Close to Heaven

The beauty that we came across on Thursday was like being close to heaven. Gods handiwork was tremendous. The beauty of being high in the mountains was as frightening as it was beautiful to me. There were times I missed some of it’s glory only because I am deathly afraid of heights. So what was I doing at an elevation of 7947? That is simple to answer, I wasn’t driving. hehe Mark understood my fear and didn’t press me to do anything that made me terribly uncomfortable but pushed me enough to share the beauty with him. 

At first I didn’t realize that we were “going up” the mountain. Ok so I’m kind of new and naive to all of this traveling stuff. hehe But once the roads got more narrow and I could see the sides falling further away……I closed my eyes.. Well I didn’t close them the whole time but trust me I didn’t look over the side much at all.

There was no wild life all the way up but oh my goodness, did we see beautiful rock formations and rivers from the melted snow off of the mountains. The water was so clear and blue it was hard to believe it was not a mirage.  Hearing the water thunder over the rocks as I smelled the crisp, cool, clean, pine air, was sensory overload. At one spot the back rop was enhanced by a beautiful reservoir.  Nothing like it can compare to the experience of the day.

There were picnic and campsites complete with outdoor toilets. A small honor system donation of $12 was all it took to camp for a night. No we didn’t camp there. There is no way that I would want to drag the fiver up that mountain, nor would it fit in any of the campsites or turn arounds. The turnarounds were actually places for you stop and put on tire chains or snow tires. Yes, snow tires and tire chains are needed from time to time. And it was cold up there too. Mark, bless his heart gave up his jacket for me since my denim shirt was not warm enough. Anyway, we saw no campers. We did see a squirrel and one mallard on the way down, no bears or anything else.

The day actually started out with us looking for a campground to call home for a month. But the two campgrounds in Beaver City were horrible. And it was snowing to top it all off, with the temp at 37º. The town was so small that it would have been a very boring month stay in that area. So we will look at the map again and see what will strike our fancy.

As always, its an adventure. An adventure of a lifetime I might add. :)

Back home in Utah

We put in one very long day yesterday driving 8 hours pulling the 5er in some of the highest wind and wind gusts I have ever been in.

To give you an idea of what the first leg of our trip yesterday was like there was 94 miles between any form of civilization. The Dually with it's tow haul on helped "hold down" our speed as we descended the mountains some 4000 ft in altitude, all with gusts of wind up to 50+ mph at our back. Needless to mention there were very few others on the road.

Then after driving for 8 hours as mentioned we wrestled to park the 50+ foot rig (Dually and RV) into an almost full park in St. George Utah on a very small access road. Needless to say we did not park it on the first try. The lot we are staying in is wide with a patio, palm tree and picnic table which besides being nice also got in the way.

Man am I shot today and guess I kept poor Cindy up most of the night with my snoring. Sorry Honey.

Well I am going to get something to eat and take a nap.

It's always an Adventure!

To add my two cents worth, I am happy as a clam to be back in Utah. Nevada is a state I don't care if I ever see again. There is nothing there to do and just miles and miles of nothingness. Oh, ok, the mountains are beautiful, but even that can get boring without a break of any kind. Like maybe a town that is actually a town and not some ramshackled mess.  

The only thing to do in Nevada is to gamble or get laid. It is full of Casinos and brothels, both of which we have no interest in or can afford. 

If I had my way, which I won't, hehehe, I would never leave Utah again. So far that is the most beautiful, friendly, and clean state we have been to. The resort which we are in this time is a much better place to be than the KOA we were in in Hurricane. This time we are at the Temple View RV Resort, in St George, and it is very nice. St George is much bigger than Hurricane, and today I hope to find it to be just as friendly. I am sure it will be, since Utah takes pride in their friendliness and work ethics. Not to mention keeping their state clean.

Thanks for following our adventures. Please, if you can, take the time to post a comment or two. We would really love to hear from you.

God bless.

Leaving Nevada Treasure

This morning we will begin the tear down to leave the beautiful Nevada Treasure RV Resort. Our plans are to come back here in the fall and spring for a month or so. It is just too nice here not to come back.

A chilly morning is leading us to linger over a hot cup of coffee before starting the hard work of tearing down. Or it could be the fact that we wish we could stay. But the heat is too much for us to bear here. It has started to hit the mid 90's this weekend so off to cooler weather we will go.  Yes, we will eventually hit hot weather again before we head south for the winter, but why stay in the heat when there is an alternative. We have the means of living wherever we wish.

It will take us several days to get across Nevada and it will get cooler as we go north. Our intentions are to visit Oregon, Washington, Montana, and the Dakotas, We have some visiting to do and some business to take care of in MN which may take about a month. Then we will head south for the winter once again.

Until next time!

Scorpions

A few days back I wrote about the rattlesnake encounter and the threat of scorpions. Well the last two nights we grabbed our black lights and went out searching for scorpions. They can only be seen when a black light is shown on them. So we search the area before letting Lola out at night.

Wow when that light hits them we really do glow. The first night we found around 25 or so on rocks of the more heavily rocked area's. The second night Mark went out alone and found another 20 or so more. One scorpion, he said, had to be at least 3.5 inches long. Sadly he didn't have his camera with him. But here a couple pictures he took from our first hunt......

Road trip finds

AS some of you may know,  brothels are legal in Nevada. We just had to find the most famous one of all on one of our road trips. Do you remember the movie, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"? Well we found The Chicken Ranch here in Nevada. Of course we had to stop, just for pictures, so get your mind out of the gutter. Mark took a picture and had to post it on Facebook. Some people didn't read where the picture was taken so they  thought I had a new job waitressing.... at the whorehouse? That left us in stitches..... here is the picture......

