Summer vacation

It's after Labor day so summer is over, even though the weather is still nice. We took a couple of months off from park volunteering to sit back and enjoy some sights and areas and rest up before our big trip.

After leaving Utah at the end of June, we travelled up to Idaho, saw family and took care of personal things, like doctor checks. We visited two of Gail's sisters up in Challis for a few days. One sister has a little roadside food truck/kitchen, Nummyz, just north of Challis. They serve Korean BBQ and other really good things. If you're going to Challis, give it a try, you won't be disappointed.  Gail's nephew and girlfriend came out as did his father. We ended up with a small family reunion.  We checked on the cabin, did a little weed work and tried to delay getting into Boise because of the heat. It was hot everywhere and the less time we spent in it with the trailer the better.

Campground by Newport bridge

So, at the beginning of August we headed to the Oregon coast where we knew it would be much cooler. We spent a few days in Newport to start, got some fresh seafood and toured around a bit. It was our intention to camp in the state parks all along the coast but everyone was completely full, all the time. So we ended up in private parks and most weren't too bad. Then we just skipped down the coast, each stop only about 50-60 miles away. Tough driving days. We enjoyed Bandon for a week, played a little golf, ate plenty of clam chowder and mostly waited for the fog to burn off. The temperatures were very cool, we got the jeans and sweatshirts back out, turned off the A/C and turned on the heat. Really nice in the morning to take the chill off. First we were complaining how hot it had been, then pretty soon we were complaining how chilly it was. Can't win. We checked on the beaches, visited some lighthouse, met up with some friends who host at lighthouses. Continuing south we stopped at Gold Beach on the Rogue river. We had a very nice campsite along the river and gorged ourselves on blackberries surrounding us. We made blackberry cobbler, sauce for the salmon, coffeecake and just ate them out of the bowl!. Bill likes them with half & half.

At Gold Beach, we took a jet boat ride up the Rogues. It was very windy when we left but up river was fantastic. The boat in the picture gave us pause at first as this was what you first saw walking up to the office! It was a fun trip, a little wet at times, but fun.

 We then moved down to Crescent City, CA and on to Klamath. We were camped right in the middle of the redwood trees and fog, but it was worth it. After taking a couple of hikes through the woods, it's hard to get over how magnificent these trees are. So big and straight and the environment they create is incredible. Gail spent 4 years in this area going to college and it was nice to see it again. A lot of it has changed, for the better, as it is protected now and not left to the mercy of the lumber company chain saws.

So we end with stopping in Grants Pass then on to Redding. We will leave the truck and trailer at some friends, fly from Sacramento-SFO- Sydney, leaving 9/15 and return 12/4. We will be busy over there but will definitely blog about what we see and do. Stay tuned!

We're off

Well, the final days of hosting in Escalante are coming to an end. We have been here 3 months and head for Idaho this weekend. I think we are both ready for a little break and to enjoy a break in the weather too. It has been unseasonably hot here, not as hot as some places though. In early spring it was the constant wind and now the heat. Our poor little AC is working its little heart out to keep it reasonable in the trailer.

Spooky

Zebra

We have been able to enjoy some of the great hiking and trails in the area. Our son, Kyle and his girlfriend came for the Memorial day weekend and we all went hiking down the notoriously bad Hole in the Rock road to the slot canyons of Peek a boo and Spooky. Last weekend some local friends led us on a hike to Zebra slot. Just beautiful. It was a tough hike with the heat, lots of sand to slog through and distance but worth it

We've also found some of the pictographs and petroglyphs done by ancient Native Americans, thousands of years ago. It's fascinating to come across them on a rock wall.

Moqui marbles

Besides the stunning beauty, expansive landscape and colorful rocks, this area has some unique items. The oddest are called Moqui marbles. These are iron balls with sandstone centers that are embedded in sandstone rocks, boulders and slickrock. As the rock erodes, the marbles are exposed. Eventually, they come completely out, roll down crevices or get washed by gushing rain waters to collect in a flat spot or crevice. They range from small pebbles to softball size. They too are fascinating. On the hike to Zebra slot, we came across fields of them, seemingly grouped in sizes, just waiting for a lot of water to push them over the cliff into a wash.

One final walk/hike was last evening. We walked the rim above what is called Micro death hollow, some of the men (not Bill) did a run and we met back at the start for a picnic. Our view point was pretty incredible and overall a very pleasant evening.

Our time working and hosting here has been great. Many people say this is the best state park in Utah and the area is quite different. We've helped make it better and really enjoy our hosting job.

Time for a break/vacation

April Fools

Well, Spring is officially here but the weather sure has been playing with us. We finished out our winter in warm weather with a month in Tucson, then planned on moving up slowly to southern Utah. But plans were altered when Gail's sisters moved her mother into a senior apartment. We rented a car and zipped up to Idaho from Las Vegas and spent a week moving and getting her settled. Our truck continued to give us some problems and this allowed us to leave it at a repair shop to work out the problems. It was cheaper to rent the car, get great gas mileage, then drive the truck to ID and back. Getting it repaired definitely wasn't cheap tho.

When we returned to Las Vegas, we then headed to St. George, UT for 2 weeks. Our youngest son, Kyle, lives there and we wanted to check out some of the state parks for possible volunteering next winter. The weather was very nice in St. George, pretty red rocks and hills and a nice size town. It has every thing you need, and a good snowbird spot for the winter. A couple of state parks have potential for next winter. We stocked up the trailer with staples as best we could as the nearest Walmart will be about 2 hours away.

The fateful day to travel to Escalante arrived, April 1, and we set out in the rain. As we climbed toward Cedar City, it changed to snow and slush on the road. We still had a pass of about 9000 to go over and kept our fingers crossed. It turned out ok, only some slush on the road and on the other side it hadn't even rained. I was more worried about the wind possibility but that didn't come about. And to think the day before was warm with temps in the 80s. But the fun was not over yet!

We were traveling down UT12 to the park and about 5 miles out we heard a pop/bang. We are the only ones on the road so it wasn't traffic noise. We thought out loud "what was that"? Bill looked in the rearview mirror and said "oh, I know what it was". The dreaded blow out on a trailer tire. But luckily it didn't shred apart and rip up the bottom of the trailer. The road has no shoulders, soft sand on the edges, but we pulled over as best we could. Bill worked on the tire, got the spare down, the bad one off and as he is ready to put the spare on.  That's when I discovered that the spare tire was on an 8 lug rim and the trailer has only 6 lugs.  It won't fit! And this is what the factory gave us. So it's Sunday, in remote UT, barely any cell service, absolutely nothing open and what else can we do but limp the 5 miles to the campground. That's what we did at 5 mph, made it in without completely shredding the tire and ruining the rim. Since then, replacing a good tire on the good rim has been resolved, we received an entire spare rim and tire from the factory, a local repair place has been very helpful and now we order a good for the other end of the axle, cuz one other tire is probably about ready to go.

Anyway, aside from some fickle spring weather, it is good to be back at "our" park. It's good to see our former friends and coworkers, Bill is already having fun on the tractor and we're ready to do some more exploring/hiking of the Escalante area. We will be here till July working and enjoying things.

And there are fish in the lake, a camper brought us 2 nice trout the other day. YUM