Now in SE Utah Canyonlands area

Wes settled into Blue Mountain RV in Blanding Utah, after an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous drive over from Capitol Reef National Park. We crossed Lake Powell at Hite, which is now simply the Colorado River -- we've never seen such low water here, the marina is no longer usable & boaters have to go on down to Bullfrog. We're staying here a couple nights to let our mail catch up with us and explore Canyonlands National Park & ferret out a place to park the trailer within the park so we're close to great scenery, hiking, and exploring. Then we'll come back here a couple days and use it as a base for exploring other areas to 'boondock'. The owner here knows all the great canyons and Anasazi ruins & is willing to give us insights for our journeys.

We have great sunrises & sunsets here at the RV park, and it's WARM and NOT windy -- a pleasant change after several weeks of unsettled weather!

I'll post some photos tonight or tomorrow.

 

 

REDISCOVERING PAINTING!

I've had a long dry spell from painting, just too darn much going on with the 'liquidation' of our home.  Getting into Canyon Country really gets my juices flowing & I finally dug out the little traveling studio I put together, got set up in the rear window of the trailer, and started a 30" X 10" X 8" trapezoidal piece that will go above our dining table on the section of wall where the roof slopes.

This scene is a canyon wall a few miles from the RV park where we're currently staying -- love the panorama!  I'll be posting PIPs (painting in progress) as I work my way to the finish.  I printed out a full-size reference, sketched in the large shapes, dropped in the sky, and am working on the deep shadows in the cliffs.  I like to use a rich purple for these shadows, as it enhances the warm reds, oranges, and golds of the rock.  It seems that everything 'pops' so beautifully using this approach rather than painting shadows over a painted background. Let me know what you think.

Capitol Reef National Park, canyon wall

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK UTAH

We arrived in Canyon Country, Capitol Reef National Park, Sunday afternoon and I've been grinning ever since. I LOVE this country! This is rainy season here and right now vehicle travel is restricted to paved roads as all unpaved roads are impassable. The weather has cleared up and hopefully back roads will be open soon. Here's some pics from Capitol Reef and the hike we took down Capitol Gorge Road, which is currently only open for hiking -- there's one of a front-loader starting to work on the road just below where it is closed. We've taken 2 more great hikes, and our fannies are draggin' -- I'll post more pictures tomorrow.
 
We're ensconced in a very nice RV park a couple miles west of Capitol Reef; our space is quite private and while their wifi and Jamie's mifi are way slow, the satellite Internet is working just fine. We decided to stay put right here until the 29th, and explore a part of Utah Canyon Country we've only passed through before. 

CANYON COUNTRY -- FINALLY!

We arrived in Torrey Utah, just outside Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah, yesterday afternoon.  We're at a lovely RV park, probably the nicest & cleanest we've visited, with spectacular scenery.  We were happy to leave the Price River valley with it's constant heavy rains and prone to flash-flooding.  Now we're high & dry and plan to stay that way!

Mi-fi and wi-fi are very slow here, but the satellite Internet is working just fine, both phones are also working so we're not out of touch.

Watch for updates with photos soon -- right now I need to catch up on laundry!

12 WEEKS AND COUNTING

Well friends, it's been 12 weeks since we hit the road in the 5th-wheel.  We're both happy to report we ARE indeed happy.  Living in a small space with a tiny refrigerator, doing dishes by hand, 3-burner range (the front burner works fine), oven that accommodates one cake pan, and very few clothes to launder in the non-existent washer/dryer seems to agree with us. 

We're blessed to have great windows and awesome ventilation + a super air conditioner, the furnace worked just fine on the few chilly mornings we had in Canada and Montana, the new mattress loves us both, I'm just fine with the little stove [baked almond/poppyseed/banana muffins this morning], we're both basically OK with doing dishes by hand and using laundromats, I've become an expert at grocery shopping and coming back with enough stuff to totally cram full the pantry and the little freezer/frig, and Jamie's running his CSU RamCT support job just fine remotely -- as always, he works too darn much!

