Green Day, Moab, Ut

Sorry I have been absent for awhile but I didn't want to bore you.  We have just been here in Moab, everyday friends start arriving with their jeeps, we jeep, eat and have happy hour, life is good.

Here are a few pictures of our jeep trips.  I am afraid you can look at these and say......."Why!!"  Guess it has something to do with pushing your limits or something like that.  I get a lot of walking in that is for sure

Happy Easter, Moab

Not much going on for me to write about.  We are parked here in Moab, thankfully we are still on our spot because the bloody wind blew so hard, the motorhome rocked, the sky turned brown from dust, thought we were going to blow away!!  So needless to say my allergies are back.  So today I spent several hours cleaning the motorhome, shut and locked all the windows and turned on the air....no more fresh air for us.  So the Jeep Safari is still on, so much for Glenn to see and buy.  Next week we will start preparing for our rally.  So not much to report on, Happy hour everyday @ 4 pm sharp and visiting with our friends.

Anyway,
                              Happy Easter

                                                                      to all, especially to my favorite grand daughter, Jordyn.

Rear Window vs Kitchen Window

Remember the movie with Jimmy Stewart as he watched activity outside his window.  Well I am sitting in my kitchen and a motorhome pulls into the spot next to us.  They take out two bicycles, the Mom & daug head off to the shower and Dad & son tinker around with the bikes.  Mom & Daug come back from the shower and they load the bikes up and leave!!  OMG I think they have just used the facility for free, what a bad example to set for their children.....I think I have witnessed a crime!!  In the morning I get up and look out my kitchen window and what is this but the same motorhome that showed up that afternoon to just shower or so I thought.  So mystery solved, their motorhome was their only means of transportation so apparently they needed to clean up and then they were off on a family adventure.  Way too much imagination.

Did a pre run today on a very scenic trail, but forgot the camera.  We needed to "brush" out the trail but had 13 people out cutting and it didn't take any time to clean a long section of the trail, then we were off to explore.  Went out for Mexican food with Jerry & Sherry so really a good day.

Moab

Well we changed scenery today, moved North to Moab.  Not often do you go to a place and start running into people you know, like today at the market we ran into Jean & Sherm.  Kind of reminds me of the way I grew up, small town atmosphere here in Moab.   Moab is one of my/our favorite places to go and I am always surprised at how many people don't even know where Moab is.  This little mecca has the Colorado River for water sports, slick rock for jeeping and bicycling, all kinds of hiking trails, great bars (in Utah??) and restaurants in town and shopping, plus Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point National Parks and the LaSal Mountain Range.  This week is the Jeep Safari which is equivalent to Sturgis for motorcycles, and this is the 45th year that they have had Jeep Safari here in Moab.  People come from all over to jeep (or off road, that covers the Land Cruisers, Hummers, rock crawlers and everything else) around Moab.   There is no place like Moab to off road.   I am sure we are going to see some interesting sites this week.

Piute Pass, Blanding, Ut

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday but at the end of the day after Happy Hour and dinner I realized that one of my favorite earrings was missing.  I was sad.  The girls played Mexican Train again and I didn't win again and then we all headed down the the Trading Post where I had tried on some turquoise earrings.  This will be the start of my problem.  The exact earring that I had taken off to try on jewelry was the missing earring.  So this morning before our jeep run we went back to the Trading Post and they did not have my earring.  Just as we were leaving for the jeep run, the other Mary says, "I saw a loose gold earring and tossed it in their basket of earrings" so back in I went and Wha La, there was my earring....Now I am happy and feeling lucky!!

We did Piute Pass today, a very long trail but very scenic and had some obstacles for the guys to go over and around.  Glenn got out to spot the jeep in front of us so I thought I would drive the jeep up to him and then the next thing I know he is spotting me over the rock, even had to use lockers!!  When we got done my friend Rheta said to me, Girl you have balls!!  I will take that as a compliment.

Angel's Arch, Blanding, Ut

Back on the trail looking for DB (short for dinosaur bones) and PW (ditto for petrified wood).  Our instructions were to head East 200 yards from the main trail and it is in a flat rock next to a tree.  Excuse me but do you have any idea how many rocks around trees were out there-----100's!!  Ten of us headed out in all directions looking and as you can see in one of the pictures, it is not easy combing the countryside looking for DB's and bingo..... we did find a DB, unfortunately not the one were actually looking for but a DB is a DB and we found a huge PW log.   Finally we felt our mission was a success.  Then we took off for Arch Canyon.  This is a beautiful box canyon with many ancient Indian ruins and of course the Angel's Arch.  Ole Eagle Eye (aka Glenn)  was excellent at finding the ruins, they blend so well into the rock walls you really have to search for them.  We have now added two more jeeps to our group so we are up to 6 jeeps roaming around Blanding.  The weather was beautiful today, warm temps and very little wind, Amen to that. 

