Pre Rose Parade day

I'll have to do a catch up blog post later, but want to post this now. We are sitting at the outer court yard of The Huntington in San Marino, waiting for our tour group to get here. We took off on our own, driving up to Sierra Madre to see their float and the progress made since we were there as volunteers two days ago. Our job was to cut pink roses and place them in vials. We did LOTS of them. Float making is a stunningly labor intensive volunteer operation spanning who knows how long. 

Here are some photos of that day:

Here is one photo of today:

The float will look like this and will be 6th in line tomorrow. The City of Sierra Madre float is one of only very few now entirely funded by volunteer efforts. The rest are funded by corporations. 

Arcadia, CA; Rose Festival Part 1

We arrived in Los Angeles County today after taking our time through Arizona. We are camped with about 100 other RVs in the parking lot of the Santa Anita Race Track. More photos will be posted soon. 

After we checked in with the tour people, we found we had enough time for a short run. Looking at the Google map we discovered that we are just minutes away from the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, so we decided to jog over. They have reciprocal privileges with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, so we just showed our membership card to gain admittance.

It is much much smaller than the Minnesota Arboretum. It is so dry here that it is hard to comment on the flora - nothing looks really great. There are some nice specimen trees, but very little is in bloom - due to the time of year mostly. We looped both roads. I took a photo of the carriage house on the grounds - a beautiful building. 

Also took a photo of this strange looking tree which was in bloom. One blossom was hanging down against the trunk to produce a wonderful effect.

On the way out was a view of a little cottage called The Queen Anne Cottage (1885-86). Don't know anything more about it.

On our run back in a nice neighborhood we encountered quite a few peacocks and peahens just running free, probably escapees from the Arboretum. They were completely unperturbed by us.

Tomorrow the Rose Festival activities begin.

Seminole, TX, and Lordsburg, NM

We had to stay over a second night in Seminole, TX, due to extremely high winds predicted for the US 180/I-10 Texas/Arizona corridor we are traveling. It turned out there was wind, but fortunately not 70 mph that was possible, on the back side of the huge low pressure system that marched across the US, bringing snow, ice, and heavy rains to a large area of the country. Our extra day in Seminole was well spent getting groceries and doing some wash. Very interesting town with what appeared to be a sizeable community of Mennonites. Such nice people. Energy exploration and production is in evidence everywhere there. This photo is a view from the front window of our RV at the RV park - oil tanks in the light of the setting sun.

The next day traveling through West Texas was unremarkable. Very sparse population, lots of oil well pumps, potash plants, some cotton fields, now harvested, and a few pecan orchards scattered across the flat, brown plain. It looks very dry, even with the torrential downpour we had the first night in Seminole. As we passed by the Guadalupe Mountains, at almost 5000 feet there was fresh snow on the mountains and by the road. We had lunch at a picnic turnout on US180 beside this salt pond, at a lower elevation - still cold but no snow. 

We ended up in Lordsburg, NM, last night. First thing this morning, as we were preparing to leave, Gary checked the pressure in all the RV tires, and discovered that the outside right rear tire was low. Fearing a nail in the tire, we found a place near the Interstate that serviced truck tires. They pulled the tire and found only a leaky stem, but the owner of the shop, after examining the manufacture date on our tires (3806 - the 38th week of 2006), convinced us, and rightly so, that we were due, even overdue, for new tires (some say 5 years, others say 7. We were definitely at 7 years). So Gary and I gave each other 6 new RV tires for Christmas! Merry Christmas to us! I feel that we were extremely fortunate to have 1) found a competent tire place that 2) could service us immediately, that 3) had our tires in stock, and 4) that we got new tires before something bad happened on the highway. 

We are in Buckeye, AZ tonight. 

