Breaux Bridge LA

This is a resort type commercial campground called Cajun Palms.There are 452 sites. We have stayed here several times because it's about the right distance from SA. (420 miles) Tomorrow we are in Florida and then Georgia and then home. Didn't take any pics today so I'm including a pic we took on a trail in The Badlands.

San Antonio (Larson's Driveway)

We arrived yesterday after driving through some strong rain showers. We had 2 choices of our route here. Either I 10 or Hwy 90. I prefer Hwy 90 because it's less travled but it is prone to flooding during heavy rain. It was raining heavily. So we did Hwy 90. Sure enough, as we drove through this deluge, water was flowing across the road in places. Using skill and cunning I was able to hydroplane through the flash flooded portions of the road. An added benefit to my daring do was that the underside of the MP got a thorough pressure wash. We leave here on Wednesday. 

Marathon TX

A brief explanation of the story of how this town was named is this: a retired sea captain who was temporarily working on the railroad as it was built through this area thought the terrain here was similar to the area around Marathon Greece, a place he had visited during his sea faring career. He ended up buying a large piece of property here which gave him naming rights. We got here early enough to do some exploring. The Gage Hotel (if you're a Texan you have heard of it) has a large garden that is open to the public. We walked around out there for awhile. It's an oasis of green surrounded by the west Texas desert. (See pics) We have dinner reservations at The Gage Hotel restaurant in a few minutes. It's raining pretty hard at the moment so I'm not sure how that's going to work. SA tomorrow. 

Guadalupe Mountains NP

The drive here was uneventful. We checked the weather forecast on the way. The temp was supposed to be 102° and the winds 40 to 50. That's the Guads for you. It's now 93° with maybe 20 mph winds. I guess we'll have to see what happens. The campground is just a parking lot and so far we're the only ones in it. Maybe the forecast scared them off. We are running the generator and keeping things cool while the suns high. Hopefully things will cool off tonight. We will be in Marathon tomorrow.  We have dinner reservations in the swanky restaurant at the Gage Hotel. One more thing. Someone has put a cell tower somewhere around here because we have a strong signal at the visitors center. Civilization is encroaching everywhere. 

Our last day in Santa Fe

Here's a closing shot. The participants in this adult beverage consumption experiment are from left to right. Lisa (wife of) Don (Cousin) Dave & Jenny, Jim & Anne (hosts) Mike (another cousin) & his wife Linda. We get back on the road tomorrow headed for The Guadalupe Mountains NP. I'll try to use the ranger station wifi to send something from there but don't count on it.

Thursday, still at Jim & Anne's house

The group split up for different activities yesterday. Jenny & I did a hike in a state park up the hill from here and everyone else visited a National Monument about an hour away. We return to the MP tonight to begin our drive further east tomorrow. The pic is a view of Santa Fe from the high point of our hike. (9,440 ft)

Jim & Anne's house day 1

Our friends from Habersham (Chris & Rick Arkus) took us to a "Trippy" restaurant for lunch. They are leaving tomorrow on a roadtrip to California so we said goodbye to them in the parking lot. The bottom pic is the crowd at this house. There are 13 beds here so the house is being underutilized. 

Santa Fe NM

We made it here with no problems. We broke camp at Trinidad as a cold front was passing through. We drove ahead of it but it has arrived here. Temps will be in the 50s tonight. We linked up with our friends from Habersham after we got set up. They fed us a delicious late lunch after a sun soaked gab fest on their back porch. Jim and Anne are hosting 2 cousins and their wives in their Santa Fe home. We will move from the MP to their house tomorrow. 

Trinity Lake SP Colorado

We were on the road for 8 hours today. Our route took us south on I 25 through Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. I'm estimating there was over 100 miles of construction zones that we drove through. Don't get me wrong, that road is in dire need of an upgrade. The stretches that weren't under repair needed to be. The stop and go traffic probably cost us an hour or more. On the bright side, I only saw one accident and no instances of road rage. Of course Marijuana is legal here so there's that. There is in fact a Trinidad Lake. We took a short walk to look at it from our campground. Tomorrow we are in Santa Fe for a few days to visit with friends and relatives. 

Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area

We're still camped in Bayard but we did drive a little ways toward Scott's Bluff to do some hiking in the State Recreation Area. There was not much to it size wise. The trails were mostly out and back. We did, I think, about 4 miles of those. Today will be it for Nebraska. We move back into Colorado tomorrow for a one nighter.

Scott's Bluff National Monument

Today's major event was a visit to the above National Monument. Scott's Bluff was named after a fur trader who had an unfortunate death here in 1820. There is a break in the bluff that allowed westward bound pioneers to continue their trip. The actual wagon trail is still visible. Pretty cool. It's estimated that 500,000 people transited the pass through those rocks. We hiked to the top of the bluff. There was a tunnel on the trail (see pic). The NPS has done an excellent job in maintaining the area and explaining its history. We have been impressed with every contact we have had with the interior department and the National Park Service. Our tax dollars at work. We are here one more day.