Mexican Train Day, Blanding, Ut

Today was a day off, hard to believe you need a day off when you are on vacation isn't it?  Did two loads of laundry, took a nap (my allergies are killing me) and played Mexican Train with 3 other gals.  I have never played the game, is a domino game and was fun to learn.  I didn't win but I didn't lose so I am pretty happy.  Remember the dinosaur bone we went looking for the other day?  We are not going to give up on it, in fact we are heading out again tomorrow in search of this bone.  There is also petrified wood and Indian ruins in this area......I will keep you posted on our progress!!  MM

No Dinosaur Bone Today

Four of us set out on an adventure.  Jo was in charge of following tracks that had been installed on her GPS and we were off looking for a dinosaur bone.  Well sad to report, the bone stays elusive to us.  But the whole loop was beautiful country so no worries...there is a dinosaur museum right here in Blanding so guess I will go in there and see my dinosaur bone.  Tomorrow is an off day, laundry, groceries and then we will decide if we are staying in Blanding for a few more days or moving to CanyonLands.  If we move I will not have email service so I may be absent....again.  Sunny and warm here but the wind does like to blow in this neck of the woods and consequently allergies are pretty high.  We did go into the pottery factory here in Blanding.  Was not expecting to see all the pottery being painted by stencil with air guns, oh well at least it is not made in China.......yet!!

Hotels to Bridges, Blanding, Ut

Another beautiful day in paradise.  We stopped at Hotel Rock, it was not easy feat getting there, up and over rocks, what were the Anasazi Indians thinking when  they put their home here?? They lived in this region from 1 AD thru 1300 AD!!   I find it amazing the amount of ancient ruins still standing.   From there we went to Natural Bridges Park where we saw some fabulous bridges.  Do you know the difference between a bridge and an arch?  Bridges are always formed by water where an arch is formed by wind and erosion.  They really do look alike but you must have had water present to make the bridge.  Tomorrow looks to be an interesting jeep day, hopefully we will find the dinosaur bone....I will keep you posted.

To the Moon, Mary

Well that is Moon House.  We are still in Blanding and had a "guided" tour by one of our jeep members, Jean & Sherm who have been traveling the backroads for 30+ years.  We were privileged to visit several Indian ruins, Moon House, River House, saw ancient petroglyphs and followed the Mormon trail thru this area witnessing some of the obstacles these immigrants faced----all in the comfort of our jeep!!  What a history lesson we got.  Enjoy the pictures but seeing them in person gives you a feeling of awe.

Blanding Ut, April 10, 2011 Let It Smow

OMG, it snowed here yesterday in fact it was snowing sideways because the wind was blowing so hard, burrrrrr.  Since we had nothing else to do, we all , there were 8 jeeps, headed up to Monticello, Ut and joined in a protest against BLM closing areas to motorized vehicles.  Approx 200 plus people showed up on motorcycles, quads, jeeps and we had police escort down Hwy 191 to to BLM office.  When  we got to the BLM office there were about 8 people there with their signs protesting us...they want the area closed to motorized vehicles and only accessible by foot or horse.  It was a peaceful demonstration and this is not just happening in Utah, it is happening all over the country.

More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures of our trip.

Pictures

This is our view from the camp at Monument Valley

Friday, April 8th-Blanding, Ut

Did you think we got lost?  Or dropped off the earth??  Well we could have been, no internet service or very little cell service.  We left Chino Valley, meet jeep friends at Cameron Trading Post.  From there we headed to Monument Valley, should I say Magnificent Monument Valley.  Just beautiful.  We camped right in front of the West Mitten, for years I called it the left and right Mittens but guess they are the East and West, oh well. The sunset was beautiful.   Then we headed to Mexican Hat, Utah where we did some off roading.   What spectacular views in this area.  Sad to say the Grand Canyon gets all the glory but I am telling you there are just as beautiful canyons all throughout this area.  We are now settled in Blanding for the next 7 days, will do some more off roading, playing cards/games, laundry and taking in the local flavor.  The weather has been so so.  Some good days, some fair days and some bad windy days......

Bakersfield or Bust

Traveling down beautiful Hwy 99, just joking my teeth are chattering from all the bumps.  California has the worst roads and probably the most vehicles using them.  Where does our road tax money go? 

This is the fastest I have ever packed the motorhome.  Had a girl's day with Hope & Jackie....all day Thursday, went to dinner with Sue to celebrate her birthday, got home at 9pm watched American Idol, did two loads of laundry and thought "When in the world am I going to pack the motorhome for departure on Friday"???  We pulled out of our driveway at 10am on Friday, right on schedule but I have no idea what I threw into the motorhome...........hope I didn't forget anything important!!  So would love to get to Techapai tonight and then heading to Chino Valley to visit Deb.  MM