Home Again

So we have now arrived home, There are a number of posts which are saved to word or in draft form which will appear soon, however for the present this post concludes Trip 11, of our most enjoyable trips.
In brief, we spent nearly 2 weeks in Death Valley participating in the 49'er Encampment. Following this on Sunday 11th Nov we left for an overnighter in Pahrump. On Monday we quickly traveled East to Williams via the Kingman section of Route 66. We stopped for 2 nights there so that we could visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. On Wednesday we moved south to Phoenix, where we cleaned and organised the trailer, which was put into storage on Monday 19th Nov. We then flew to Oakland and spent a wonderful week with friends Debra and Rich, including a lovely Thanksgiving meal with Debras family and the Black Friday Bluegrass Party. Sadly on Tuesday 27th we said farewell to Debra and Rich and America. We flew home from San Francisco arriving home safely on Wednesday 28th at 5.00.

Black and Blue Grass Party

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, nothing morbid about it - just a day when everyone goes shopping. Everyone except Debra, Rich and their friends who gather for a Bluegrass Party in thier back yard.
We loved being there and enjoyed playing bluegrass music and joining in with all the fun, oh and the food as well.

Packing up in Phoenix

Wednesday 14th November
We had a pleasant and quiet drive down to phoenix, stopping once for a drink in small café, where we weakened and indulged in a short stack of pancakes, which were very good, but also very big for a short stack (2 pancakes). We arrived at West Palm RV in good time, set up and had lunch, followed by a quick relax then off to the pool for a swim and jacooze. The temperature is now a much mor.e equitable 75 deg F.
We have worked for 4 days and cleaned and organised the rig, it has been placed in storage in Tempe, about 3.5 miles from the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. We took a nice easy taxi ride to the airport and an uneventful flight saw us land at Oakland airport in the afternoon. Rich came and picked us up and we had a lovely reuniting with our friends in San Leandro.

South Rim of The Canyon

On Tuesday we woke up to find that the thermometer had plunged to 18.5 deg F! It was still sunny, but cold, cold, cold, still we are up over 7000ft. This prompted us to make the decision to go to the Grand Canyon today and push on to Phoenix tomorrow. We got out our warm clothes, packed our normal picnic lunch and set off, it is a 52 mile drive from Williams to the South Rim, on an almost dead straight road, across high desert scrub land, not the most interesting of journeys. We arrived at the GC, parked and walked to the edge at Mather Point, to once again be stunned by the beauty of the vista, now we can compare directly the North and South rims. We now favour the South as you can see more of the GC, you can see the Colorado at the bottom and with the sun behind us the view appears clearer. The downside is that there are many more people there (if that is not being too snobbish). After visiting the Mather Point we took the car and drove along the rim road to the west as far as Hermit Rest, where there is a small café and gift shop, so we could get a hot drink, as it was still cold. Having now seen the South Rim of the GC we now drove back along the same straight road to Williams. Having now accomplished one of our goals we felt happy to drive on to Phoenix the next day.

Route 66 - The Story Continues

Monday 12th Nov
We made the decision to take a long journey today, we would go to Kingman and then decide whether to go to Lake Havasu (and see London Bridge) as planned or take the longer ride to Williams and perhaps visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon – guess which we did, especially as it meant that we could cruise the longest section of Route 66 still drivable, from Kingman to Seligman, via Peach Springs. So we were back into taking pictures of Roadside Americana. We even stopped at The Rusty Bolt, a famous biker shop in Seligman, owned by Angelo Delgadillo, one of the inspirations behind Cars the Pixar movie. I went in and the guy showed me round, even showed me the Blue Peter Badge they were given when Blue Peter filmed there.
We arrived in Williams just as it was getting dark, set up at the Railroad camp RV park, where the Grand Canyon Railway runs through the middle of the campground and went to Denny’s for dinner. Phew a long day. We had driven a massive (for us) 288 miles.

Pahrump and the Curious Line for Lunch

Sunday 11th November
We now have to zoom down to Phoenix, some 500 miles away, to store the rig. Our first stage is to return to Pahrump, to Saddle West Casino, where we can empty and clean tanks. We arrived by lunch time, having driven via Shoshone, so that we could see the southern part of Death Valley. As we were leaving the trailer hitched we planned to eat first, then shop then go to the RV park. Where to eat? Casino Buffet of course, the best one in Pahrump being the Golden Nugget. So we pulled in by about 1.00 only to find the carpark full, still shouldn’t be a problem. We get inside and find a big line for the buffet. Why? On checking out we find that there is a meal special. $5.00 buffet and Veterans eat for free. Then we twigged, today, being the 11th November is Veterans Day and for whatever cynically dubious financial reason Casinos provide free buffet for Veterans and cheap buffet for others. So although the line was long we were happy to wait as there were many veterans in line to talk to. One even gave us a T-shirt that had been given to him by the casino. So it was more of a party than a queue for lunch. After lunch we shopped and camped.

The 49er Encampment

We have come to Death Valley for two reasons
Firstly because we want to explore the area, but secondly because there is a festival going on, called the 49ers Encampment, visiting now means that we can combine both aims in one go.
So a bit about the 49ers then some stuff about Death Valley.
The Death Valley 49ers are a group of people who have a link to Death Valley and look for ways to  raise awareness of Death Valley history, culture and environment (check out their web site). Their Big Thing is an annual festival called the 49ers Encampment. We had wanted to attend this festival last year, but couldn’t fit it in, so we timed our visit to Death valley to make sure we could get to it this year. Although we were not quite sure what it was all about we knew it would be fun and we were right. Because it is so popular we arrived a week early to ensure a camping space, this also meant that we got to know our neighbours real well, they were lovely people. One side of us John and Jim, a couple of lads away from home and having fun – Horseshoes was their thing. Ruth and Ed on the other side were lovely and treated us like their own kids. We very quickly we met many other really nice people.

In the week before the Encampment there was the Pre-Encampment, with some music and activities. Every night a group of musicians would play in the centre of the Sunset Campground, it was mostly Country music, but fun any way. I managed to find a few people to jam with.

The festival proper seemed to focus on a music genre we knew little about – Western music, not Country and Western. This genre is all about cowboys, pioneers and the campfire culture. Many of the songs are story based, about pioneer days, wrangling or outlaws. They tend to be lyrical, often with minor chords and the guitar is the main accompaniment. In fact the festival itself seemed to be about cowboy culture. Every day they had demonstrations of horses, wagons, mules trains, pioneer dress, as well as Western art and crafts. In the evenings there was a concert featuring a number of Western style singers. Alongside this was a fiddle convention, which is basically a music competition for different stringed instruments, the main one being fiddle, as fiddle is the instrument of choice for square dance, which is the cowboy style of dancing. So there was plenty going on.
One of the features of the weekend was the demonstrations by the Twenty Mule Team, (see separate blog), which shipped the borax from the mines at Furnace Creek 167 miles to the railhead at Mohave.