Bayard Nebraska (Chimney Rock)

We are in a commercial campground near Scott's Bluff.  3 major westward expansion trails passed by here and Chimney Rock was a major landmark for navigating. We went to the visitor center and got an idea from the exhibits just how difficult the six month trek across the country was. It's estimated that there is one unmarked grave every mile along the Oregon Trail. Our drive today was fairly short. The back roads of Nebraska are pretty lonely. We are here for 3 days for some reason. I guess I was thinking we should hunker down for the weekend. 

Fort Robinson SP Nebraska

This place is a for real Army Post. There are barracks, Officers quarters, a mess hall, parade ground, etc. It was established in 1874 and was a functional post until 1949. The state of Nebraska has done a spectacular job of keeping the place maintained. All of the quarters are available for rent and it appears that they are all rented. Fort Robinson was established as a calvary outpost and it appears to be an equestrian destination. There are 2 huge barns filled with stalls and the barn we went in was full of horses. The fort covers several thousand acres and is spider webbed with trails. This is tall grass prairie so the trails are marked with white posts. Not suitable for mountain bikes but apparently appealing to horseback riders. This morning we had the bad tire replaced. After we arrived we ate lunch in the mess hall. There was a scenic drive and then some exploring on our bikes. We move tomorrow for a 3 night stay somewhere south of here. I can't remember where exactly. I'm pretty sure I wrote it down. More tomorrow. 

Badlands day 3

We start our return trip tomorrow. If we were to drive direct it would be around 1800 miles, however, we are not taking a direct route. It will be something over 2000 miles. We have a tire that is wearing out on the outside edge and we are having that tire changed tomorrow morning on our way out. Pretty sure it's an alignment problem. I'll have to look into a fix for that later. We did a 4 mile hike in the park this morning. It was pretty hot. The thermometer on the sunny side of the MP has maxed out. It says 888.88. We have a 1 nighter in Nebraska tomorrow.

Badlands NP

Our plan today was to drive into the park, do the scenic overlooks, and hike the trails associated with those stops. At the 2nd stop we read a sign that said the trail there led to an area that had the most trees in the park. That's all it said. No map and no mileage. Well, it took us 3 miles to reach the trees. There was an extremely sketchy climb at the end. The whole thing ended up being 7 miles. We saw no one. Later at the ranger station we asked the ranger why that trail wasn't on any of our maps and she said that really wasn't an official trail. No wonder we were alone. Not sure about tomorrow yet. We will probably do some of the stops that we drove past today.

Wall SD

This is the home of the famous Wall Drug. If you are 200 miles east or west of Wall SD on I 90 you will start seeing signs for Wall Drug. The roadside propaganda is so pervasive that it's nearly impossible not to stop here and see what the hell Wall drug is. It's 5 cent coffee, free ice water and a cafe that seats 535. Tacky as hell but nearly impossible to disregard. After we did the Wall Drug thing we drove out to the park to do a quick reconnoiter. There was some wildlife (see pics) we only have 2 full days here so we will hit the ground running tomorrow.

Sundance (Devils Tower National Monument)

We got an early start this morning so when we arrived at the entrance station there was no line. The NM is only 1300 acres so seeing the whole thing was doable. We hiked the 2 trails that we thought were the least attractive to the thundering herd and we did have some solitude. Devils Tower was the nation's first National Monument. It was established in 1906. Both hikes we did were awe inspiring. Tomorrow we move further north to Wall SD. We had planned to stay in the Badlands NP campground  for 4 days but as is typical, there were no hookups and the temps are supposed to be near 100. We will be near the Famous Wall Drug store on I 90 for 3 nights. 

Sundance day 2

Our reason for being here is to do some hiking at the Devil's Tower and to do a scenic drive through the Black Hills. We were going to do the hiking today but we got a late start and by the time we got to the park there was a line of cars waiting to get in that seemed to be endless so we got out of line and did the scenic drive instead. We were delayed for a few minutes by a cattle drive on the highway. We stopped at a hundred year old store and I simulated filling up the car at the antique gas pump. We visited an historic ranch, and finally was the Buffalo Jump. The Buffalo Jump is a pretty deep sink hole that the Native Americans would use to stampede Buffalo into. The fall was fatal to as many as 7000 of them. The bottom of the hole was filled with 20 feet of Bison bones. After that busy day I did a bike ride on a dirt road behind the campground. Hopefully tomorrow we will get our hike in.

Sundance Wyoming

Butch Cassidy's side kick was held in the local jail here for a time and because of that "The Sundance Kid" nickname stuck. Our drive was mostly through the rolling green hills of the plains. If you used your imagination it wasn't hard to imagine the hills covered in an endless herd of Bison. We are not far from 'The Devil's Tower' a rock monolith made famous by the movie

"Close Encounters of the third Kind". We will go there tomorrow. 

Rocky Mountain day 3

The last 2 days we have been doing touristy stuff. Everywhere we went we were part of the teeming masses yearning to be free. Both those days were fantastic. Spectacular awesome scenery, but crowds are not something I'm especially attracted to. Today, we had a discussion with a volunteer ranger about a loop hike we were considering. She told us that nobody hikes those trails. Game on! It was a 7 mile hike. We had no company. We exited several miles from our car and caught a shuttle bus to the original trailhead. It was a really neat hike. There was water everywhere and quite a bit of snow that we had to find our way around but we found our way back. (There was a little concern about my navigating.) We have done all we can do here in 3 days. We move tomorrow to Wyoming.

