October 19, 2014

October 16, 2014

Yesterday we toured Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park and we can say without a doubt, both of these need to be added to your Bucket List.

Canyonlands is spectacular in may ways, with beautiful vistas and some very deep canyon views that will literally take your breath away.  If you are afraid of heights, don’t get too close to the rim but to really appreciate the beauty of the park, ya gotta get out there.  I did on several occasions and got a little weak-kneed a couple of times.

We did a little more hiking here that we did in Arches which you have to do to really appreciate the beauty here.

Canyonlands National Park

 I know of another dome that looks a lot like this one.

Dead Horse Point State Park is really interesting. 

From the park’s brochure:
“According to legend, the point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mess.  Cowboys would round up the mustangs, heard them across the narrow neck and coral them.  Then the cowboys would choose which ones they wanted and for reasons unknown, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2000 feet below.”

Dead Horse Point State Park

October 17, 2014

Yesterday, Joyce and I took a Hummer Sunset Tour of the mesa above Moab.  All I can say is if you are in this area, do this!  It is crazy fun and I got to check off another Bucket List item.

Here We Go!

 There is a reason in the name!

 Does a tune come to mind here?

 We didn't do this one!

Yippee!

The beautiful end of a great day!

October 18, 2014

We reluctantly left Moab about 10:30 AM bound for Torrey, UT.  I say reluctantly because we didn’t have time to see all of the interesting areas of that part of Utah but, we shall return someday.

Our purpose for coming to Torrey is to visit Capital Reef National Park.  We looked at trying to get into the park’s Fruita Campground but I am really glad we decided to make reservations at Sand Creek RV Park instead.  The campground was full and everything in town is booked solid.  On Thursday and Friday this week, the kids here in Utah are out of school for the Utah Education Association convention so the national and state parks are packed.

After a bit of hassle getting set up (our parking site is very unleveled) we drove back to the park to get our National Parks Passport book stamped and to learn about what we should do while in the park.  On the way back we had a very nice supper at The Rim Rock restaurant.

October 19, 2014

My mother has often mentioned how beautiful Capital Reef NP is and that we needed to visit there.  Well, she was right!  It is spectacular!

We did the scenic drive through the park to the end and then hiked down the Golden Throne Trail, a four mile round trip that is fairly easy to do.

When we finished that we drove out Grand Wash Road to the end and had our lunch.  We then drove up to the Gifford House where we bought some pies and scones.  Our next stop was at the Fruita School House.

Since it was early in the day, we made the climb up Highway 12 to the top of the 9600 foot pass where we got to see some amazing views of Capital Reef and beyond.  There were a lot of elk hunters up in this area.

Today were going to make the run down to Panguitch, UT where we will spend a couple of night and visit Bryce Canyon National Park.

October 20, 2014

We had an easy drive down to Panguitch yesterday, getting into the Red Canyon RV Park and Campground about 1:00 PM.  After getting setup, we took a drive up the mountain to the visitors center at Bryce Canyon National Park to check out what we will be doing today.

We then drove back down to see what was happening in Panguitch and I can tell you without a doubt, that town rolls up the sidewalks on Sunday.  We were able to get some gas for the car and I think there was one restaurant open.

Since there was still a lot of daylight left in the day, we drove back up Highway 12 so we could get some pictures.  This is one of Utah’s Scenic Byways that is not to be missed if you are ever in the area.  Every turn in the road presents a new Kodak Moment.  It’s a good thing we have digital cameras these days!

 Yep!  It really looked like this.

More on our visit to Bryce next time.

Barry & Joyce

October 15, 2014

October 9, 2014

Well, it has been a rough visit here at Hill AFB with the electrical problems we had, but all-in-all, we got through the crisis just as we always do.

A lot of folks have asked us if we save money by full-time RV'ing as opposed to owning a stick and bricks house.  No, I don’t think so.  Even though we have no property taxes, utility bills (we sometimes have to pay for electric service), etc., our costs are in other places.  When we aren’t hosting, we have to pay for space rent and of course we have to fork over a lot of cash for fuel, our biggest expense.

Yeah, we don’t have to worry about replacing a roof, hot water heater or a furnace in a house.  Oh wait, yes we do.  We have those in our house on wheels too and the costs associated with them are usually much higher than for a “real” house.

So, all-in-all, no it isn’t cheaper to live out here on the road.  But, how do you measure seeing the things we have seen and done anyway?  You can’t put a price on visiting the Mormon Handcart Historical Site in Wyoming and having a docent guide choke up when telling us about what happened there.