The days start early, 7 and 8.00 for competitions, as afternoons tend to be hot and its siesta time. I was encouraged to enter the horseshoe competition by John and Jim, as they are somewhat fanatical about the game. It was fun, I was a novice, but managed to win my class, due to expert coaching from my support team.

In all it was a really good festival, we learned a lot about cowboy culture and had great fun. But sadly on Sunday farewells had to be said. Yes, tears again I am afraid. The truth of this is that when you are on the road, for every wonderful friend you make you must at some time make a sad parting. Made more poignant as although many of the friends we had made had been coming to the Encampment for many years, at least 2 people/couples mentioned that this would be their last one. We are left only with the memory of these people and our happy times to put in the treasure box of our journeys. This, I remind myself, is one of the reasons for recording our travels. We hope that these memories will stay fresh through our own remaining years.

Twenty Mule Team

Inevitably, even in the desert, there is a local history, of which much is made. In Death Valley the big thing is Borax. Borax was discovered and uses for borax were discovered in the 1870’s. A borax mining company was set up in Death Valley in 1881. Fortunately it was close to Furnace Creek, which had a year round spring, so water was available. The major problem was that the borax had to be hauled out to a railhead, the closest being at Mojave 167 miles away. To do this large wagons pulled by huge mule teams were developed, capable of hauling twenty tons of borax. Thus was born the Twenty Mule Team, a name that has become synonymous with Borax for the past 130 years. In America it is a brand name that stands alongside Coke Cola, although it is a much smaller company. During the 49'er Encampment we have been lucky enough to see a twenty mule team in operation, it is quite long and quite impressive. Considering the standard of road in 1881 (almost non existent) we are impressed that these wagons not only were able to operate and carry borax that distance, but that some of them are still around today (though the operating wagons were built later, around 1920. Not only did we see the wagons in operation, but also went to a talk about how they operated and their history, very interesting.We were very impressed with the famous (in the USA) Twenty Mule Team, so we have included a few pics of it.

Fun things to do in Death Valley

Driving in Death Valley could be great fun, there is a paved road that runs right through the valley, however many interesting features are on side roads, which are unpaved gravel. We tried to drive a couple of these and fond that they were just too rough for us, we value our little Chevy too much, so missed out on some sightseeing, however while we have been here we have revisited Badwater.

As well as Badwater we took two other side trips when in Death Valley, on Sunday we drove out to the  Mesquite Sand Dunes. We drove 25 miles north along Death Valley to Sweetwater, not much of interest here, just a motel, restaurant, store and RV park, however just a couple of miles before reaching Sweetwater we visited the Mesquite Sand Dunes. These are a small area of sand dunes, maybe only a few square miles and relatively low, up to a hundred feet. They are very interesting though. They have been formed where the North winds are forced to divide between two valleys, Death Valley and its neighbour, when the wind slows down it drops any sand it is carrying and so the dunes form.
We had a quick walk to the dunes, where on looking carefully I was able to find some sand tracks, the ones I now recognise from Coral Pink Sand Dunes, of the Tiger Beetle, or similar, lizards and Kangaroo Rat. What I did find for the first time was the track left by the Sidewinder Snake, which moves across the soft steep sand dunes in a series of sideways hops, leaving a characteristic series of tracks.
From there we travelled further north hoping to visit Titus Canyon, a 27 mile unpaved road, we only planned to do the final couple of miles up to the canyon entrance, however after leaving the paved road the gravel track was so uneven that we turned back after about half a mile, so that was a canyon we missed. On the way back we took the Rhyolite Loop, which takes us up about a thousand feet above the valley floor, giving us a fine view of the North end of Death Valley.

On Tuesday we drove out of Death Valley as Dante’s View gives some excellent views of Death Valley. On the way we stopped at Zebriskie’s Point, the name alone is worth the visit, however is an overlook that gives lovely views of the rock strata within which the borax is found, being a very soft rock it has been easily eroded by the rain which falls there, producing some very convoluted dendritic rock forms. On from there we climbed 4300 feet up to Dante’s View, an overlook which is directly above Badwater. The views of Death Valley are wonderful, you can see as far as the Mesquite Sand Dunes to the north, look down on Badwater and across to Telescope Peak. On the way back we took the Twenty Mule Team loop which winds through the old road used by the mule teams a long time ago.

Side Trip to Badwater

Or first side trip in Death Valley was to revisit Badwater, the lowest point in Death Valley.
On the way there we encountered some coyote, quite unphased by the road traffic.
We took three side trips when in Death Valley, the first was about 17 miles south to Badwater, which we had first visited in 1997, then it was August and about 127 degrees in the sun, now it is November and about 90 degrees in the sun.
On the way there we were amazed to see coyote by the side of the road, totaly unphased by the presence of cars and people.
We parked in the now modernised and enlarged car park and walked out on to the Salt Lake, it looks very similar to a frozen lake that has been ploughed and sprinkled with dirt, except where people have walked and here it has turned into a smooth white pathway. We walked out about 100 yards and realized that it would be exactly the same if we walked for a couple of miles, so turned round and walked back again. It was interesting to see that where people had dug little holes water gathered in the bottom of them, like digging in the sand down on the beach. Right by the road, which must be the lowest point, of 282 feet below sea level, the water actually broke surface and there was a small lake. Death Valley is served by a number of springs, those that spring from the West side are new water from rain and are seasonal. Those from the East side are what they call Ancient Water, as these springs are fed from deep underground and the water may have been trapped there since the last ice age, these springs run all year round, sometimes the water is contaminated, like at Badwater, with unhealthy minerals, such as sulphur, sometimes they are warmed by hot rocks underground, such as at Shoshone and Furnace Creek, sometimes they are good drinking water, again such as Furnace Creek.
Badwater is along the valley floor, the ground on the valley floor is divided between the salt flats which contain a lot of water (just dig down in the salt about 6 inches to find it) and solid ground, which is alluvial sand/rock/mud which has been washed out of the mountains either side, these alluvial fans are gently sloping, smooth surfaced land forms, which spread from the rock walls of the valley sides. It is here that the complex history of Death Valley becomes apparent. The area is now desert, yet the majority of landforms are water derived. The salt lakes are remnants of a much larger amount of water. Evaporation from large lakes is needed to concentrate that amount of salt. The alluvial fans all start at about 600ft. These alluvial fans are laid down in water, rock debris is washed down from the mountains and tumbles into the lake, once under water the debris is deposited more gently, providing these massive flat expanses of sand and mud, now hardened to a sort of soft rock. This evidence suggests that at one time Death valley, not too long ago, was a lake about 600 feet deep and had a much wetter climate.
Even in that inhospitable environment we found a little spider living on the salt flat, also Sally found a lovely dragon fly resting on the Chevy radio antennae, very interesting.
On the way back from Badwater we took the side trip to Artists Pallet and enjoyed the interesting rock formations with their many different coloured sand and mudstone rocks
One of the most fascinating places on Earth (sweeping statement, but true)

Into Death Valley

Following Highway 190 we climbed from Death Valley Junction over Funeral Mountains and swept down, past Zabriskie Point with its views of Death Valley and reached Furnace Creek at a bout lunchtime, there we joined the couple of hundred others who had already arrived at Sunset Campground, set ourselves up with a great view up Death Valley and of telescope Peak (11049ft) to the South West of us. We are not here just for the views of Death Valley, but also for a festival in the desert, it is called the 49ers Encampment (one assumes after the gold rush 49ers). It is an annual festival celebrating Death Valley through art and music and basically having a good time, which is what we hope to have.