RMNP day 2

Today we did a drive on The Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest paved road in the country. (12,183 ft.) There were several turnouts. Some of them had short hiking trails. We stopped and did all of them. We had quite a few wildlife sightings. Marmots, Muledeer, Bighorn sheep, Sasquatch, Moose and Bull Elk (see pic). Tomorrow is our last day in the park. We will do some more hiking in the morning and prepare for our departure in the afternoon.

Rocky Mountain NP

Today was a hiking day. We hiked uphill past 3 lakes. As we gained elevation the residual leftover snow got deeper and deeper. Footing was tricky in places. Our turnaround point was at 10,000 feet. We will be back in the park tomorrow.

Hermit Park Open Space

We are just outside of Estes Park Co. The drive here was (I will understate this) unpleasant. We drove unhooked for 80 miles so that we could get over the 2 high passes on the interstate. The plan worked OK and we made it here unscathed. The campground is a county park. Dirt roads, switchbacks, and pit toilets. The location is breathtakingly beautiful. I guess that makes up for the pit toilets. While we are in the campground we are completely incommunicado. We are parked in a Safeway parking lot in Estes Park at the moment fulfilling our duties. The campground is not too far from the entrance to Rocky Mountain NP. That is why we are here. The next 3 days will be spent exploring the park. We had an excellent meal in a Tibetan restaurant downtown. Things are hoppin downtown. The major intersections had traffic cops directing traffic. Haven't seen that in awhile. The pic is our austere campsite. More tomorrow. 

Carbondale day 2

Not much going on today. We drove 10 miles into Glenwood Springs and found a highly rated laundromat. There is a paved bike trail that runs from Glenwood Springs,  through Carbondale and then 30 miles into Aspen. I was looking for some way to get my heartrate up so I rode into Glenwood Springs and back. Tomorrow is going to be a goat rope. We have to get on I 70 toward Denver. There are 2 very high passes, one 11,600 feet that I have told myself that I would never subject the MP to. We gotta go that way so we will do most of it disconnected. We are going to be in an area tomorrow that has no cell coverage. Not only that,  it's got 0 amenities. We will be boondocking again. Jenny will need to call her Dad so we will have to find some service somewhere. More tomorrow. 

Carbondale Co.

There was no chance of falling asleep on today's drive. Parts of it were hair raising. We drove through Durango, Silverton, Ouray and Montrose, over 4 high passes, 2 over 10,000 feet. The MP 2 was struggling a bit but she held together. We have nothing planned for our 2 night stay here. I booked 2 nights so that we would be through the weekend when we left. We pulled over a few times to take in the scenery. See pics.

Bloomfield day 2

Today's adventure was a walk in Bisti Badlands. There are no trails, you just roam around and become extremely disoriented. There are several points of interest whose coordinates have been published. I inserted some of those coordinates into one of my handheld GPS's. That was the only way we were able to stay oriented. Seriously, without a GPS our hike would have generated a rescue. The Bisti has weird rock formations, some fossils and some petrified wood. The pics don't do justice to the weirdness. It was beyond weird. Anyway, we we were out there for 4 hours. We got an early start but it was starting to get hot by the time we found the car. Tomorrow we are in Colorado. 

Bloomfield NM

We are in a family owned commercial RV campground near Farmington. We stopped here for only one reason. The Bisti Badlands. I can't remember how I found out about The Bisti Badlands but when I did it peeked my interest. We will drive out there tomorrow morning and do some exploring. Today's drive was almost completely in the Navajo reservation. Consequently no pics were taken. I will scroll through some past pics and see if I can find one that might be blog worthy. Jenny's errant phone died last night due to the battery being completely discharged. That was effectively a reboot.  Apparently that was all that was needed. Her phone has been resurrected. So, don't call me, call her.

Lee's Ferry day 2

Today was our river trip on the Colorado below the Glen Canyon Dam. Things went pretty smoothly. Our boat driver took us up to the dam, dropped us off and left. The water coming out of the base of the dam is crystal clear and 46°. That cold water will support trout and there were some fishermen trying to catch them. The scenery was breathtaking. There was a pretty good flow, maybe 3.5 mph most of the time. Other times it was substantially more. I saw 8 mph a couple of times on our GPS. That is somewhat disconcerting when you can see the bottom flying underneath you. There were several groups of Desert Bighorn Sheep. Their agility on the cliffs was something to see. Even the youngsters seemed to be fearless. There were 2 groups of wild horses. I have included a wild horse pic for Pat. Yes Pat, I am that good of a brother. We got out of the boat a few times and did some hiking. It was a good float. We move tomorrow to New Mexico. Oh, one more thing, Jenny's iPhone is inop. She can't control it. It can't be turned off, she can't open settings, it has called 911 twice. We have done everything we can think of up to and including talking to Apple support. Call me if you need her.