September 1…….Greetings from just outside Dallas, Texas
where it’s about 100 in the sun. It doesn’t seem like it’s been almost a month
since my last post so I’m apologizing for another long post. This will be the
final from the road. I had planned to be home tomorrow and just west of Tallahassee camping with
Stephanie and James right now but Isaac and the truck engine conspired to make
sure that wasn’t happening.
Aug 5 thru 7
I set my goal at
reaching a National Forest campground 22 miles back a dirt and gravel road that
was quite nice and it’s about as remote as I can get with this trailer. Be sure
and look at the location via my SPOT link.
I have a beautiful campsite in a grove of
Aspen trees and I hope to stay here about 4 days watching wildlife and taking
some walks. When the breeze blows, as it is right now as
I type this, the whole grove quivers and when I first
witnessed it yesterday it
reminded me of the grass skirt hula girl dolls you used to
see in the back window of cars except this was like seeing thousands at the
same time so now I’ll have that picture in my mind anytime I see Aspens.
Last night I sat outside a little before dusk and watched a
group of deer graze here in the grove not 50 feet from me. I’ve also had 3 or 4
hummingbirds come visit and hover right in front of me. The campground is at
9100 feet and at times I feel it and find myself gasping for air. I did sleep
ok which is my big concern. I did succeed in beating the heat, the highs here
are in the 70’s and last night the low was 47. About an hour drive from here it
was in the high 90’s. I’m planning on
heading over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
I did a brief drive thru about 15 years ago when it was still a National Monument.
I am now in my 5th month on the road and I’m approaching 17000 miles
yet there is still so much to see and I’ve only been in 12 states. I could make
a career of this but I doubt Linda would agree.
The walls of the Black
Canyon are up to 2000
feet high and geologists estimate that the river erodes up to 1 inch of
riverbed rock per century so it’s been eating away for a longggggggg time. The
river does have an unusually steep gradient dropping an average of 95 feet per
mile thru the canyon.
Once back at the campsite I sat outside under the canopy to
a light shower of rain and never did do a fire. This campsite is so quiet at
times and so peaceful but I feel the altitude.
Today the 7th is planned as a nature day at the
campsite. I’m looking for a trail to the reservoir and need to recharge the
deep cycles. My campground is carved out of an aspen grove and they dominate
the nearby mountains. The dirt road that got me here continues and within 5 or
6 miles from here goes over an 11000 foot + pass. I think I’ll explore that in
the pickup tomorrow. The Hummingbirds continue to visit and will hover less
than 5 feet from me and be there for what seems an eternity for a Hummingbird
but is less than 5 seconds. This has been repeated many times in less than 2 days.
I should take a hike to view the reservoir but just sitting and watching and
listening to the Aspens in the wind is worth taking the time to do, it’s one of
nature’s symphonies.
The hike to the reservoir overlook was rather short but a
nice walk through the Aspens ending with a panoramic view of the nearby peaks.
The plaque with the mountain heights reminded me just how high I am back in
this wilderness. While at the overlook
a heard and saw black bears down along the reservoir shoreline. One was
hollering and it sounded like a mother yelling at her kids. I decided to exit
the area quickly and saw more deer on the walk and they were back thru my
campsite again last night.
Aug 8
The drive to up thru the pass was quite nice and scenic and
I threw in a short walk in a high meadow.
Tomorrow I’ll head over to Gunnison
which is only about a 70 mile drive. It will be hard to leave Silver Jack, it’s
so peaceful.
Aug 9 thru 12
I’m camping at North Bank CG, a National Forest site in the Taylor River
Canyon a little northeast of Gunnison. The rock formations just UPHILL from the camper
look like they will come tumbling down someday. When’s someday?
The Taylor
River is dammed upstream
from here at the head of the canyon forming a reservoir so I drove up. The road
climbs from 8500 feet to over 10000 feet and then you reach the Taylor Dam and
as the road turns you see the reservoir sitting in this huge valley and on the
east and north sides of the valley are 12 to 14 thousand foot peaks. The valley
sits above 10000 feet and the tree line ends not far up the surrounding mountains.
