Author: Wanda and John

We arrived here at Sleepy Hollow RV park last Friday and we’re about a half hour east of Capital Reef National Park.  We did another hike today up to a beautiful natural stone bridge.  The weather is perfect.  Low 80’s with lot’s of sun.

Here are some shots from our travels around the area.

Tonight when we returned from a scenic drive, we found a married couple in the RV park from Indiana that had set up two large, powerful telescopes (with 12″ reflectors) and were inviting people to look through them at Mars, Venus, Saturn and other really cool stars.  We could actually see the rings and moons around Saturn and Jupiter.  It was amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it except in pictures.  People are so interesting and bring such different backgrounds with them.  I love that we never know who or what we’ll run into.

And as promised, here’s a video that John did of our friend Dale Whitney performing some cowboy poetry for your pleasure and ours! 🙂

 

I got back from New Jersey on Tuesday. It was a great visit but I’m happy to be back to the wide open spaces of the West.   Last night we had a going away dinner with our friends Dale and Karen. Dale entertained us with a few cowboy poems that we videotaped and will post soon.   We are leaving Provo today and heading south. We’re going to be in Utah for a couple of more weeks but next week we will be in a spot where we probably won’t have Internet service so I may not be able to post anything for a few days.

Yesterday was Big Guy’s birthday! He turned 12 years old. Happy birthday to the Big Guy.   Here’s an old picture of a past birthday.

I flew back to NJ on Wednesday to visit family and friends while John holds down the fort in Salt Lake City.   It’s a little strange being back here and quite a shock to fly into Newark after the wide open spaces of the west that I’ve been used to,  but it’s great to see my kids and of course me and my daughter got into this kind of trouble right away.

John is having his own fun while I’m gone and he has his friend Dale took off on the ATVs for a day of adventure.

I’m here until next Tuesday and then I’ll be flying back to Salt Lake City and John and I will continue our travels.

 

Late this afternoon John and I did another hike-climb up to Battle Creek Falls.  We’re getting pretty good at this hiking thing.  It was a perfect evening for it – a few clouds and not too hot, not too cold and the view was beautiful.

We arrived in Provo yesterday and will be parked here in the Elks Lodge lot for two weeks.  John took this shot of me before we left our last location.  It’s an old abandoned building believed to once have been a boarding house in the Sego Canyon in Utah.

Here in Prove we are just down the street from Brigham Young University.  We’re also very close to Salt Lake city and will be exploring the area before I leave for NJ on Wednesday.

 

Here are John’s photos from our hike yesterday.  It was so worth the effort :-).  It reminds me that the best things in life are worth working hard for.

You can see me at the base of the rock on the left for scale.

The night shot below is looking down into the town of Grand Junction from up in the park.  John and I were alone and it was so completely and totally silent up there.  Just the wind and some frogs croaking or crickets in the distance.  I felt so far away and yet so connected to everything at the same time.  What a feeling.

Earlier this year John and I became proud members of the Elks Lodge in Brandon FL and on this trip we’ve had the opportunity to see different Lodges in many states.  Yesterday we stopped at the Grand Junction Elks Lodge which was built in 1913 as the original building for the Elks.  We were lucky enough to be escorted on a little tour of the building by Terri Carter who happens to be the ER and she shared a lot of the history of the building and the members.  Here are some photos of the exterior, interior, and some of the historical artifacts.

We also stopped by the Botanical Gardens.  They had a beautiful butterfly room and that’s where we ran into this guy 🙂 He lives in the room with the butterflies and I think he’s beautiful too, in a weird sort of way.  He was however, not OK with the closeup!

Today we hiked in the Colorado Monument National Park on a trial to a rock formation called Devils Kitchen.  It was quite a strenuous hike but it was so worth it when we arrived at the top and were surrounded by the massive standing stones.

Here’s John getting the perfect shot!

I’ll post the rest of John’s shots tomorrow after we recuperate from the hike today 🙂

 

 

 

Yesterday we left Glenwood Springs and drove a short distance to Grand Junction CO.  This RV park is just outside the Colorado National Monument National Park.  We took a drive though it today and John is going to shoot the sunrise tomorrow morning.  Not sure yet if I’ll be up for that but ya never know 🙂 This is me out on the edge today.  We’ll have more of John’s pics posted tomorrow.

I’d would like to wish my son Josh a very Happy Birthday!  33 years ago today, I was lying in the hospital on March Air Force Base in Calafornia where I was stationed and where I had just delivered my beautiful son.  He has been such a light in my life and has given me 33 years of pride, happiness and love.  How time files.  He is still, and always will be, the joy of my heart.

I’d like to give a special shout out and thanks to my new friend Stephanie who I was lucky enough to find to cut my hair today.  It’s always a little scary on the road when it’s time for a hair cut.  I’m never sure what I’m gonna get 🙂 but Stephanie did a great job and she was very interesting and inspiring to talk to.  Too bad I can’t afford to fly to CO every 5 weeks for a new cut from now on! Thanks Stephanie!  Great job 🙂

 

We left Stagecoach State Park yesterday and drove about 2.5 hours south to a little town called Glenwood Springs near the southern end of the Rocky Mountains.

Here are a few shots that John took before we left the State Park.  It was one of the most beautiful and peaceful spots we’ve been to.

We’re here in the Rocky Mountain area of Glenwood Springs until Wednesday and then we move on to Grand Junction CO for a week.  Today we hiked up to Doc Holiday’s grave site at the top of a hill in town.  Doc Holiday was a dentist, gambler, gunfighter and friend of Wyatt Earp.  He’s most famous for being involved in the gunfight at the OK Corral.  He came to Glenwood Springs CO because he suffered from tuberculosis and wanted the warmer dryer climate, but he ended up passing away here in 1887 and apparently the exact location of his grave is uncertain.

Here’s John’s shots from today.  The first two are the view from our hike up the hill to the cemetery.

We saw this interesting tree on our hike up.

Here are the photos from the cemetery.

My shot.

 

 

We left Vernal Utah Wednesday and drove into Colorado.  We’re camped just south of Steamboat Springs at Stagecoach State Park until Sunday.  It’s beautiful here and much cooler so we’re enjoying it very much.

This is where we’re camping.

And this is Big Guy exhausted after a travel day.