We are looking forward today to driving down this mountain (8,500′) and getting to the prairie below (5,200′). This was an easy drive, downhill all the way. We passed through Denver, and that was about the most exciting thing that happened today.
This is Western Colorado…We stopped in Genoa, Colorado, for lunch. Unfortunately, the only cafe in town is closed on Tuesday… Population (2020 census) = 183.
So we ate a salad inside the Villa, then we moved on… We saw no people. We heard one car, then later saw one car. Maybe it was the same car…
We continued on the 70 east through eastern Colorado.
Finally we entered Kansas…
We enjoyed the border town of Kanarado…
While in the Rest Stop east of Kanarado we were “tapped” by a big-rig backing out of his parking space…
The campground in WaKeeny was HOT – 99 degrees or more…
As the AC worked to cool down the Villa we enjoyed a little happy hour, then we went inside for dinner. An enjoyable time was had by all…
Today is an adventure! We are driving over the Rocky Mountains. We are starting at Green River, UT, at 4,000′ elevation.
But first, here are the three oldest grandchildren, ready for school picture day: George X, almost 7, Ian, 8, and Roisin, 9…
We are heading east on the 70… We are traveling across barren Eastern Utah, into Western Colorado.
Once into western Colorado the terrain gets much more interesting…
We stopped at a little town called Rifle, CO, where we had a little lunch. We enjoyed walking the 100 year old downtown…
We continued on. The 70 winds along the Colorado River. We are slowly climbing, but not too rapidly.
The first of several tunnels we went through…
We crested the Vail Pass at 10,666′, then we dropped down to about 9,000′, then we climbed up again to the west entrance of the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel. The elevation here is 11,158. These tunnels are the highest tunnels in the USA.After exiting the tunnel we dropped down to about 7,000′; this is where we turned off for a short drive to the campground: 7 miles long, and another 1,500′ elevation rise.
After an uneventful night we headed out. From Arizona, back into Nevada, then up the 15 into Utah…
Utah has magnificent geological formations. We took a few photos, but we are on a tight schedule, so we did not stop often or spend too much time being touristy…
We stopped in a little town called Hurricane, UT, to stretch our legs again…These next photos are the amazing mountains all through Utah…We soon headed east on the 70. More great mountains!
We continued East…
We arrived in Green River, Utah, and checked into the RV park. It was still hot…
We had been to Green River before, in 2018, on the Southwest Adventure Caravan. We had arrived from the south, and we spent hours at the Historic Museum telling the story of John Wesley Powell. Powell left from here on the Green River, which joins the Colorado River a few miles south of here. He continued on and explored the Colorado through the Grand Canyon…
We are not heading south – we did that in 2018. Tomorrow we continue East. We will drive over the Rocky Mountains, continue through Colorado, Kansas, and into Missouri. In Kansas City we will tour a Frank Lloyd Wright building. We continue east through Missouri and into Illinois to Springfield, where we will see more Frank Lloyd Wright, and all things Abraham Lincoln. Finally we will head south to meet up with the caravan in northern Arkansas…
We are off to the east for the first time since Summer 2021! We are joining the Airstream Club International (ACI) in Northern Arkansas for a caravan titled, “Sho’ Me The Ozarks”. We will spend about one month in Northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri.
First, to get your attention, here is Evelyn, our 4 1/2 year old grand-daughter, ready for her first time playing soccer…
We left Redlands at about 9:30 AM. The drive north on the 15 was uneventful and quite boring.
We stopped to stretch our legs, like we normally do about every 1-1 1/2 hours…
We crossed over into Nevada…
This is Primm, NV, just over the border…
We drove through Las Vegas on the interstate…
And arrived at Mesquite, Nevada. Unbeknownst to us, while our RV park was addressed in Mesquite, Nevada, it is actually in Arizona…
It was a basic, clean, RV park, with full hook-ups. We need the AC – its 98 degrees…!
I will elaborate more on our plans in the next blog post…
Last day of summer! (Even though school started three weeks ago – it’s still summer!)
Our grandchildren enjoyed a day at the beach!
We left Puyallop and headed south…
The Columbia River never ceases to please…
Remember when I said one barge on the Columbia River holds enough grain to fill 160 railroad cars? Here is where the barges offload the grain, where it is loaded into the railroad cars…
Portland has some great bridges…
And we are set up at a very nice RV Park in Salem, OR.
With a beautiful sky…
Tuesday, September 7:
We left early – we have a long day… The fog was a nice relief from the heat…
Wait! That’s not fog – it’s smoke!
There are four wildfires to the east of us, just over the hills… The whole length of the state…
At a rest stop we couldn’t see the mountains…
We passed through the delightful little town of Jacksonville, OR, located about 20 miles off the 5, west of Medford… We found out camping spot for the night – Valley View Winery, part of the Harvest Host program…
Still a little smoky…
We were the gusts for dinner at old Airstream friends who live a few miles from the winery… They lave 7 acres and a lovely house overlooking the Applegate River…
Fiery sunset over the river…
After a lovely dinner we returned to the Villa…
Wednesday, September 8:
As we left the winey in the morning we found a few wild turkeys…
We soon returned to California! Yay!
We saw lots of evidence of last year’s fires…
And we had some more smoke as well…
But soon the skies cleared as we approached Clear Lake…
After a tortuous drive over Hwy 175 we arrived in Cloverdale in time for a lovely sunset sky…
Thursday, September 9:
We awoke to clear skies and headed down the road…
We crossed over the Richmond bridge and the San Francisco Bay…
Still a little smoggy, but we could see the Golden Gate Bridge…
Still a little smoggy, but we could make out the city skyline…
Oakland is noted for its giant cargo container cranes…
And downtown Oakland is looking good…
BART running past us… We love cities!