It was an incredible site.
I had to drive around Gunnison some since I was there in the
90’s and I did a day trip to Crested Butte and walked the streets a bit and
drove up Kebler Pass road to a lakeside campground at
10550 feet. It looked great but there’s
no way I can camp above 10000 feet, wish I could. The forests on the pass road
looked beautiful.
While camped at North Bank I chatted with the campground
hosts more than once. Jan and Everett are real nice folks from Ohio. As far as hosting
goes they’ve got it tough. They are supplied no hookups. I enjoyed our
conversations.
I did hike a bit of a trail right by my campsite. The trail
was primarily setup for mountain bikes and was very steep as it rose toward the
top of the canyon. The views were quite nice but I gave up after about ¾ mile
as the trail was almost to the top but never seemed to reach the top.
August 13 & 14
Heading for Great
Sand Dunes
National Park about 130
miles to the southeast. The drive was on good road and part of the trip was
over a 10000+ foot pass and for about 30 miles I didn’t see another car and
there are no towns but lots of beautiful scenery. My campground goal is San Luis
State Park about 10 miles from the
National Park. I find the campground almost empty. It is nice to have electric
and the views aren’t bad.
Once the Sun set then
the stars starting showing and it wasn’t long before the Milky Way stretched
across the sky almost straight overhead with lightning in the background over
the mountains. I knew the Persoids Meteor shower was occurring very soon but
hadn’t been able to verify the date until I went to the National Park visitor
center and learned that the peak had happened my last night near Gunnison. So I
missed out on the meteors unless 1 small one counts. The sand dunes are a bit
hard to believe and seem out of place. The story is that the mountain range
immediately east of the dunes has a jog in it and the prevailing winds
deposited sand, from the mountain range to the west, into that jog. Those same
winds carried the sand up into the mountains but rain and snow melt washes it
back down to the dune level and occasionally the winds blow from the east and
move sand back into the dunes. So they don’t really change much in height or
area. Their age is not clear. They are as high as 750 feet and are extremely
impressive.
August 15
I’m heading a little further south then back west on Route
160 into southwestern Colorado.
My goal is Vallecito Reservoir about 15 miles northeast of Durango. There are numerous National Forest
CG’s along the reservoir and I was successful in getting a pretty good spot.
I’ve got a nice view of the lake and it appears quite low. This campground is
at 7800 feet and I’m affected by the altitude a little. It looks like I start
having issues above 7000 feet and I’ve been at that altitude or higher for
about 3 weeks and I can’t say I’m adjusting much. My original plan for this
area was to go to a CG northwest of here near Silverton but I checked and found
it sits at 9800 feet and I had to change plans.
August 16
Today is a stay in camp day since I had to move this morning
less than 1000 feet due to not knowing the site I was originally in was
reserved starting today. So I’m catching up on these entries. I’ve been getting
lazy and letting it go and have some thoughts and ideas I ultimately forget and
never relate here. I’m cooking a pork roast on the grill as I type and enjoying
the temps. It gets to around 80 during the day and 50 at night…..just about
right and very little humidity. My thoughts are starting to turn to home. It’s
getting harder to enjoy the days with my traveling partner gone. We each needed
a break from the other but that point has passed and I’ve still got 16 days to
go. I have been and still am quite
comfortable living on the road like this and I think I could do it full time
with some long stays mixed in. I’m planning on a little beachside camping near Pensacola on the way home
to get back into a flatlander mood…LOL.
August 17
I’ve been anticipating a trip to Silverton, Colorado
along with the drive. The road traverses two mountain passes over 10000 feet
and the high country between them with the town nestled down in a valley.
Since I didn’t want to have too much excitement in one day I
ended the day trip with a visit to the Laundromat, in Durango partner.
August 18 thru 20
It’s a short drive of around 65 miles to the next campground
that happens to be in Mesa
Verde National
Park. There is one campground, Moorefield Village,
and I remember it from our first visit to Mesa Verde and specifically the deer
in the campground. There’s plenty still there.