After a relax we visited the Visitor Center to orientate ourselves and picked up some ideas for sightseeing trips. The in the evening we took our chairs to watch a sort of concert, just local RV’ers setting up and playing mostly Western/bluegrass/country music under the awning of a Fifth Wheeler, but with a crowd of a hundred or so watching. It was warm, the full moon rose in the East behind us and it was a great atmosphere.

We ware finally back here at Death Valley and everything is peaceful and OK.

Fremont Street Experience

Monday 29th October
This was to be our last day in Las Vegas, so we spent some time stocking up for our Desert Experience, 12 days in Death Valley. A big shop in Walmart.
In the evening we stepped out to Fremont Street to experience the Street Entertainment at night. It is indeed a truly amazing happening. Fremont Street is covered in with a high arch roof, a bit like an old train station. Set in the roof though are thousands(?) of lights so that the whole roof becomes a giant screen about 200 yards long. Combined with three stages, a giant 5 wide Zip Line going overhead and any number of street 'Artists' at street level this makes for a very interesting evening. On the hour the roof screen showed some rather impressive  videos to Don Mclean's American Pie, Queen's We Rock You/We Are The Champions and Bonjovi's something or other forgettable. Down below we could pick out Spiderman, Transformers, Hulk, Marilyn Monroe, Mr Spock, several Elvises, a few tarts, odd metal painted statues, Big Bird, Smurfs, a couple of Michael Jacksons, the YMCA gang, MrT and a variety of Alien Life Forms. All this was of course compounded by it being the Halloween Holiday, so throw in several Grim Reapers, witches and ghouls and it meant your head was constantly spinning round to see what there was to see. The three stages were very entertaining with live singing and dancing, showing a bits from Rocky Horror, Little Shop of Horrors and general ghoulish entertainment, including  their own rendition of Thriller. Then every hour everyone came to a stand still and looked up to watch the overhead screen and listen to the music.
The street was also well lit by loads of neon signs and screens. Including the famous Giant Cowboy, which used to welcome everyone with a loud 'Howdy Pardner' until some film mogul took a dislike to it and it has been silence since then.
This made a great way to finish off our visit to Las Vegas. Tomorrow back to the desert.

Las Vegas Farewell

Pahrump

On Tuesday morning we hitched up the wagon and drove off to the West, taking highway 190 to Death Valley, we planned to take an overnight break in Pahrump, the last large town before Death Valley as we had one or two preparations to make before disappearing into the desert. Pahrump is on the border between Nevada and California, so it is full of casinos, so we stayed at the Western Saddle Casino in their very nice RV park, with full hook up.

We purged the waste tanks and filled the freshwater tank. Did last minute shopping at Walmart for fresh vegetables and another 10 gallons of drinking water, to add the 20 gallons already in the van. Bought an extra 5 gallon petrol can, to use in the car or generator. Filled up with gas (petrol) at $3.52 a gallon ($5.53 a gallon in Death Valley). Filled the propane tanks.  Got cash. Went to the Salvation Army Thrift shop to buy more books. Yesterday I had cooked a large batch of rice (now frozen), and a large batch of bolagnase sauce (now freezing). We are planning to be in dry camping in Death Valley for 11 nights, so we wanted to be prepared. We set off on Wednesday morning, and managed to squeeze another 4 gallons of gas into the van and gas cans at the Last Gas Station before the border. Then continued West into the desert. Wonderful scenery. The great thing about the desert is that the geology is laid bare – no dirt or trees hiding the rocks beneath.  Just rocks and sand (and scrub) in layers of different colours, at crazy angles, eroded and washed away.

Las Vegas Shuttle Ride

We arrived safely back in Las Vegas and after a long but interesting shuttle bus ride got back to our trailer which was safe and sound waiting for us in the Main Street Station Casino RV Park.
We had waited in the shuttle line for quite some time, only to be ushered to a different bus, obviously business was slow so they gathered everyone who was waitng and put them on one bus, as opposed to having one bus go to the strip, one to the off strip and one to the Downtown casinos, so we knew this would be a long bus ride, as we had furthest to go. However it did mean that we got an unguided tour of almost every casino in Las Vegas. trouble came when the bus broke down. The bus was stuck in the middle of the road. We had to get off the bus, move through the traffic, wait on the sidewalk until another bus come and picked us up. No apology. After two hours we arrived at our casino - last on the bus. As we waited for our bag to be unloaded I mentioned to the driver that this had not been a pleasant ride, where upon he turned on me and to my surprise angrily agreed. How bad it had been - "Fourteen people had been dropped off and none of you had shown any thanks" (i.e. no tips). (What a surprise) I couldn't get any brilliant reply in, but only could say that I was entirely unsurprised and that such an unusual phenomenon was probably a reflection on the poor service and long trip - he should take it up with his bosses for putting such poorly maintained buses on the road. Wth that he slammed his luggage door stormed off and slammed his drivers door. However I felt a little satisfaction that the company had felt some redress for their obvious uselessness.

So here we are in Sioux Falls.
Before leaving Las Vegas we shopped for warm clothes, so we are at least somewhat equipped for the weather we are expecting. We have not been disappointed. Outside last night was down to 23 degrees. We have been making rapid transits from hotel to car to shops to wherever to avoid severe frostbite.
As set out in our itinery our first stop was the Department of Motor Vehicles where, after a couple of hitches we were able to obtain a driving license and ID card. We are now officially residents of South Dakota, so farewell Florida (though we are going back there soon).
Following this success we did some sightseeing by going to Sioux Falls, yes i know we were already in Sioux Falls, but surprise surprise there are actually water falls,called Sioux Falls in Sioux Falls. They are not huge, but very pretty as they were formed by a band of very hard pink quartzite, called Jasper. In fact this was the main reason for Sioux Falls existence. The stone was quarried and used for posh buildings.

Sioux Falls at Sioux Falls, SD

Las Vegas

Monday
We moved the 30 miles down the road to take up residence in the RV park behind the Main Street Station Casino in Downtown Las Vegas. It is a very nice quiet RV park, providing you don't mind being 80 yards from a freeway, 25 yards from a busy fire station and on the route every helicopter takes when it lines up to fly down the strip.
Had a nice relaxing day, Sally went to Supercuts and had her hair done, looks very nice.
Tuesday
My turn! Sally scalped me then we went for a walk through the 'Freemont Street Experience. Lots of street artists, great fun. Sally met a black ventriloquist called Scarlet Watts, who was great fun, he is actually English, from Holmfirth, but could talk enough for two (oh he did that anyway), even Sally had trouble getting a word in!
Wednesday
A pleasant trip out to the local Super Walmart. I have been buying clothes. Needed a cozzy for our trip away this weekend.
Tomorrow we are taking a small side trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as you do. I want to get a driving license there, so we are flying up there on Thursday, staying a the Best Western and flying back on Sunday. The forecast says it might snow! But the hotel has an indoor pool, so we hope to take advantage of that.

