Lubbock to Utah by way of Minneapolis

 I last wrote at San Angelo…. A long time ago. I need to make a list of dates and where we have been in order to get myself oriented here.

We left San Angelo on 4/13

4/13-14 Lubbock  at Mesa Verde RV Park

   We went to some museum at Texas Tech

4/15 Lubbock at Lubbock RV Park

   Windmill Museum- no pics forgot camera

4/16-18 Canyon, TX at Palo Duro RV Park

    Palo Duro Canyon

4/19-27 Amarillo, TX at AOK Campground

 Left Camper in Amarillo 4/20-4/26 for road trip to Minnesota staying at Deed and Eileens on 4/20, Ludwigs 4/21-24, in Des Moines 4/25 and Perry, OK on 4/26

   Aleatha’s Wedding

   Visit Edie

   OK State Capital

   OK City National Memorial & Museum

4/28-29 Albuquerque, NM at Sandia Casino

   Shop

    Dinner with Rod & Judy

    Hike Sandia Mountains

4/29-30 Albuquerque at Enchanted Trails RV Park

   Laundry and granola

5/1 -3  Sun Valley, AZ Sun Valley RV Resort

  Petrified Forest National Park

5/4-7 Blanding, UT at Devils Canyon National Forest Service Campground

  Arches National Park – Hike to see Delicate Arch

  Natural Bridges National Monument and trip through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

  Glen Canyon National Recreation area

  Canyonlands National Park

5/8-9 Moab Rim RV Resort

The first thing I had to do was to reconstruct when and where we have been places. To do that I have a variety of resources on hand including my paper calendar, various brochures and RV Park maps and receipts but probably the most useful is Google which has been tracking my every move including the places we’ve stayed, visited and shopped. Rather than to try to recount all of that, I just layed it out above. Not for your benefit but for my own. It helps me to be a little grounded if I can review where I’ve been and what all I have done. So I will just write about those experiences we have had that might be of interest. 

One thing we talked about when we were in the middle of Texas was the kind of roads that Don prefers to drive the RV on. Texas has Interstates, US Highways, Texas State Highways, FM (Farm to Market) Highways, Ranch Roads and County Roads. The first 3 you can count on to have shoulders, be plenty wide and are acceptable. FM and Ranch can sometimes be acceptable. County roads avoid if at all possible. He is the driver and I am the navigator so my job is to do my best to avoid getting 

on bad roads. I have road maps and of course my Google to help me in this endeavor. But Don made clear what he wants and I agreed to make sure that we don’t get into a bad situation. So our next trip was to Lubbock, Texas. I selected Mesa Verde RV Park using my RV Parky App on my cell phone which has a link to Google Maps to get directions. The problem with Mesa Verde was that it was on the other major highway that comes into Lubbock. We were arriving directly from the south on US Hwy. 87 while Mesa Verde was on US Hwy 82 coming in from the southwest. Ursula, the name we have given to the voice on Google Maps, gave me directions to cut across the triangle south of Lubbock and it appeared to be the shortest way get to the Park. I studied my map and looked at Ursula’s directions and made the decision to take the long way and then at the last minute changed my mind to take the short cut. As soon as Don made the left turn, I knew it was a mistake. We were on a narrow, shoulder-less county road. There was no way to turn around. At least it was paved. I assured Don that it wouldn’t be too long. It didn’t let up. Don had both hands on the wheel and carefully moved as far as he could to the right slowing down to meet oncoming cars. Fortunately there weren’t too many. He didn’t say much but kept driving. There was nothing else to do. Even if we unhooked the car, turning the bus around was not an option and the farther we went the more I apologized. Don didn’t say much, just kept driving following Ursula’s directions. The roads we were no were not on the Texas State map and I couldn’t figure out where Ursula was taking us but continued to follow her directions until she directed us to turn down a muddy dirt road. Then I called the RV Park lady and asked her for directions. She asked me where we were. I said, “I don’t know where the hell we are!” and as we approached a corner with County Road numbers I gave them to her. She said she didn’t know where that was. She suggested that I should know better than to use GPS it just isn’t reliable. At that point, and I’m not proud of it, I shifted the blame for the whole debacle onto her. What could we do but keep driving until we came to a road that was on the map. Eventually we did and I was able to call the lady to get directions to the RV park. We had driven within a block. When we arrived, I suggested that she might tell people not to use GPS like some other parks we have gone to. She got defensive and who can blame her. We got into our site in the back of the park and that night on the other side of the fence the highway department was doing some construction using those blazing lights shining right at our camper and heavy duty machinery. I did sleep some that night using ear plugs. We stayed there another night in spite of it all because we were too tired to move though we moved to another park in Lubbock that was on the road out of town for our last night there. We toured the Windmill Museum and have no pictures because we forgot our cameras. It was one of the most interesting stops we have made along the way. I will try to include a link to their website here. American Wind Power Center at www.windmill.com