One morning I saw one of the Fawns having breakfast
compliments of Mom. My camera wasn’t close enough!
This is my third visit to Mesa Verde. I feel a connection to
this place. I’m saving Monday for my “in the park” day. Monday is the day of a
Pro bike tour race from Durango
to Telluride and the road closures and traffic jams are something I want to
avoid. So for Sunday I headed to Hovenweep
National Monument west of
Mesa Verde. It’s another collection of Pueblo
architecture built of the edge of canyons.
I had never seen the area in Mesa Verde know as Long House
so that’s where I’m headed. There is evidence of ancient people living in Mesa
Verde starting around 1400 years ago and their community evolved and grew over
a 750 year period. It was only in about the last 125 years of their community
that they built dwellings down under the cliffs. It appears that in the early
1200’s they left the area and we aren’t sure why. Long House was very
impressive, be sure and check out the additional photos I’ve uploaded into the
online album.
August 21 thru 23
Time to turn back to the East and dip into New
Mexico and end up somewhere near Santa Fe. The drive from southern Colorado into New
Mexico was impressive. At one point the road tops a
pass above 10000 feet and there was a lake and a National Forest campground
that looked real nice and would have been cool but I knew I’d have trouble
sleeping at that altitude. Then later you’re driving along a relatively flat
landscape covered with sage brush and all of a sudden the bottom falls out it’s
the Rio Grand river gorge.
So I decided on a KOA
in Santa Fe for
the next 3 nights. I’ll watch some TV and use wifi. It’s a small campground but
very well maintained and very quiet, my space is minimal but it is just fine.
Old town Santa Fe
was just a short drive and I took a walk around town and had a really really
good Burrito from a small little shop. I’ve heard tons about TS Isaac and based
on the Hurricane Centers forecast there is no sense in my heading east. My plan
had been to be in Pensacola,
soaking up rays on the beach, starting next Monday the 27th.
August 24 thru 27
Since heading east is a bad idea I’m going south to Carlsbad, New
Mexico and revisit Carlsbad Caverns NP and checkout
Guadalupe Mountains NP, a new one for me. I’m leaving cooler temps behind but I
have to adjust at some point and if needed there are some cooler mountains not
far away. I’ve got a nice campsite at Brantley
Lake State
Park just north of Carlsbad.
The area is desert scrub at about 3500 feet and it was 97 at 4pm yesterday but
I’ve got water and electric so I can run A/C during the hot day and open up the
screens at night. The majority of the trip has been so cool at night that this
is the first time I’ve unzipped to the screens around my bed for an entire
evening. I was up around 3 am and went outside to checkout the stars since the
moon had set and the Milky Way was shining brightly. The caverns at Carlsbad are so big it
boggles the mind but they lack the smaller beauty and color variations that we
saw in Lehman Caverns in Great Basin NP back in May. I had forgotten just how
vast these caverns are.
The drive down to Guadalupe Mountains NP was scenic and the
park itself is quite big but the majority is backcountry and access is by foot
or horse. One of their areas is an old homestead from the early 1900’s with a
spring that flows at 6 gallons a minute in an otherwise high desert landscape
and it enabled the early settlers to grow a variety of vegetables that they
could take to market via wagon.
August 28
Given the latest info
on Isaac it’s still too early for me to head east and I’m tired of the heat so
I’m heading west to the mountain range just east of Alamagordo. They lie in the
Lincoln National Forest and the Sunspot Solar
Observatory is located here on the top of a peak that overlooks the State Park
I stayed at in April in the 3
rd week of this trip. In the picture
below the April campground is at the bottom of the canyon you can see dropping
off to the west.
The National Forest campground is nice, a big pull through
site and we are around 8500 feet. I think I can handle 1 night of 8500 feet. As
you drive west to here the land starts to rise and eventually you leave behind
flat desert scrub and rolling hills give way to forested mountains as you climb
from 3500 feet to about 10000 feet over the course of about 40 miles then just
after climbing to about 10000 feet the mountains western edge drops to 4500
feet to a plateau in about 10 miles.