Lake Mead and The Hoover Dam

Friday
Still being quite naive we trundled into Boulder Beach Campground on the shores of Lake Mead on a Friday - Of course it was full, well almost, we managed to get on to the handicapped site and were then happily joining the throng that enjoys the facilities of Lake Mead every weekend. We couldn't resist going to a local casino to eat a scrummy rib eye Steak for next to nothing, mmm.
We are now firmly in the grip of warm weather! Lovely stuff.
On Saturday we took the trip to Hoover Dam, big place! had a nice tour through some of the tunnels and to the power plant hall right at the bottom. Loved the Art Deco architecture. Just down stream we could see the new bridge across the Colorado, very impressive.
After walking across the dam we then went up to the bridge and I walked across to get a nice view of the Hoover Dam.
We realized why they built the new bridge. After 9/11 no big trucks were allowed across the dam, in case of terrorism, so the new bridge had to be built to let traffic across.
We had booked a meal in a local restaurant in Boulder City for our anniversary, a very pleasant place called Evans Grill, very good food, Sally had a fillet mignon steak and I had a rack of lamb, AND a slice of cheesecake (oops). We had a lovely evening.
Sunday we had a relaxing day nosing round the marina and some of the beaches.
Monday we moved on to Las Vegas.

Valley Of Fire - Nevada

Wednesday We have arrived at Valley of Fire S.P. amid amazing rock formations, we intend to explore more tomorrow.
Thursday
We took our lunch and set out to explore this lovely State Park. Most of the forck formations are of sedimentary rocks and there are many fascinating layer effects, The stratigraphy has been determined by both water born and wind born elements, we loved the colour banding and erosion features, from water, chemical and wind erosion.
we also enjoyed seeing the variety of plants and animals found in the desert.
I have made a small video which is on Youtube.
If you watch it, don't forget to switch on sound and switchit to full screen.

Pipe Springs, Hurricane and Quail Creek

Tuesday. I think because I was not feeling to well we both woke early today and Sally said we could make an early start, so we did. We got up and were hitched up ready to go by 8.30. We drove back up the road to Jacob Lake, then Freedonia, however we now struck West on Route 389 to drive to the south of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, it was a good flat road and we made Hurricane in good time, stopping at Pipe Springs National Monument to look at a Mormon Ranch. Here we picked up some food supplies before driving on a few miles to Quail Creek, we are now just North of St George and plan to move on to The Valley Of Fire tomorrow. Quail Creek State Park is a reservoir just past Hurricane, very pleasant, but no shade. We have now stopped at three Creek S.P.s - Duck Creek, Otter Creek and Quail Creek. Just a happy coincidence.

The North rim of The Grand Canyon

Moving on from the Coral Pink Sand Dune S.P. In deteriorating weather we are now bound for the Grand Canyon, however we plan to make one more stop at Jacob Lake NFS, which is the gateway to the Grand Canyon area. It was an interesting experience driving in the desert in the rain, as you kind of don't expect it, it was also getting colder. However it was only a sort of drizzle, no fancy thunderstorms at all. By the time we got to Jacob Lake it was just wet and cold and miserable. Next morning we got up and left, it was still cold and wet and miserable, however the drizzle was now turning to snow as we climbed the 40 mile road up to 8500ft to the North Rim of the canyon. It was a true winter scene with snow now laying on the road and surrounding countryside. However our trusty Snow tires held out and we arrived without mishap. We eventually found that the site we had booked at the campground was very nicely placed near to the rim of the canyon, however the mist was so thick we couldn't see the canyon. We set up camp and waited a bit and the snow stopped and it cleared a bit, so we set out for the Bright Angel Point to see what we could see, which to start with was nothing. Sally was in her chair and we ventured out along the paved path in the mist, as we traveled along the mist started to clear and every now and then we caught a glimpse of the magnificent Grand Canyon. Sally was very brave and managed to get right to the end, even though the ground dropped away steeply from either side of the path. We waited at the end for about an hour as the mist slowly cleared, leaving patches of sunlight on the Grand Canyon, as well as misty clouds, it was quite unusual. We returned to our trailer and I cooked a nice hot Chicken and gravy with rice dish, just what you need on a cold day. Next day (Saturday) the sun shone bright and clear, though it was still cold, so we packed a lunch and ventured out on one of the paved trails which took us to Cape Royal, an overlook to the East of Bright Angel Point. Here we were able to actually see the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. The views were amazing, as you would expect. We finished off by travelling up to the Kaibab Lookout, where we could see North East to the Vermillion Cliffs, the Marble Plateau and towards Capitol Reef (though we couldn't see it), though we could see Mount Henry, which is 133 miles away! On Sunday we decided to have another look round ourlocal area, so we took the short trail from the campground to the North Rim, where we got some lovely views of the Grand Canyon, then we revisited the Bright Angel Point to now see it in bright sunlight. e went at about 4.00 so that we could see the sunset over the Grand Canyon. It was quite spectacular, but not as impressive as it could have been as the sky was completely cloudless, so there was not a lot of colour in the sunset, however I took some nice photos and Sally was very brave in just getting out to the Point. Monday was wash day, Sally worked like a trojan to do a big wash in the launderette at the campground, then we hd a quiet afternoon at the trailer. We had booked in to the Lodge for dinner. The food was very good, but the views were amazing, we sat near to a large window overlooking the Grand Canyon and were able to eat our dinner and watch the sunset. Tonight really was spectacular, a bright orange, with a line of purple clouds, then as the sun sank below the cloud line a deep magenta glow spread from the horizon upwards. Later all of the clouds were lined in bright red. We sat and watched it all and felt that it was a splendid ending to our trip to the Grand Canyon.