We've seen some beautiful places, been through some places we really don't care to visit, have flagged more places to visit 'next time', and can't wait to just keep going! We've met some lovely folks, many of them full-time RVers, and we've encountered some really strange folks . . . We started a speadsheet of RV parks that are lovely and well-run + those we don't plan to return to.  We know where to find good grocery stores for stocking up, and we've discovered some great restaurants. 

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

HONEYVILLE UTAH

We've been staying at the Crystal Hot Springs campground in Honeyville Utah the past few days.  Honeyville has nothing except the Hot Springs and some residential properties.  The Hot Springs claims to  be one of the country's top ten; however, we've visited many in Colorado that are much better.  The place is old, over-used & abused, and in serious need of cleaning and basic maintenance.  It's OK for a couple nights, but not somewhere I would want to spend any length of time.

We're parked on the edge of the property (they wanted to put us in a site in the middle, and the space was about half as long as we need) and our back window [the office] looks out on an alfalfa field and mountains in the near distance.  The farmer mowed the alfalfa yesterday.  Here's some shots taken from inside the trailer:

There are large praying mantis here, and the one below was hanging onto the side of trailer this morning; it's 3-4" long and looked to be full of eggs.  Jamie put it on his leg to illustrate the size.

We leave here early tomorrow and head southeast to the little town of Price Utah.  We reserved one night at a small RV park a few miles north of Price and may stay there longer.  Alternatives are to find a spot to 'boondock' in the northern part of the San Rafael Desert/Swell or head to another location farther south -- we just haven't determined where.  It's a little early to be camped remotely out in the canyons as it is rainy season and flash flooding is the norm; we're not into getting stranded somewhere with this big rig!

ANACONDA DIVERSITY

We spent a couple weeks at the Big Sky RV Park in Anaconda Montana, NW of Butte.  It's an interesting little town, steeped in mining history.  Anaconda was the site of the copper smelters for mines in Butte.  Its history dates back to 1883, and many of the original buildings are still standing and in use -- there's a large district on the National Register of Historic Places.

City Hall was completed in 1896 - now a history museum

City Hall / History Museum

One of the lovely parks, courtesy of Anaconda Mining Company.

 

Local Farmer's Market on Thursdays, including farm produce brought in by the Hutterites, from Montana's central valley several hours drive away.  I stocked up on fresh produce and also got some great sockeye salmon from a young man who owns a fishing boat on Bristol Bay/Kvichak River in Alaska -- a delightful find in this little town!

A remnant of days gone by

One of the more intriguing residential properties I've ever seen!

World Class Jack Nicklaus golf course built on smelter tailings.

There's a wonderful historic walking trail that winds through the hills above the golf course, with signs detailing the smelting history; you can see the huge remaining stack in the background.  We enjoyed our walks looking down on the town and watching the golfers work their way through the course.  (or as Jamie says, "men smacking their balls")

ROAD RASH

As we travel, we come across and witness some jaw-dropping things. Jamie calls these 'Time Warps'; I've come to think of them as 'Road Rash'. 

Our latest was yesterday, driving from Pocatello Idaho to Honeyville Utah -- through driving rain storms along a very busy Interstate 15. We pulled into a truck stop at the Interstate Interchange and decided to grab a quick bite at Taco Time in the gas station. Well, it turned into an extended luncheon. 

Some people had been waiting for their [fast food??] orders for about an hour; we learned this after we ordered & paid. It got worse and worse. The 3 young women running the place were totally disorganized and simply could NOT get orders put together! One couple had asked for their money back, and the workers weren't authorized to do that -- those folks were patient & waited for over 45 minutes for the manager to show up & refund their money for their lunch which never did show up. 

A partial order came for one table; however, the lady's hamburger didn't have any meat on it. We finally asked for our money back; the young worker who was apparently in charge said "I have your food ready" and then started apologizing to other customers who were getting angry -- she seemed to forget that our food was ready! I kept asking her to bring us our order; finally she did. 

Maybe you had to be there . . . . I envision order #11 still waiting for their order (we were #13).