Seminole, TX

We had to stop short tonight of either Hobbs or Carlsbad, NM. We are in a nice little campground in Seminole, TX. Thank goodness. First, it is pouring rain. Second, it is getting colder and might get below freezing not too much later, not good for driving. Third, we are glad to have found a nice RV park with space! We have learned that we have to be attentive to where we are with regard to oil and natural gas development and extraction. Oil field workers are in many places in the US where they weren't very prevalent before, as we all know from the news from North Dakota, and plenty of them have RVs. But it isn't just in North Dakota. We have encountered full campgrounds in Pennsylvania, Ohio, all over western Canada, and all over the American West. The first campground I called in Hobbs was full. We decided not to take any chances and found this one with only a couple of spaces available. We were especially lucky here because this is definitely an "oil patch". 

Now you might be saying to yourself, Yes, but you are an RV with standalone systems. You can camp in a Walmart parking lot if you want to. That is true, and many people do that, but that is not for us. We like having electricity at a minimum. Creature comforts are good!

So we stopped at about 3:30. A good day to curl up with a book. By the way, this rain is manna from heaven out here in West Texas!

Another aside: I forgot to say earlier that we are on our way to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. We bought an RV tour package that includes grandstand seating, all transportation to and from the float construction areas and the parade itself, participation in float decorating, parking and camping for our RV at the Santa Anita race track, many meals, entertainment, a wine tasting excursion and dinner at the winery, and several other activities. Now all we have to do is get there!

Dog Park

Here is the dog park in the RV park in Wichita Falls, TX, where we stayed last night. 

Wichita Falls, TX

We just arrived in Wichita Falls, TX, where it is 70 degrees! It is still windy, but the air feels very good. Prominently posted in the RV park office are signs warning people not to wash a vehicle, or even part of a vehicle due to what they call Stage 4 drought conditions. I would say that Texas is very very dry by the appearance of the dry grass, very dry soil, and the low level of water in the creeks. They have some hopes of snow here this weekend. We won't be here, but it will be interesting to see if they get any. We think we are well ahead of the expected storm. We will go further south tomorrow, maybe staying in Carlsbad, NM or maybe Hobbs, NM. It's hard to see how the snow could get that far south, but the weather can be strange and fool you!

We are driving fairly short days as it doesn't stay light very late. Much better to pull into an RV park and be able to see what you are doing for set-up. 

On the Road Again -Winter 2013-14

We departed yesterday and encountered some blowing snow on the roads in southern MN and northern IA, but by the time we reached Osceola. Ia, where we spent last night, the snow was mostly gone. We are currently about 50 miles north of Kansas City, MO, and there are only occasional patches of snow. I am still not declaring a snow-free countryside. Photo from yesterday in Minnesota. It is windy but it is almost 50 here. Good driving conditions. 

Home

We arrived home last evening (Wednesday), just in time for a special get together with some friends of ours to celebrate a retirement. The event was held this morning at Schaefer Prairie Preserve, about an hour west of Minneapolis. It was a lovely breakfast and a little walk around a bit of this wonderful preserve - a remnant of a tall grass prairie. The host is a citizen scientist at the Preserve, recording observations and measurements which are compiled in a data base for study, reference and the future. He said that there are over 300 plant species there which is really amazing. The 160 acres are totally surrounded by farmland, so this remnant is nothing short of a miracle.

We had lovely weather and a great breakfast! It is very nice to be home.

 

 

 

 

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More of Our Colorado Visit

We left Durango and drove over multiple passes on our way to Denver: Wolf Creek, Monarch, Trout Creek, and finally Kenosha - all just beautiful. In spite of the fact that there wasn't as much snow as normal this past winter, there has been a lot of rain, and all the rivers and streams are running, the wildflowers are spectacular, and almost everywhere is very green in the Colorado Rockies.

We spent one lovely evening in Salida, CO. We walked around the town, saw the river rafting, tubing, kayaking and body surfing on the Arkansas River which runs right through Salida. The restaurant where we had dinner had a great view of all the activity.

I liked this building which has been turned into a little museum and a theater.