Resting in The Dunes

Wednesday 10th We have indeed had a quiet day today, a short drive to the dunes, where we took off our shoes and walked in the very fine pinky, orangey, sand, struggling up one of the dune faces (small). There were some very interesting animal tracks, one of which snaked from side to side, with little footprints either side, which I assumed were lizards, but other ones completely escaped me, one looking like a fat cycle tire tread, about 1.5 inches wide and the other like a half inch wide zipper. When talking to the ranger later he suggested the big one may well be a Stink Beetle and the small one some kind of cricket, very interesting though. As we drove back to the trailer we were surprised by a large shaggy dog lie animal crossing the road about 30 yards ahead. This was our first really good sighting of a coyote (we had seen one in the distance about a week ago), but with trees either side of the road it was gone before I could reach and get the camera, still the record is in our brain and now here on paper. The rest of the day we did indeed relax, apart from having to move site because of a mix up in their booking system. The ranger was very apologetic and suggested several alternative sites, which we sat and thought about, saying yes we would look, but they were probably too small, or too far from the toilets. Eventually he broke! And offered us the use of the one site on the camp with full hook-up, the camp host site, which was now empty for the winter and they charged double for. We reluctantly accepted this change of site and moved over. This will give the batteries a chance to charge up fully as well as being able to heat the trailer in the morning using electricity (yes the nights are getting much colder now and we have moved to the winter duvet and need to put a bit of heating on in the morning until the sun takes over. Mind you when it does it is still lovely and warm. We can also have long hot showers as we are not using our on board water supply and the waste can be got rid of straight away. Sally can use her hair dryer without using the generators, the laptop can stayed fully charged and I can have hot toast for breakfast.

The Coral Pink Sand Dune State Park

Tuesday 9th As we managed an early start from Otter Lake we made good time, still on our back road, only encountering one car on the 50 miles to Bryce Canyon. We passed the entrance to Bryce Canyon and stopped for a coffee/tea, where we managed to catch up on emails. Then we travelled on to Route 89 and headed south again. We were able to get all the way to our most optimistic destination of the day, The Coral Pink Sand Dune State Park Campground. This is a very quiet area of Southern Utah, it is backed by the Vermillion cliffs and is an area of sand dunes which have been created by a wind funnel effect between two sets of mountains. They are very pretty and a sort of orangey pink colour, due to the Najavo Sandstone from which the sand dunes have been derived.

Quiet Back Roads

We have modified out itinery, so that we can move more gently, so our next target is to arrive at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon by Friday, so we are going to travel North West up route 24 to Koorsharem, then take the backroad, route 22, south back to Bryce Canyon. This road is not so spectacular, but is also less well travelled and also almost without an steep grades (better petrol consumption). It winds to the West of Boulder Mountain and gives some interesting volcanic scenery, we also passed many homesteads, as this valley has water! And appears quite fertile. It was interesting to see the history laid out for us. Each homestead seemed to have an abandoned ancient log cabin, then a more modern house built alongside. The farms were quite small, probably reflecting the right to homesteading that was encouraged in the 1800’s. (640 acres), It is also highly likely that these were the families of the original Mormon Pioneers. We had shopped in Loa and picked up petrol, so we were well stocked up when we pulled in to Otter Lake State Park Campground, where we were able to take our pick of lakeside camp sites, we had a gentle walk to the lake side and watched the cormorants, grebe/divers, coots, ducks, gulls and a couple of pelican swimming around.

Scenic Drive at Capitol Reef

We are also here to see the northern part of the Waterpocket Fold, at the northern end the emphasis is on the harder sandstones which provide massive cliffs and narrow gorges and ravines. The geology is more spread here, rather than the concise fold that e experienced on the Burr Trail, however it is just as spectacular in its scenery and we really enjoyed taking a day to drive the Scenic Loop, taking in the unpaved side roads into some of the narrow gorges, Capitol Gorge in particular boasts really tall cliffs and a really narrow bottom. Three nights here has not been long enough, but it has been a good time for Sally to recover from her infected throat.

Capitol Reef 1 - Fruita

We pulled into Fruita campground on the Friday lunchtime, only to find that it is so popular that the campground was about 10 minutes from being full! Fortunately there was a handicapped space available for us, we were greatly relieved. Apart from being a very popular campground this was Friday of a holiday weekend - Monday would be Columbus Day.
Fruita is an Oasis. The trouble with the term Oasis is that it is largely a fictional concept, fed by 50’s ‘B’ Movies, of some lush trees, perhaps in a valley, water running through, under a red hot sun in a clear blue sky, surrounded with baking sands. Well that is Fruita! Only instead of palm trees there a a number of small, green, grassy, orchards where they have grown apples, pears, peaches, apricots, almonds, cherries, etc since the Mormons first arrived in the 1880’s. It is on the only road which passes through the Water Pocket Fold, it is the only place to have constant water for many miles, the Fremont River. The early settlers irrigated the flat valley floor either side and produced the orchards, which now we camp among, in season you can pick the fruit right off the trees, they even provide ladders and pickers for you. We missed the last crop (apples)  by a day! But we did get the lovely autumn colours in the stands of Cottonwod and fruit  trees. However, Fruita has to be on any campers list of campgrounds if you are within 100 miles of it. It is a truly beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert.

Boulder Mountain

Friday 5th
We packed up and left the Lonesome Pine pull off to continue along Route 12 Scenic Byway, we now had a 79 mile drive over Boulder Mountain to Fruita. It is a big mountain by any standards, it reaches 11,300 ft, the road gets up to 9,600ft, and we had to drive about 30 miles round the side of it. All the way we found amazing pull offs to admire the Fall colours of the Aspen and the views, first back to the West of the Powell Point and the Grand Staircase, then the Southern pat of the Waterpocket Fold, then as we rounded the mountain we could see the extent of the Northern Section of the Waterpocket Fold, Capitol Reef and the Henry Mountains way in the distance. It was quite amazing to be looking down on countryside with its rows of 1000 foot cliffs. A great drive.

On The Burr Trail

Thursday 4th October
Next day we took the drive to the Waterpocket Fold, Sally was still unwell, but determined that having come this far we would do it! The Burr Trail is fortunately paved for about 30 miles, and we were camped 5 miles along it. It then turns to dirt road and then has a set of steep switchbacks to tak us down into the Waterpocket Fold. The Burr Trail then goes South along the fold, eventually getting to Bull Frog, a marina and Ferry on Lake Powell.
Our aim was only to go to the bottom of the Waterpocket Fold. We drove slowly along the Burr Trail, after about 5 miles is descended into a long, deep, narrow ravine, called Narrow Canyon. The layers of red sandstone towered on either side of us, the canyon had a small stream running through it, with huge boulders strewn across the floor. This canyon was about 6 miles long, we came out the other end to find that the entrance to the canyon at this end was part of a plateau, about 600 feet above the valley floor below, straight down. Fortunately there was a reasonable road to take us onward. We then travelled about 10 miles across scrubby high desert, until we hit the end of the paved road. Now we were travelling on dirt road and approaching more rocks, like huge jagged teeth across the landscape. The road twisted carefully between cliffs and there below us was the Waterpocket Fold, a single valley 60 miles long, with steep cliffs either side and something under a mile wide. The whole landscape had been formed when the land to the East had been forced up several thousand feet by a fault deep underground, the surface rocks were bent upwards, so that the rock strata was left at an angel of about 60 degrees Later differential erosion left the harder rocks standing out and the softer rock became valleys, the waterpocket fold valley is the softer bit. From the top of the fold the view was amazing; you could see right across to the Henry Mountains, it was wonderful.