We arrived at our RV park in Marina, just outside Monterey…
We drove into Carmel to stroll the town before dinner…
The beach is lovely, but cold!
We had a delightful dinner at a “Contemporary Mexican Restaurant”. First Mexican food since we left California on July 23… (We don’t eat Mexican food outside California – way too many disappointing meals over the past years…)
Friday, September 10
As we headed out of Marina across the Salinas Valley we saw fields and fields of lettuce…
Soon we saw vineyards…
We arrive in Paso Robles and parked just outside downtown. And a lovely town it is…
We stopped in for a wine tasting, hosted by this charming fellow…
But we are on a tight schedule, so we head south again, arriving at Los Olivos at about 4:00 pm…
We enjoyed a little wine tasting on the front patio…
Plenty of parking in Los Olivos, even on a Friday afternoon…
We parked in the Saarloos vineyard for the night, and shared dinner with Airstream friends at Bell’s in Los Alamos…
Saturday, September 11:
We arrived home in Redlands, California…
We shared happy hours drinking beer on the front porch with our son…
And an enjoyable time was had by all…
Seven weeks and one day… twelve states… 7,000 miles.
We left Bellingham and drove south on the 5. After about 1/2 hour we turned west and drove onto Fidalgo Island, then south, across Deception Pass, onto Whidbey Island…
After an hour or so we arrived at our Courtesy Parking near the town of Clinton. (Courtesy Parking is a feature of the Airstream Club International (ACI) whereby Airstream owners who have room can offer free overnight parking to other club members…)
We traveled about four miles to our good friends’ house, a short walk from the town of Langley. They have spent three years building this spectacular house on a high bluff overlooking the bay, across to Camano Island…
This is a small harbor about 1/2 mile way…
The interiors are stunning as well…
We went for a walk and saw a few deer…
We enjoyed the view and the setting sun…
Saturday, September 4:
We walked to the town of Langley, about 1/2 mile away… It is a nice town, where residents shop and eat and take care of civic responsibilities…
We stopped to buy breakfast sandwiches which we enjoyed sitting in the park across the street…
After breakfast we walked along the beach and along the bluff…
Later in the day we drove a few miles north and picked wild blackberries…
Then we visited the local Whidbey Island Winery…
Upon our return back to the house we could see kayakers and paddle boarders in the bay below…
We enjoyed another fine meal and enjoyed the view…
Sunday, September 5:
Time to move on. We returned to the Villa…
And we joined the line waiting for the ferry to Mukilteo, on the mainland
We left Riverside State Park in Spokane at 6:45 am. We have a long drive today to reach Bellingham this afternoon. Most of today we will be westbound on the 90, then north on the 5…
We passed a few lovely farms…
And we stopped where there was nothing green as far as the eye could see…
This area was designated as a solar and wind energy conservation area, but we didn’t see any solar installations…
We did see the Columbia River cutting through a deep gorge…
At the bottom of the gorge we crossed over a marvelous bridge…
We were shortly back into the green forests…
We arrived in Bellingham at the home of my brother…
My brother and his wife are big fans of our cocktail book. In fact, they presented us with the gift of two commemorative copies of the book…
They demonstrated that they have all the proper equipment to use the book…
We enjoyed happy hours and dinner on the view deck…
And we watched the sunset over the Bellingham Bay and Lummi Island…
Thursday, September 2:
We took a drive today to enjoy a short walk in the woods…
We soon found ourselves on a rocky beach at Point Whitehorn Park…
The walk back up the bluff looked just like the walk down…
We drove into Birch Bay and stopped for a lunch of grilled oysters. (Lynda had fish tacos…)
After lunch we returned home and again enjoyed happy hours and dinner on the deck…
Friday, September 3:
We had time for one quick walk along the boardwalk in Fairhaven…
We left Wilsonville, OR at 5:45 am and headed north through Portland and then east…
The Columbia River never disappoints…
Nor does the Columbia River Gorge…
We crossed over “Twin Bridges”… Indeed…
And then we were officially in Eastern Washington… Or, as the locals call it, “The East Side”…
Great suspension bridge…
And vineyards…
And more typical eastern Washington…
We stopped in Ritzville for lunch…
This lunch stop was ill-advised and clearly sub-optimal…
We arrived mid afternoon at Riverside State Park, outside Spokane. THis is the Equestrian campground, where my brother is a camp host… However, the campground was closed two weeks ago due to fire danger, so we were there alone…
John’s wife was off marking trails on her horse, so we three had lovely happy hours sitting around the picnic table, and turned in early…
Tuesday, 8/31:
My brother and his wife took us to breakfast at Wolfy’s…
They showed us around the area, then we returned to the campground for a walk. A long walk. A fast walk…
I think this is the last my brother and I saw of our wives until they stopped mid day…
We walked along the Spokane River…
After our walk we met the horsewomen as they prepared to ride and mark trails for an upcoming trail meet…
After the horse women left we drove toward Spokane…
We soon were downtown, where we found the Leatherbeard Brewery…
Here I am with the co-owner and father of the brewmaster…
We found a table and sampled some beer… these are folks we know from Irvine; they moved here a few years ago to open the brewery… They seem to be doing well…
We returned the State Park, where we had some visitors…
We had another lovely happy hours. It was good to catch up. We don’t see each other very often…
Wednesday, 9/1:
We have a long drive today. We left at 6:45 and heated west towards Seattle and points north…
Adventures in the Villa 