Or, how about climbing to the top of Independence Rock and seeing the inscriptions carved into it’s surface.  Sitting at the top, we actually felt some of what those pioneer’s went through.

On our trip through Washington, DC we visited the National Archives.  To stand if front of the original documents that formed this great nation was awe inspiring to say the least.  Then, to visit Arlington National Cemetery and watch the change of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns was amazing.  Joyce and I believe that every American should make the trip to our nations capital at least once in their lives.

I could go on and on about what we have done and seen in the past seven years but you get the picture.  Looking back on those years, we probably wouldn’t change much at all.  Joyce and I are truly blessed to be doing what we are.

We left Hill AFB about 10 AM and made the trip down to Spanish Fork, UT where we will spend a few days visiting Ron & Katie Cutler who live in Payson.  We first met them when we co-hosted at Vail Lake Resort near Temecula, CA and who we haven’t seen in three years.  We will be staying at the Canyon View RV Park which is owned by the city.  Nothing fancy here but we’ve got good 30-amp electrical service and water with a dump station on site.

October 11, 2014

Good Morning All!

Yesterday was absolutely a beautiful day here in the Payson, UT area so rather sit around the house, Ron, Katie, Joyce and I drove up Santiquan Canyon Road which winds it’s way up through the canyon by the same name.  On the way up, we stopped at Subway and got some sandwiches for a picnic.  Ron told us that the fall colors peaked a week or so ago but as you can see in the pictures, there was plenty of beautiful foliage left for us to enjoy.

Eventually that road connected with the Nebo Loop Road where we turned north and headed to Payson Lakes where we planned to have our lunch.  This is very high and wide open country with some of the most magnificent views Joyce and I have seen in a long time.  And, at about 9000 feet up on the mountain, the air was clean with just a few puffy clouds in the sky.

Ron & Katie

 Fall colors.  Purty!

After having our lunch at the lake we headed down the mountain and back to Ron & Katie’s home where they fixed a delicious steak dinner.  What a wonderful day!

October 15, 2014

On the 11th, we  drove up into the mountains east of Payson to Ron and Katie’s ten acre property where they have their 5th-wheel trailer parked.  They use it for get-aways and during hunting season it turns into a hunting camp.

When we got there, their son-in-law was just loading his spike elk that he had harvested then night before.  We estimated that it weighed about 350 pounds on the hoof so it was a struggle to get it down the mountain where it was killed and back to camp.  After he got it to the butcher it weighed 265 pounds hanging which will yield about 160 pounds of meat.

We spent the day just lounging around, enjoying the beautiful day and each others company.  Katie and Joyce prepared a wonderful beans and ham-hock supper and of course we all ate way too much.

Joyce and I were planning to leave Spanish Fork on Sunday the 12th but after checking the weather on our route south, we did some alternate planning.  There was high winds predicted in the Price, UT area with gusts up to 50 MPH so we said the heck with that and stayed where we were for one more day.

Katie and Joyce did some sewing and the Katie made us a delicious spaghetti supper.  Instead of hamburger she made the sauce with elk.  Outstanding!

Thank you so much Ron and Katie for making our visit to Payson a memorable one.  We will remember our time with you and your family forever.

On Monday we hooked up our towed and headed south on Highway 6 to Moab, UT and to the OK RV Park, arriving about 3 PM.  After getting setup, we had refreshments with our neighbors and new friends, Mike and Mary who are here from southern Colorado.

Yesterday we started our sight-seeing here in the Moab area by visiting Arches National Park.  I’m not going to describe every part of our tour but suffice it to say, this is one of the most beautiful and amazing places on earth.  Put Arches on your Bucket List for sure.

Arches National Park

Just one of the over 2000 arches in the park.

 Balanced Rock

 A new arch forming.  Eventually all arches collapse.

 Havin' our lunch.  Met some folks from San Antonio, TX here.

 Delicate Arch.  The hike up to the arch was just too much for us.  Maybe next time we visit.

More soon.

Barry & Joyce

October 9, 2014

October 3, 2014

We left Nehalem Bay State Park on the morning of the 1st and after a stop at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino for one night, we are now parked at Gowen Field National Guard Base in Boise, ID.

Last night we had supper with Bob and Teresa Shaw who are here in Boise for an Elks Lodge board meeting.  Today we plan to do some shopping and visit with Chick and Brenda Anderson.  Chick was the 22nd Air Force C-130 Chief Flight Engineer at Travis.

October 3, 2014

We had lunch with Chick yesterday and the visited with him and Brenda yesterday.  It was great to see them again.