The only way to access the valley floor is down the mile long switchback of the Burr Trail, so having reached the top the only was down, so off we set, slowly grinding down the cliff face, twisting and turning, always driving on the side of the road that was against the rock face, hoping nothing would come the other way, fortunately only one car did and we were able to find a place to pass each other. After the switchbacks the road wound down to the valley floor through a ravine, once on the valley floor we drove a short way and would have had lunch, but there was no shade, so we came back again into the shade of the ravine had lunch, I had a quick explore while Sally had a quick sleep and then we came back up again, driving back along the Burr Trail to our trailer under the Lone Ponderosa Pine. It was a wonderful day and I can only thank Sally for managing to take the trip even though she was still feeling unwell.

On the Trail of The Lonesome Pine

Wednesday 3rd October
The problem with being out of Internet range is that you forget where you are with the blog!. We have now been out of range for over a week, so I am not sure where I should pick up from.

Sally has not been too well, having had a throat infection, which was cured by the doctor in Escalante on Monday with a shot in the bum (antibiotics). This left her feeling pretty exhausted, so we rested at the Petrified Forest State Park until Wednesday. We left Escalante to tackle what I feel is the central challenge of our trip this Fall – Capitol Reef, particularly a feature called the Waterpocket Fold.

This is one of the most remote parts of Utah, which is in itself one of the most remote parts of the USA, so it is pretty remote. Mostly accessible via dirt roads which, although we are able to ride on because of our high clearance, are pretty uncomfortable for two reasons: potholes (self-explanatory) and washboarding. Washboarding is a cruel trick of road maintenance and loose sand/dust on the road. Every so often a road scraper will pass over dirt roads levelling them out; unfortunately they leave a sort of ripple effect on the road surface, which repeated scrapings makes worse. These ripples are like the little waves that form on a sand beach, except they are between 6 inches and a foot in wavelength and anything up to 2 inches high. There are two ways to tackle them – either at 5 mph, carefully traversing each ripple, which is safe but bumpy, or at a speed between 30 and 40 mph, when you go so fast the suspension lets you just glide over them, a process I have now named ‘Washboard Surfing’, which is OK until you either meet a corner, a downhill or a pothole. Braking on washboarding is an invitation to dig the wheels into the washboarding and you wipeout in a terrifying cacophony of every panel of the van banging away and everything loose inside bouncing around and threatening to perform short bursts of freefall acrobatics. Navigating washboarding has the feeling of trying to land a space shuttle, you know where you want to go, but you are trusting to luck to get there in one piece, because you have very little control of what is happening. Hitting a pothole is self explanatory. Trouble is when you have dirt roads that may be fifty miles long the 5mph option is not really an option. So you drive on a knife-edge with the spectre of wipeout with every approaching hazard.

I digress. To reach the inner parts of the Waterpocket Fold we needed a base camp, the only suitable place, that we could plan, is a small pull off about 5 miles down the Burr Trail Road. A place marked by a large lone Ponderosa Pine (as described by the Forest Ranger at the visitor center in Escalante). We set out from Escalante on Wednesday 3rd October. We drove up route 12. Another spectacular section of road taking us through more ravines. We turned off route 12 at Boulder, onto the Burr Trail and surprise, surprise, found the pull off with its Lone Ponderosa Pine, just about lunch time. Here we camped, alone, in the middle of the desert, in the dark, where there might be bears, or robbers, or scorpions. We enjoyed the solitude and the warm weather, Sally continued to be exhausted, but recovering, so we sat for the rest of the day here just enjoying the peace.

Couldn't not include this very unlikely hit in the UK in 1975, it would have reached number 1, but for Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody:

Grand Staircase National Monument Escalante

Monday October 1st
Having dashed across Nevada in two days we are taking time to get through Utah. Cathedral Canyon to Duck Creek is only 89 miles, Duck Creek to Bryce is only 50 miles, when we moved on it was only another 50 miles to Petrified Forest State Park in Escalante. where there is a reservoir and a petrified Forest, though we have not seen that yet. We are following route 12, which is a scenic Byway of America and joins many of the amazing land forms of this area.This whole region of Utah is called the Grand Staircase National Monument, because it is a landscape made up from a whole series of cliffs and plateau which start in the south with The Grand Canyon and rise in a series of steps to Powell Point. As you travel through you are continually confronted with vertical cliffs that soar above and deep ravines below, where water and ice have ripped away the rocks as the Colorado Plateau was slowly pushed up as two continental plates collided. The geology is amazing and I don't pretend to follow all of it - there just isn't time to find out about it. But the visual effect is staggering.

Our onward progress has been halted temporarily as Sally has been unwell with a throat infection, which required a visit to the local clinic, so we will stay at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park for three nights instead of one, before we move 30 miles up the road to Boulder and The Burr Trail, which will give us access to the Water Pocket Fold, the main feature of Capitol reef National Park, although on Sunday we did have a meal out at the local restaurant, called the Pioneer Restaurant, we shared a Beef Pot Roast, which was very nice.

Bryce Canyon

Saturday 29th SeptWhat can you say about Bryce Canyon? We first saw it in 2003 and promised that we would one day return (just like June Lake in 1997), well here we are back again and it is still just as beautiful as we remembered it. We strolled up to the rim to look down on those red, cream and white pillars. We just wandererd the rim for a couple of hours noticing how the changing sunlight altered the view (there was partial cloud). In the afternoon we joined a ranger led Rim Walk to hear about the geology of the park, then sat and watched the changing rocks as the sun went down. I returned at about 9.30 in the evening as there was a full moon and it was very easy to see the rock formations, I took a couple of photos, but they did not do justice to the moonlight. The camera I have is able to take panorama photos in 3D, so I took several 3D shots, even though we don't have a 3D TV, I am sure that we will one day.

Cathedral Canyon State Park

Thursday Sept 27thWe pulled in to a place called Cathedral State Park. A small and charming state Park, near to Panaca, with a lovely campground, where we were able to get a great spot in the shade, as we are still regularly getting temperatures in the 80's, though it gets cold at night.

We decided to take an extra day here to explore the famous Cathedral Canyon formations. Soft clay beds which have been eroded into some pretty weird shapes. Most amazing are the little slot canyons that have formed, narrow passageways which are up to 40 high, but only a foot or so wide, with completely vertical sides. As you walked through them you were enveloped in a delicious, shady, coolness. Quite fascinating.

Friday saw us back on the road, moving on to Cedar City, the local centre, with the only Walmart for about 200 miles (except St George to the south). We stopped there to collect supplies and share a meal at Applebees. Then on through the Cedar Breaks National Park to stay at Duck Creek Campground. On Saturday we moved on to Bryce Canyon, hoping to get a site in the Sunset campground, having realised that Saturday would probably be busy. However our anxiety was ill founded, as we had no trouble getting a very pleasant pull through site, ready to revisit Bryce Canyon the next day

The Extraterrestrial Highway

Wednesday Sept 26th - On Thursday we set out to travel further East, we planned to take The Extraterrestial Highway. This is a road which skirts the Nellis Air Base, famous for being Area 51, where so many UFO's have been seen. The road runs straight (and I mean straight) across the desert, interspersed with many mountain ridges, right in the middle of this road is a small town called Rachel, famous for the Ale-inn. This is a place for UFO Uber Geeks to congregate. It was made even more famous when it featured in the film 'Paul 2011', very british comedy, set in the desert.

