Day 64 - Tuesday, April 6

WE ARE  HOME!

We got packed up and "rolling" before 10:00am and made it by 5:30pm.

In summary, a great "new adventure" that we hoped for, but cut a little short due to some poor weather conditions.  Some rain and even snow during the first weeks and a lot of wind later on, but even with sunshine the good days were on the cool side with wind-chill making it hard to relax outside.  Good to be hiking or driving, but not the heat of the Southern Arizona and Southern California deserts we spent so little time in this year. 

Simply put, we moved North too soon and "burned out" (at least I did - Ellen wanted to keep going) on the cooler temperatures.  Especially once the weather in Elkhart became far better than that we were experiencing.  But we found some "treasures" in the way of new places and are happy to have had the chance to do so.  We will plan our next trip on getting to the Central California and Northwest National Parks of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho when they are not only open and completely accessable, but warmer as well.

Thanks for following us on our travels!

Jim, Ellen, and "the girls"

Day 63 - Monday, April 5

Drove today about 400 miles to Kellogg, Iowa.  Thought we would stay at a state park near here but it will not open until April 15.  Found a very clean RV park right at the interstate exit to the state park.  So we are high and dry, but right next to I-80.  Spotty rain until now, but at 9:00 pm it's raining.  There were flash flood warnings out earlier but the bad storms passed north of us.

We will be home tomorrow - only 400 miles away so should be in Elkhart by 4:00 pm.

No pictures of anything interesting the last few days so this is it!  Thanks for your interest in our travels.

Jim & Ellen

Day 62 - Sunday, April 4 (#2)

The previous day 62 post was catching up from a few days behind.  Today's post - #2 - is basically about our trek from Grand Junction to Ft. Morgan yesterday Saturday, April 3.

The pictures kind of tell it all.  We had to go over two mountain passes - one over10,000 feet and one over 11,000 feet - Vail Pass and Loveland Pass - to get from sunny Grand Junction to sunny Ft. Morgan.  What a ride in between!

Before the pictures, we traveled closer to home today arriving in Lexington, Nebraska  to spend the night at Johnson Lake State Recreation Area.  We are one of only four RV'ers here, but it is on a very large lake and pretty nice to have it almost all to ourselves.  And the sky was blue and temperature warm until sunset.

Ellen cooked a fantastic boneless leg of Lamb for Easter dinner.  She's not too bad to travel with after all!

Here are pictures:

Jim at the wheel concentrating and contemplating the 2 major mountain passes ahead of us. I offered to take over if he was scared....NOT! and he said NFW!

You can see the scenery and the visibility change as we climb higher in "Blue Boy" and the tow car

And finally a few miscellaneous pictures from here at Johnson Lake

Day 62 - Sunday, April 4

Happy Easter!
Here are pictures from Monument Valley and our drive from Monument Valley up to Moab and on into Grand Junction.

First Monument Valley:
There are a lot of them and some are of the same formation.  But as the weather, light, and our position changed as we drove the 17 mile road through the Valley the scene for us changed continuously. Ellen was a little "shutter" happy on this drive

This was home for two days

View from our campsite

You can see the road in these next two as it winds it's way around the Valley

Snow moving in

Only sleeted a little, but it sure got windy and dusty

Sun going down

Jim and the girls going down

Now the drive from MV to Grand Junction on a scenic route   >>>>>>>>>>>>