorrow. The plan is to stop at Guadalupe Mts. NP for an overnight. That should be of no surprise to anyone because we stop there every year.

Santa Fe

We had a great visit and dinner with Rick & Chris Arkus in their beautiful home in the hills above the city. We will get together again tomorrow. The lower pic is one of Jenny's sunset pics taken from their deck.

Wines of the San Juan winery

We are not too far from Farmington NM. The winery has 4 campsites with water and electric. We could have stayed here for free with no hookups but we opted to pay $10 for the water & electric. Of course after the wine and other assorted stuff this is probably one of the most expensive overnights we have ever had. The wine server had alot of local knowledge and she gave us directions to an interesting hike not too far away that had an old Indian (1700s) watchtower. We did that. The San Juan river comes out of the bottom of the Navajo dam just a few miles from here and the water is 46°. It is stocked with rainbow trout and it is apparently a world class fly fishing destination. Tomorrow we are in Santa Fe.

Bluff Utah

We have been here quite a few times. This is one of the towns I used as a starting point for some of my backpacking trips. The San Juan river flows through town. After we got set up we did a drive up a steep switchback road called the Moki Dugway. We drove some more on dirt to a place with spectacular views into the gorge formed by the river. That was our day. We move into New Mexico tomorrow to a winery that allowes camping. It's part of a network of farms and wineries called "Harvest Hosts" that we joined before this trip began. This will be the first time we have used our membership. 

last day in Moab

Today was pretty chill. Jenny and I split up. She went downtown to find ways to support the economy and I rode my bike around town on some of the bike paths. We move a little bit south tomorrow to a commercial place in Bluff. All of the state parks in New Mexico are closed so we want to get as close to the NM border as possible so that we can make a dash to Sante Fe. We will be visiting with friends there and staying in another commercial campground. Jenny took this sunset pic yesterday. 

Still Moab

Jenny drove me to a trailhead about 10 miles away and I had a long ride on mostly slick rock. The route across the rock is marked with a painted stripe. I rode home when I had had enough.  There is a paved bike path that runs for miles out of town. I was on that for awhile and I crossed the Colorado on a bridge that is part of that trail system. Our highlight this afternoon was an elegant meal at one of Moabs finest eating establishments. It was rated # 5 by Yelp. A food truck is rated # 1. This is Moab so that's to be expected. We are here tomorrow and will prep for our departure. I took a pic of the misters at the restaurant. A lot of outdoor businesses have them to cool things off.

Moab Utah

Short drive today. Less than an hour. We have been here a bunch. This is the mountain biking capital of the known universe. We were at 6000 feet at Dead Horse. Moab is 4000 feet. With the loss in altitude came an increase in temperature. It was 103 this afternoon. The humidity was 7% so that's something positive. We are at a commercial resort just out of town. We have stayed in this exact site several times. No adventure pics today. I could have taken a pic of the laundry facility but I forgot. I'll do a ride tomorrow on some slick rock. It's one of my favorite rides. Here is a pic of our camp.

Dead Horse day 3

Today was pretty much more of the same.

We hiked the remainder of the hikers only trails. That was about 5 miles and 2 1/2 hours

. There were many picture stops. These rim hikes are a little disconcerting because there are no guardrails anywhere. You can walk right up to the 1500 foot vertical drop. It gets your adrenaline pumping. I rode for an hour or so this afternoon. The trails are really good. They are just challenging enough that you feel like you've done something when you finish and you're unscathed. We have been conserving water so well that we were both able to take good showers before dinner. Tomorrow is Moab.

Dead horse day 2

Absolutely epic bike ride this morning. There were no lung exploding climbs and there were a lot of ledges and rocks to negotiate. It was all single track. The best ride this trip. After some recovery time we drove into Canyonlands NP to do some short hikes and visit some of the viewpoints. We have been here several times. We have backpacked here and paddled through it on the Green River. It is a special place and to me feels like home. Maybe I was an Anasazi Indian in another life. We are here tomorrow and then Moab.

Dead Horse Point SP Utah

This park is not too far from Moab. It's situated on some high ground about 2000 feet above the Colorado river canyon. Just a few more miles down the road is the entrance to The 'islands in the Sky' district of Canyonlands NP. After we got set up we hiked on the rim of the canyon for a couple of hours. It was a spectacular hike with too many picture taking opportunities. We both took some. Another attraction here is mountain biking. Nearly 40 miles of trails. I will explore some of them tomorrow. This is a dry campground so we have to live with what we brought. We have become pretty good at taking miserly showers and conserving in other ways. We are here for 3 days.

Green River SP Utah

We only drove 50 miles to get here. We have stayed here several times but there has been a change since our last visit. They have added a disc golf course. It uses the same fairways as the real golf course. It was mowed and everything. The only downside was that some of the holes were over 1000 feet long and it was really windy. Tomorrow we move to Dead Horse Point SP.  No idea about cell coverage. Jenny took the sunset pic yesterday. She really likes sunsets.

Happy birthday to me

It seems like this has happened every year for quite a few years. We are moving tomorrow to Green River. We need a place not too far from our next campsite because that one has no water and we need to top off our tank. The problem with that plan is that with a full tank of water the weight on the rear axle exceeds its allowable weight. Things are always too complicated. I'm somewhat used to exceeding posted limits. I wonder if that's why we have had 2 blowouts? The pics below Chronicle my day. Another year I can't recover.

The Wedge Overtook

This morning we drove 25 miles on a dirt road to the rim of a deep canyon that the San Rafael river flows through. It's known as the little Grand Canyon. We were there by ourselves. We walked the rim for a couple of hours and had a picnic. On the drive back we visited a large Indian pictograph panel and then detoured to the river. From the rim the river looked fairly substantial but it is just a trickle. We are here all day tomorrow and there are a couple of attractions we might try and find.

Huntington SP Utah

We are in Huntington Ut. It's near Price. My replacement phone was waiting for us when we arrived. It took quite awhile to recover the junk I had on my old phone and I'm not sure things are back to normal. I am trying to do this on the new phone. We are here because there is a place I have wanted to see for a long time. More on that tomorrow. This pic was taken out of the MP 2s window. The lake is 250 acres.

Touch “read more”

We have stopped at a Walmart in Craig Colorado, on the way to Meeker

Colorado. My phone was insured and the insurance company will ship a model of the same phone to a state park in Utah for pick up on the 3rd. Here’s hoping that works. Not sure when I lost the phone but I did have a minor crash during a bike ride yesterday and it wasn’t in my pocket when I returned to the MP 2. I guess that’s what insurance is for.