After stopping for a drink and some fries, and to admire the geeks, we drove on along 375, to stop and get a picture of the famous 'black Mailbox', another place so beloved by sky watchers. Of course the joke is that the mail box is now painted white, however it is still known as the Black Mailbox!!. Surprisingly we did not see any UFO's, or aliens, or even super secret weapons (both the Blackbird and the Stealth Bomber were developed and tested here), however we did watch Paul 2011 when we were camped in Cathedral Canyon State Park

We covered over two hundred miles today, partly helped by long straight roads and a 70 m.ph. speed limit, though our ave MPG went down to something just over 5MPG!! I kid you not.

We left June Lake this morning to drive into Nevada, man that place is empty!! We have set up camp in the car park of the local casino in Tonopah. The road as a good one (120, which also goes over Tioga Pass, so we made good time. Good enough that we could take a side trip to Goldfield, another ghost town, more modern than Bodie, but much bigger, more than 20,000 people moved there between 1904 and 1907, they were there for the gold, when the gold ran out, so did they, so it now has a population of 250. We drove round the streets, where man of the buildings have gone. The we visited the courthouse, which was a revelation. It was amazing to see whole blocks of streets with no houses, but loads of peoples trash (like cars) lying around the place. The courthouse, jail, school, hotels, council offices are all still there, big enough to run a large town, but almost deserted.  We parked the car and had a closer look at the County Court, as we wandered round we could see the offices of the Recorder, Sheriff, D.A., Justice of the Peace. We stopped in at this little office, with its official bench and chairs for defendent etc. while we were there a lady welcomed us and showed us round the room, then got out some really old books and records to show us a little of the history, talked about the fires and the goldmines and the railways, it was fascinating. As we were standing there we started to realise that this was indeed the Justice Of the Peace for the town. we had an interesting conversation about her job, as she has to stand for re-election in November, but only needs a couple of hundred votes to keep the job. She was a very pleasant and helpful lady, so go Judge Juanita Colvin, we hope you get re-elected.We drove back to Tonopah and had a quiet evening. Tomorrow we plan to drive the Extraterrestial Highway, through area 51 and by the Nellis airbase.

From Lake Tahoe to June Lake, Via Mono Lake!

It's all lakes, mountains and deserts on this side of the Sierra Nevadas. Having spent two nights by Lake Tahoe, we pressed on to route 395, which runs North/South on the other side of the mountains. As soon as the mountains drop away you enter desert, which is broken only by a series of lakes, the most notable of which is Mono Lake. About 10 miles south is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world - June Lake. We first saw this in 1997 when we toured the West with the kids. We wanted to return, and now we have. We have found a nice campsite on the north end of the lake, with just a bit of a view of the lake. The Campground is called 'Oh! Ridge', we presume because as you drive up a desert incline you cannot see the lake, then over the ridge at the end of the lake, when you see the lake for the first time and it is difficult not to say 'Oh!' as the view is amazing. Its emerald green water is framed perfectly by pine covered slopes and high mountain peaks.
On Friday we had a wander round the lake side beach and then drove the 'June Lake Loop Road', a back road which goes past the lake and through some narrow valleys past another three lakes, before coming back out onto Route 395 and so back to June Lake.


Yesterday (Saturday) Mono Lake and Bodie.
Today we drove out for the day, back past Mono Lake, which is a large lake, maybe 10 miles wide, with no obvious way out for the water, although Los Angeles (300 miles away) has been extracting water from it since about 1964. It is a surreal landscape, the lake is surrounded by desert, with mountains all around. Beautiful, but stark. Hopeless to photograph as the scenery is far too subtle. We drove on to our goal, a ghost town, one of the most famous, called Bodie. In the 1880's it was still producing gold as many other goldfields were being worked out, thus attracting 10,000 gold workers and hangers on, the town lasted at that size for about 3 years and then declined and was abandoned by 1920. It is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, up a 13 mile dead end road. The summers are over 100 degrees, the winters get up to 20 ft of snow and 30-40 degrees below (who cares in both F and C that is cold). All wood and food had to be hauled in by mule train, so as soon as the gold ran out there was not a lot to keep people there, and since there was not means of transport they just left everything. Despite having been ravaged by fire and weather there ar still some 100 buildings still standing, complete with the bits and pieces that were left. It was a fascinating place, we really enjoyed wandering around and imagining what life must have been like in 1880 there. On the way back to the trailer we decided to eat out. A friend, called Randy Sheldon had recommended. It looks out over Mono Lake and is known as the Tioga Gas Mart, but called the Whoa Nellie Deli. It looks pretty much like a gas station, in fact it is a gas station, but the food is quite amazing, we settled for pork chop with apricot and cranberry sauce, but could have had Elk Chop, Buffalo Meatloaf or Lobster Taco. We just beat the rush, but by five-o-clock the place was packed. Great advice Randy.

Today, Sunday, Mammoth and The Devils Post Pile
We had a different venue on our menu. It was time to hit Mammoth! We wanted to visit The Devils Post Pile, i.e. a pile of posts. It is a volcanic formation which cooled very slowly underground and when the surrounding area was eroded away it left a basalt formation that was like a whole pile of wooden posts set vertically, each one roughly hexagonal in shape, very similar to the Giants Causeway in Ireland, only instead of seeing the top, you saw them from the side. As well as this outstanding formation there was also Soda Lake, where Carbon Dioxide bubbles out from the rock up through the stream, as it escapes under pressure some the Carbon Dioxide dissolves in the water, making a naturally sparkling water! We loved that.

Add into this the most amazing mountain vista of what is called the Minaret Peaks and we had quite a day.

Driving back through Mammoth we drove past the ski lifts which are currently in use for mountain bikers. this is where our son Andrew rented a bike and rode the Kamakazi Run when we were there in 1997. Now that brought back memories. After doing some shopping we again decided to eat out, this time in Roberto's, a well known Mexican cafe, where I succumbed to a Chimmychanga (a deep fried tortilla filled with meat and beans), Sally had a nice chicken salad with rice and beans. Trouble is that we could only eat half, so we have brought the rest home for dinner tomorrow.