Scrub Jay - looking for crumbs

 Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas was a surprise treat for us. Here we began our training for the Mystic Lake trip we have planned in June in the Montana Mountains. We hiked about 7 miles to see the Lighthouse which is a rock formation that resembles (you guessed it) a light house. The

brochure we had suggested that each person carry a gallon of water for the hike. We figured that it wasn’t too hot out and we didn’t want to carry so much weight so we threw 3 bottles of water along with some almonds into our pack and headed up the trail. We did okay though a couple more bottles of water would have been good in addition to a snack with more salt. I forgot my hat so my face got a little more color to it though not sunburned. It was a beautiful sunny warm day and we met some interesting people along the way and saw a roadrunner in some low branches in a tree. At the end of the trail we sat at a picnic table and rationed our water and shared our almonds with our newfound friends and they shared their cheese sticks. They had emigrated from England about 20 years ago and live in Houston. A Scrub Jay hopped around in a near-by tree waiting for us to leave some crumbs behind for him.

One of the great treats we have enjoyed in our travels is the opportunity to reconnect to friends we’ve made along the way who moved away. Back in 1994-95, my friend Judy Groves did her internship at Catholic Charities while she completed her Masters degree. Even though we only worked together for 6 months or so we formed a friendship and have exchanged Christmas cards every year. She and her husband Rod retired and moved to Albuquerque at about the same time that we moved to our house on Vigal Road. So several months ago I emailed her and gave her an approximate time that we would be in Albuquerque and Judy invited us to dinner at their house on April 29. We spent a wonderful evening with them over very good food and wine talking about our travels and their travels and staying connected with grandchildren over long distances. We were blessed with an amazing rainbow

framing the city of Albuquerque from the front of their house. Even though I worked with Judy a short time, I was reminded why I’ve kept in touch with her for over 20 years. Don had been concerned because he never really knew Judy or Rod that he was just have to sit through a social event. Turns out he enjoyed the visit as much as I did.

Resting on a rock in the Sandia Mountains

Don with his favorite cac

Our next opportunity for mountain hiking training was on the Sandia Mountains. Before we left the Sandia Casino parking lot, we headed up to the mountains for a 6 mile hike on some pretty steep terrain. We did manage to get lost and ended up walking through a residential area where we found someone to give us directions back to our car in the Tramway parking lot. It was a cool cloudy morning, unusual for Albuquerque. 

Aleatha and Kyle

We left the camper in Amarillo and took a road trip to Minnesota. It was time to see Edie again and we had the excuse that Niece Aleatha wanted us to be honorary grandparents for her at her wedding out on her husband’s family farm near Milaca, Minnesota. So on a beautiful April day, we had the privilege of being part of her small intimate wedding in a field with the wind blowing and the sun shining sitting on bales of straw as they said their vows with her new step-daughter 2-year-old Mia walking around her family. The family dogs watched over the proceedings. We then convened at the house to visit and enjoy a feast prepared by family members. Outdoor April weddings in Minnesota are always dicey. We’ve attended some very cold weddings up there and some that have been moved indoors because of the weather. None as nice as this one. I think that is a good omen for this marriage.

Edie - breakfast at Mpls. best
Victor's 1959 Cafe

The day before yesterday, we had our 3^rd opportunity for mountain hiking training at Arches National Park. We decided to take the hike to see the Delicate Arch about a 6 mile round trip with 480 feet elevation change. It was a very warm day with bright sunshine. The trails offer almost no places to find shade. The brochure recommend 1 qt. of water per person. This time we took 4 bottles of water and some granola bars with us and both of us wore our hats. Even with that we were challenged. Could have used more water. We know this because Don didn’t pee for several hours. It was a beautiful hike though and we walked over what they call open slick rock. It wasn’t really slippery but was smooth, and very steep in intense sunshine. We stopped many times to catch our breath and enjoy some breathtaking views. Good training and breaking in the hiking shoes.

At Natural Bridges

At Natural Bridges National Monument, we took a short hike (about .6 mile with an elevation drop of 500 feet) to see Sipapu Bridge with steep stairs cut out of the rock and at one point even a ladder. Probably the most spectacular road we’ve ever driven on was a car trip we took through Glen Canyon on Hwy 95.The drive coming down into the canyon and crossing the Colorado River was amazing. We took that drive to check it out and see if we want to go that way with the camper. While making the drive with the camper would be quite doable, we decided not to go that way but when we leave her later today, we’ll go north and stay at Moab a couple of days.

Just your average Utah road hazard