August 29 & 30
I reluctantly left the Cloudcroft area and headed east back
thru Artesia, New Mexico. I would like to revisit this
area someday. Immediately east of town, after driving by scores of oil rig
support companies, I started passing oil rigs pumping away for as far as I
could see on either side of the road. That lasted until western Texas. As usual I picked
a county road over the nearby Interstate. My goal was just west of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
About 17 miles west of the town of Snyder,
Tx fate had a different plan when my F150’s engine decided to spit out one of
the sparkplugs. Must have tasted pretty bad!! At first I thought I’d blown
another trailer tire since I heard a loud pop (the sparkplug being ejected) but
not as loud as a tire usually is. As I slowed and pulled over I heard the
machine gun of the engine due to the open sparkplug port. By chance a Texas DOT
truck was driving by not even a minute after this happened and he pulled over
to assist me. A few minutes later another DOT truck joined us. We found the
sparkplug lying on the engine and tried to reinsert it but the treads were
gone. As usual my cell phone was worthless but the DOT guys let me use theirs
and I attempted to use my Allstate RV club to get a tow for the truck and
trailer. I’ll be rethinking our relationship with Allstate after their failure
to get me a tow. After waiting and at times being able to speak with Allstate
for over 3 hours and being told they couldn’t obtain a vendor I finally decided
I would run the engine and creep on the shoulder into the town of Snyder. I made it to town
and found a little RV park and the folks found me
a spot knowing it may be awhile to get the
truck fixed. Luckily the town has a Ford dealer and I spoke with them and
arranged to get it in their shop the next morning. They are well versed in this
problem and they attempt to tap the head where the plug was and insert a new
sleeve to accept a spark plug. If this doesn’t work a new engine is the typical
solution. Luckily they were able to put a sleeve in mine and got it done the
same day for less than $400. Dodged a big one so far but it’s pretty hard to
have much confidence in this engine now. I’ve put over 200K on engines many
times yet I’ve never had anything like this happen and this engine has 117K on
it. By the way 3 other cars pulled over to offer aid, 2 of them turned around
to do so, when I was on the side of the road. Great folks in West
Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aug 30 & Sept 1
So I’m leaving Snyder and heading east and praying the
engine holds to get us home with the intent to go to the northeast side of Dallas to a KOA where I
can have internet and check road status to the east of me. In Snyder you can
see a windmill generation farm to the east but as I drove southeast it
continued and I passed over 1000 of those monster power windmills over the
course of about 25 miles.
So I’m typing live
now and intend to leave here tomorrow morning and make it a long day if road
and gas conditions allow. From the info I’ve found I-20 thru Louisiana
and Mississippi
look ok. I’ll post the grand finale from home next week. As I’ve headed toward
home I’ve had mixed emotions about ending the odyssey. While I’ve seen so much
there is so much more, an endless dose of America the Beautiful waiting for
continued exploration. I will never get enough of seeing this country of ours
and if my health and finances allow I will continue to dream big and plan grand
adventures. Tonight is my 152nd consecutive night on the road and in that time
we only had 6 nights in Hotels and 3 of those were the planned stay at the
Palms Resort in Las
Vegas. The last Hotel night was the last week in May. But I must admit the closer to home I get the
more anxious I feel to be there.
I’m sitting outside right now and it is forecast to be 100
in Dallas.
We’ve got a nice breeze but some significant humidity as well so this is part
of my reintroduction to the Southeast. Kinda sucks! I’ll take 9000 feet thank you.
New albums are titled:
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado
Brantley Lake SP New Mexico
Cloudcroft, New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns NP, New Mexico
Gunnison_Crested Butte, Colorado
Hovenweep NM, Colorado
Mesa Verde NP,Colorado
San Luis SP New Mexico
Silver Jack CG, Colorado
Snyder , Texas
Vallecito Reservoir, Colorado