Lake Tahoe

Wednesday 19th September We want to look at the lake today, without too much rushing around, so we are planning to drive a little way up the lake to Tahoe City, for a coffee and then come back and visit house/mansion that is in the grounds of the Sugar Pine S.P. Ou plan started well, we drove gently northwards along the lake shore towards Tahoe City, stopping to admire the lake, which is beautiful. However things changed a little when we pulled in to a lakeside cafe. On parking we noticed a number of people acting in an animated sort of a way. It is a pattern of behaviour we have seen before. People stopping and looking, yet remaining animated, not sure whether to approach or retire. That said "Bears!" loud and clear. Anyway we joined the group and inquired and sure enough, down on the edge of the lake a large Black Bear (but brown in colour) was enjoying a morning dip in the lake. For our protection a local sheriff was watching over the event, so we felt safe to approach closer and take some good pictures. By now about a dozen people were standing watching the bear, mostly tourists like us, as loclas are used to this. After a while a second officer came along and explained to us that the bear had to be moved from the public beach to a local woodland area. Their sophisticated game plan was to use a rifle with rubber bullets to drive the bear along the beach to a road that lead to the woods. So having fired at it the bear just swam along the beach and disappeared back to the woods, leaving us to go and hove our cup of coffee in peace and safety. The officer suggested that bears are in fact not dangerous (unless hungry, trapped or you are between them and their cubs) and behave like big pussies, which I was willing to believe completely, all the time the officer was there. I did however learn a slight improvement on the strategy of how to avoid being caught by a bear, the standard being to make sure that you can run faster than at least one other person. The new strategy is more subtle. Always make sure that you are in a position to be able to trip someone up at the vital moment, before making your exit at a more leisurely pace. Following that excitement we were then able to go back to Syds Cafe for our quiet morning coffee sat overlooking the lake. We drove back along the lake hsore to the Sugar Pine S.P. and turned towards the lake and the mansion that was in the grounds of the State Park, in fact the grounds of the mansion is the State Park, about 2000 acres of garden and woods and lakefront. The Sugar Pine Mansion was a turn of the century summer retreat (they had several) of the found of the Wells Fargo Bank, so cash was not in short supply. We took the tour of the mansion, a large wooden construction with eight bedrooms and seven bathrooms, when it was built the access was from the lake, so it was wonderfully secluded, with great views and nicely tended gardens sweeping down to the lake. After our tour we sat by the boathouse and had our lunch, inevitably talking to some other visitors, one couple were especially nice, and they were our next door neighbours in campground, so a short lunch break turned into an pleasant afternoon chatting. We are very impressed with Lake Tahoe, which is very big and very beautiful. It comes a close third behind Crater Lake and our next stop - June Lake.

Wagons Ho - Back On The Trail

Wednesday 19^th

We had figured that 96 miles to Lake Tahoe would be a fairly gentle drive, what didn’t figure on was that I had chosen a bendy road, also that it was uphill all the way, we climbed from 4000ft to over 8000ft. Consequently our drive time was more than four hours and around fifteen gallons of gas.

We left Plymouth and cut East on a county road that took us through Fiddletown and eventually joined up with route 88, part of which is built on the old wagon train route opened in 1844 and gave access to Sacramento and the Gold Country, along with such names as Tragedy Valley gave us some idea of the hardship and difficulties of travel in those days – they would take days to travel the distance we thought tedious in a couple of hours. We stopped on the shores of Caple Lake to have our picnic, which was very pleasant However our first sight of Lake Tahoe did not disappoint, it is a beautiful location, with deep blue water surrounded by tree covered mountains. We had decided to approach from the South and head to the West Shore, as there are several State and Forestry campgrounds, but after stopping at a visitor center we discovered that there were only two options available – Kaspian and Sugar Pine, so we settled on Sugar Pine, where we found a nice campsite in amongst the Sugar Pine trees, after following the road round the lake for about 12 miles. We set up in the almost empty campground in a very nice site.

So today we will set out to see some of the sights of Lake Tahoe.

Visiting Gold Country

Monday 17^th

Over Sunday and Monday everyone went their separate ways, while we had determined to stay an extra day sos that we could take in a bit more about Gold Country, it really is a beautiful area of rolling hills with many small villages and towns tucked into the valleys, there is a lot of evidence of the mining that went on here many years ago, we revisited the Kennedy Gold Mine, which we have passed last year when we drove up 49, this time we swung off the main road to a small town with a grand name called Amador City, if 20 houses can be classed as a city, but it was very pretty., we drove on through and parked in Sutters Creek, a town which looks as it did in the 1850s, thought the wooden sidewalks have been replaced with concrete, many of which Sally could not negotiate in her chair, but we still saw plenty. There are many antique/junk shops, also many preowned clothes shops, full of the fifties and sixties fashions that Helen is looking to have at her wedding, so of course this set us off looking at vintage memorabilia, which was very interesting. In many windows were  posters advertising a local event – Vintage Fashion Show and Afternoon Tea, for the local people Vintage included Victorian, Edwardian, Suffragette, Flappers, pre war and post war fashion (so the poster said and I a sure that it would have been a great event, unfortunately not until October, when we will be many miles away. It was here that we found a lovely shop with hundreds of musical boxes and chiming clocks, many of them Disney, so we spent a fair while there trying the different items on display.

We moved on to the next town, this one is bigger, called Jackson and list the hub town for this area. It too has a main street, which is now bypassed, so is very quiet. We parked the car and started to stroll, once again many antique and clothes shops, though we did find a huge sweet shop, which we were forced to go into and look round. We saw a huge variety of sweets, fudge and ice cream, I was forced to sample some of their homemade fudge, but not tempted to buy any. We did find a huge array of Cookie Cutters and bought a pack of various sized hearts, we think that it might be a good idea to make and decorate heart cookies for Helen’s Wedding, but we shall see, at least we have the cutters even if that idea does not fit into the plan.

It was now time to eat, we asked the Candy shop people where was a good place and were directed to Mel’s Diner, originally just a kiosk it had become so popular that it had now opened as a large diner. We chose a booth (green leather) and ordered a New York Strip, fries, one trip to the Salad Bar and two plates, we were embarking on our new strategy of trying to share meals, not only to save money, but also to try and keep the calories down (more of that later). We had a very nice meal, well cooked and ample for both of us, though we did have fun balancing all the salad on the plate you get for the salad bar. I succumbed to a milk shake – a peanut butter milk shake, which was delicious. Feeling full, but righteous, we continued our exploration of Jackson, which included the newly refurbished National Hotel, all the time feeling that we were extras in a cowboy film, because the street was so reminiscent of the towns we see in Westerns.

Our last stop was some shopping, which would enable us to resupply after a week of not leaving the campground (except to get the truck done), Sally had not left the campground at all. So Walmart was the first stop. Since beginning to lose weight my trousers have been getting bigger and bigger, so I figured that it was time for a smaller pair. I chose some Wrangler Relaxed Fit, same as I bought last year, but a size smaller – 38” and a pale blue Tee shirt, then tried them on. They fitted perfectly, the only thing being that the Tee shirt was a L, rather than the XL, or XXL I had been buying and when we looked at the jeans instead of picking out a 38”, somehow I had picked up a size 36” waist!, so from a tight 40” I have now gone down to a 36” waist! I felt quite chuffed at that. We completed our shopping and returned to the trailer to start packing ready to leave tomorrow to follow the old road which brought the Wagon Trains from the East to California, though we will be travelling in the other direction, as we head to Lake Tahoe.