Mary Ann & Bill's Excellent Adventure
Travel in Retirement
We were in Portland last week to attend my daughter, Kathy’s graduation from graduate school at Portland State University (PSU).
The day before graduation we had a picnic at Dabney Park.
The following day we attended the hooding ceremony.
After the graduation we spent a few hours in Portland.
After we left Yosemite we spent some time on the Oregon coast. Our first stop was at Pacific Shores Motorcoach Resort in Newport, OR.
We saw some beautiful views right from the campground and the beach below.
We drove up the coast from Newport as far as Lincoln City and enjoyed some beautiful scenery. It was very windy but sunny and bright.
And we got a closer look at the Lighthouse.
Our next stop was at the RV Resort at Cannon Beach. From there we visited Tillamook Cheese Factory (no pictures) and Haystack Rock.
The road to Yosemite were not built for a 37 foot motor home pulling a car. Bill, as usual, did an amazing job navigating our RV over the steepest and twistiest roads I have ever been on.
We saw all the famous sites in Yosemite Valley.
On the second day we visited Wawona & the Mariposa Grove (giant Sequoias)
It’s been a while since my last post because the internet at our previous campground was horrible.
Last week our good friend Debi arrived to travel with us for a few weeks. She flew into Las Vegas and we stayed at Lake Mead Village Campground in Boulder City for a few days.
We spent a day in Las Vegas. It was extremely hot that day (105° F). We walked the strip but kept ducking into air conditioning to keep cool.
The Bellagio had a fun Ocean themed display.
We visited the Auto Collections on the top floor of the Linq.
Jake and Elwood were at the auto collection.
We walked by Paris.
Saw gondolas at the Venetian.
And finally drove north a ways to visit Gold & Silver Pawn shop (of ‘Pawn Stars’ fame).
We are in Wahweap Campground in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Nice Campground with huge sites (we could fit a second RV in here if we wanted).
We have a view of Lake Powell.
On Sunday we took a tour of Glen Canyon Dam.
Yesterday we went to the Lees Ferry section of the park. Near the park entrance is the Navajo Bridge that spans the Colorado River. There are actually two bridges, the original historic bridge was built in the 1920s. It was replaced by a modern bridge in the 1990s but the original bridge was kept as a pedestrian bridge.
There was a California Candor under the new bridge.
Lees Ferry was actually the site of a ferry boat that provided Colorado River crossing before the Navajo Bridge was built. There is an old ghost town where the ferry was located.
There was some nice closeup views of the Colorado River. Some rafter were started a journey.
Some beautiful and interesting sights as we drove out of Lees Ferry.
Today we took the kayaks out into Lake Powell. Much different scenery than we usually have when we kayak.
The water is so low in Lake Powell that the launch ramp was about a quarter of a mile long (maybe longer). In the picture below Bill is at the top of the ramp (top left) after a long hike up to get the car when we returned from our trip.
We are in Salt Lake City. Yesterday we toured the city.
First stop was the Natural History Museum. My kids gave me tickets for Mother’s Day.
We had lunch at the Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Temple Square.
We had a great view of the Salt Lake Temple (pretty much the center piece of Salt Lake City) from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, where we had lunch.
The Joseph Smith Memorial Building is an elegant building that was originally a hotel and later was named after Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (aka Mormons).
We walked around Temple Square after lunch.
Today we took a ride out Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. The lake is extremely low and many of the places you would expect to see water are salt and mud.
The day was overcast and I don’t know if it was the weather or the salt that made the unusual colors below.
One of the great treats on the island was the Fielding Garr Ranch that was established in 1848. It was an active sheep and cattle ranch until 1981 when the Antelope State Park was established.
Today we visited Petrified Forest National Park.
In addition to petrified wood this park has a number of other interesting sights.
A portion of the Painted Desert is in Petrified Forest National Park. The painted desert is an area with colorful layered buttes and mesas. Very pretty landscape.
You may have figured out by now that I love old historic buildings. The Painted Desert Inn is a national historic landmark. It was originally built in 1920 and then purchased and re-modeled but the National Park Service in 1935. It was a well known stop on historic route 66 and now serves as a museum & gift store.
A portion of historic route 66 used to run through the park. The old road no longer exists here but this old Studebaker is there to commemorate it.
A large number of dinosaur fossils have been discovered in this area of the country. A number of them that were found in the park are on display at the Rainbow Forest Museum.
We have seen ravens in many of the National Parks in the Southwest.
Flowers in the desert are rare and beautiful.
Beautiful and amazing.
Yesterday we left Carlsbad, NM on our way to Holbrook, AZ (Petrified Forest). About 50 miles out it became very windy and Bill decided to pull off so we could tie down the kayaks better. As we pulled into a parking lot it started snowing and sleeting. The wind picked up even more and we started to feel like we were in a blizzard. The weather report had not said anything about snow and at first the weather apps on our iPhones showed nothing happening. We were pretty sure we were not imagining it. Eventually things started to calm down and we headed out. There was still some wind and a little bit of snow later on but Bill handled it, as usual, like a champ.
Also on the way we drove through Roswell, NM. In 1947 and unidentified flying object (UFO) crashed on a ranch just outside of Roswell. Many think it was an alien space craft but the government says it was a weather balloon. At any rate Roswell has claimed much attention over the years due to that event. We saw quite a few green aliens as we passed through.
We went back to Carlsbad Caverns for another look on Thursday. During our previous visit we had entered the caves via the man-made entrance down the elevators under the visitors center. This time we went to the natural entrance.
There is a large population of bats that live in the caves. Every evening at sunset they fly out of caves to eat. There is a large amphitheater at the natural entrance where people sit to watch the flight. In a way it is really neat that you can go see that but on the other hand I find it a bit bizarre that flying bats is the only performance ever viewed in this theater.
We did not go at sunset to see the bats but we did descend into the caves through this entrance. A long hike down (over 750 feet) we used the elevators to come out.
Yesterday we took a trip up to Santa Fe, NM. Santa Fe is a wonderful old city with Spanish flavor that has history and an art. Just walking around is great fun.
We visited the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. Georgia O’Keeffe was a famous and very talented 20th century American artist. She lived many years in New Mexico near Santa Fe. A photo of her and some of her works are shown below. They remind me of the paintings my sister does (my sister, Jane Lux, is a also a very talented artist).
Tomorrow we head out to Carlsbad, NM to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