After getting some shopping done, we stopped at the hotel where Bob and Teresa Shaw were staying.  After visiting with them and other folks who were there for the Elks board meeting, we made the drive out to Kuna, ID to have something to eat.

Bob had been telling us all about the El Gallo Giro Mexican Restaurant and we were sure glad that we went.  The place is short on atmosphere but let me tell you, the food was amazing.  I have to rate Giro’s in the top five Mexican restaurants that we have been to.

Joyce and I have had our Internet through Verizon Wireless since day one of our full-timing adventure started and have been fairly satisfied with the service so far.  At one time we had unlimited data usage but a couple of years ago, we switched to one of their 4g Jetpack’s to get the higher speed.  Since we had to start another contract, we unfortunately lost our unlimited plan and we had to select one of Verizon’s “limited” data plans.  We settled for 10 gigs a billing period but as you can imagine, that didn’t last long so we almost always had to call and bump that up 2 gigs at a time for $10.

I was reading on the Escapee’s Forums web site yesterday that Verizon (and a couple of other companies) have changed their data plans to increase the the amount you are allotted for a very small increase in fees.

I immediately got on the phone with Verizon and in very short order made a great deal.  Here is the old plan, and new one compared:

Unlimited talk and text.  Remained the same.
Old data plan:  15 gigs (they were giving us 1 a 1 gig freebie for a year).  New one:  30 gigs and they sill are honoring the 1 gig freebie.
No change in our 2 year contract.
They backdated the offer to the beginning of our billing cycle.
All of this and our bill only increased by $10.

Yeah, we still don’t have unlimited data usage but 31 gigs is still enough for us right now.

October 8, 2014

On Saturday the 4th, we drove to the Jerome, ID Elks Lodge where we spent one night.  The lodge opened at 3 PM so we enjoyed some adult refreshments and socialized for a couple of hours.

Sunday morning we headed out to Hill AFB in Roy, UT where we are parked right now.  Hill has a very nice Famcamp with forty-one parking sites and we snagged on of the nice pull-through’s with 50 amp service on a level cement pad.

Before leaving Nehalem Bay we discovered that the large living room slide-out was stalling when retracting.  If one of us pushed on it during that cycle, it came in as usual.  I called Ray Citte RV here in Roy and talked to one of their technicians and just as expected, he thought that the problem was either the motor or a power problem.  The service department made an appointment to have the problem checked out.

So, on Monday we took the rig in and after some troubleshooting, the technician said that we had weak batteries and that they needed replacement.  But, he also discovered that our automatic transfer switch, which transfers power between the generator and shore power, was fried.  He recommended that we not hookup up any power to the motor home and of course, replace the switch.

As full-time RV’er, this was very bad news since we would be without our home during the repairs.  So, while to folks in the parts department got to work finding the switch, Joyce and I went out to the the Billeting Office on Hill where we got a one-bedroom apartment in the family quarters.

We then drove back to the RV dealership and were told that in all probability they could have the rig ready the next day providing if they didn’t run into any problems.  That was really good news and a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy day.

Yesterday we headed back over to the shop where we were informed that all of the work would be completed that afternoon.  That was really great news!

So what caused the issue in the first place.  Well, as for the slide stalling out, the motor just wasn’t getting enough juice for the batteries.  Easy fix.  We had Les Schwab install new batteries which cost us $600.

As for the transfer switch problem?  Not sure but here is what I think may have happened:  During a power outage at Nehalem Bay, I started the generator to get us some juice.  I got distracted and forgot to disconnect the shore power to prevent two sources of power getting to the rig.  The transfer switch should do that automatically when transferring from genset power to shore power but I always manually do it “just in case”.  Well, when shore power came back on, the transfer switch failed to do it’s job so a total of 240 volts was slammed into the coach.  That ain’t a good thing!  Not only did that ruin the ATS, it’s a miracle that we didn’t have a fire.

Joyce and I would be remiss if we didn’t thank some folks that helped us out.  First, to Nick Russell for writing the “Gypsy Journal’s Guide T RV Good Guys” book where we found Ray Citte RV.  If you are an RVer, you need to get that book.  I highly recommend just getting the Seven In One Deal.  http://gypsyjournal.net/gypsy_journal_book_store.htm

Second, we have to thank the folks at Ray Citte RV for all of their help.  Most dealerships would have told us that they were just too busy and to take a hike.  Not this one.

So, all total this little lesson cost us over $1000.  Such is the life of full-time RV’ers!

See ya on down the road somewhere!