As always Mark likes to use me from time to time for his more humorous postings and if anyone knows Mark, you can imagine he had fun with this picture as well.........

Being the wonderful husband that he really is, he did take some nice shots and posted them as well.

Roses and more roses

The roses in this resort, Nevada Treasure, are just magnificent. Mark has taken some great pictures that we wish to share . 

Final week adventure.

After much deliberation, we have decided to move on out of our present location in Pahrump. It is such a nice resort that we really thought long and hard about staying here another month. But the hot weather is knocking on the door so it’s time to move to a cooler location for as long as we can. Since our travel route changes so often, I am not saying where we are headed until we get there. hehehe

We have met some very nice people here that we hope to see again when we return next year. Moving and leaving friends behind is just part of our new way of life. But you never know, you could bump into them somewhere along the way. Many of the people that are here at this resort, are either full time RVers traveling around like we are or they are full time and live here full time.  It’s amazing how many full time RV travelers we have met along the way. The things that we learn from one another is so very helpful. For instance……

This morning Lola and are were out for our morning walk enjoying the beautiful morning. But just 50 yards or so the niceness of the walk changed dramatically. Lola was sniffing her way to the desired spot to do her business when a bush right in front of her started to move and rattle profusely. I yanked her back by the leash only to have her head for the bush again. And the bush made the rattling sound much more loudly and rapidly. Yanking her back one more time, sending her flying to the road, I knew it was not a bush making the noise, but a rattlesnake. Hair on my arm standing on end, sent us all but running down the run as far away as I could. Well, ok, I don’t run, and Lola did not want to ran. But dragging her and walking quickly away caused a neighbor to ask what was wrong. After discussing what happened with two other people I headed back home shaking like a leaf. Once again I retold the story, this time to Mark. Who was, as you would guess,  concerned for our safety.

On my way to the laundry room I stopped at the front desk and reported my finding. There I was told that there is a rattler warning in Pahrump. Oh great, now that is all I will think of as we go about or daily walks. Once in the laundry room I mentioned to some friends about the warning and they thanked me and gave me some more horrifying news, this time about the scorpions. Geesh, I should have stayed in bed. Not really because what I learned today will be put to good use on our travels to help keep us safe.

Learning that a black light will light up a scorpion at night, is sending us to Home Depot to pick one up. Lola does her nightly piddle outside the door in the rocks. The same place that scorpions can be found.  Once the black light is purchased we can shine the light on the area to see if it is safe for her to be there. So far God has kept her safe. But He has given us the knowledge to protect her as well as us and we will use the information He gave us.

So with that being said I will leave with Marks favorite saying and bid you an Until next time……

As always, it’s an adventure. :)

Wondering

This week we have been combing the internet in search of campgrounds along the way back to MN. We are finding that the further north you go, the less there are. The midwest has so few that it's no wonder they are crying for tourist trade. The ones we do find are priced to the point of one person making the monthly mortgage payment on the property. The peak camping times are about the same, just at different ends of the calendar. Southern campgrounds offer more for your money and charge way less.  Oh well, what will be will be. This wasn't suppose to be a negative post. But with only one week left to find our next home, it's easy to become a bit off. Thank God we can do dry camping easily with all the solar Mark has installed to our home.

Here it is a day from Easter Sunday. The holiday fuss is something I really miss. Ok call me nuts, but I love to make those big meals that my family loves. What I am not missing is all the dishes that go along with the fancier meals. hehe This year has been full of a lot of holiday changes. We may be going to a casino for an Easter buffet. It is buy one meal and get the second one free. The menu looks wonderful so I'm sure we would eat well. So many changes.

The area of Nevada that we are currently living in has little to nothing to offer it's visitors. Not much for businesses, only a couple sites to see and a lot of depressed property. The resort in which we are staying is, as you have seen, an oasis in the desert. We have loved staying in this friendly beautiful resort and do plan to return someday.  I wish we could take it along with us as we travel back to MN.

To end this post, Mark and I, we wish you and your family a blessed Easter!!

Sightseeing with a fishing buddy

As it turns out a muskie fishing buddy lives in Pahrump. So we got together, hoped in his Jeep and headed for Death Valley. Larry took the roads less traveled for touring the Valley and mining roads. It was a great time with a guide that knew where he was going. hehe
Here are some shots that I managed to get that day.

A trailing drive motor..

Tailings drive motor 4cyl diesel. Awesome! And good looking fat guy...... Anybody got a 1930 engine manual? I want to check the valve lash adjustment as long as I am here.

Eye of the needle..........

Heated GoldMine Storage.

Gold Mine Tailings Extractor Death Valley Echo Canyon 1908 - 1941 one time investor Charles Schwab.

Death Vally drive thru Echo Canyon by 4x4.

 Thanks to Larry for showing me an interesting view of Death Valley.
As always, it was an adventure.

Pictures from Death Valley

Since I am the admin of this blog, and Mark just has fun writing, I am the one who has to post the pictures and all content.  So here are some pictures from our trip to Death Valley. I know I'm rather late with the pictures, sorry. As they say better late than never. The sights we saw were unbelievable, like we were on another planet.  Gods handiwork was nothing short of amazing.

This was an unplanned trip, which sometimes takes you to some pretty out of this world places. And this was no exception.
Until next time......