We drove on to Aurora, CO, a suburb of Denver, where we camped at Cherry Creek State Park. There is a large reservoir there, miles and miles of bike trails, and a very nice campground. It was a good place to stay, given that we were going to leave the RV there for a few days while we went up to "The Cabin". We did have one hot but nice run on some of the trails.

When my brother and I were growing up, we spent nearly every summer weekend and sometimes a week at a time up at the cabin which is up Colorado Highway 72 (Coal Creek Canyon). At Wondervu, the road winds down the hill to the turn-off for the cabin which overlooks the South Boulder River and the railroad where freight trains are still frequent (several trains per day) and the California Zephyr which passes twice daily (up and down the canyon). This cabin was built by my brother John's, and my great grandfather and grandmother in the late 1800's. It was homesteaded and built before there were any roads. It has lots of family history recorded in many log books that were signed by every visitor and so record the history. When John and I first went there as kids, there was no electricity, no hot water, no indoor toilet, only cold running water from a nearby spring. Over the years my dad and mom, who inherited the property, improved the cabin gradually, until today it has all of the above facilities. It never did have a road to it. Everything had to be carried down or up the hill - furniture, food, everything.

John and my sister-in-law Nancy, who now own the cabin, maintained the property for many years and they and friends used it over the years. Several years ago John and Nancy decided to build a new cabin above the old one. But a decision was made to maintain the old cabin which is now a Gilpin County Historical Landmark.

Just last year John and Nancy decided to take off the multiple old layers of roofing which were so heavy, especially in the winter, and re-roof the cabin. It is just beautiful! Oh, by the way, all the roofing material had to be hauled UP the hill by some means other than a truck!

Here is The Wee Haus which also got a new roof.

We had a wonderful time with the family at the new cabin, and a visit and hike down to the old one. We met one new great nephew at the cabin (Jacob)

Saw another one again (great niece Alyson) - this was taken on the deck of the new cabin

Saw niece Amy and her husband Joel again

Had a great visit with John and Nancy

And finally, back in Denver, met another great nephew, Oliver, and saw his dad, my nephew John Michael.

 

It was a wonderful time. Thanks to Nancy for some of these photos, which she shared with me. Hope to see everyone again soon!!

 

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Durango, CO

I could have stayed even longer at Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park, but....it was time to leave. We drove south through Wyoming, and on to Provo, UT, for an overnight stay. Then on through Utah where we passed right by Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We have been to both, but this is definitely NOT the time of year one wants to go there! As we were passing through Moab, it was about 97 degrees. When we reached Colorado it was still hot, but not quite as intense.

We have been in Durango, CO, for several days. It has been many years since we were here. We came here as part of a vacation with our kids in the mid '70's, and Durango has changed a lot! The neat thing is, the train is still running. It is now a National Historic Landmark, and is a must-do when here. So this was our second trip on the Durango-to-Silverton Narrow Gauge Train. They have more options now. We chose to ride a tour bus up to Silverton and take the train back, rather than the train both ways.

Silverton is still a charming old gold and silver mining town and we viewed it as a cross between Dawson City, Yukon Territory, and Skagway, Alaska. Very touristy, but a sense of history is conveyed by the buildings, the unpaved side streets, the trains, and the mine tailings and ruins that can be seen all over. There is no compromise with the operation of the train - it is still pulled by steam engines burning coal (but they must be scrubbing because the smoke is not as black as it otherwise would be and no sparks). They run three trains a day at the height of the season. It is a slow, unsmooth ride - the tracks are anything but flat, but it is very scenic along the Animas River. As those who have taken this train know, there is one spot that is nothing short of thrilling. The train route was blasted out of a cliff with the river far below. The train slows to about 2 mph as it crawls along the cliff. Of course I couldn't get a photo of this myself, so I bought a postcard and took a photo of the postcard, to show this piece of the track.

The train - the rest are my photos.

 

Scenes around Silverton

 

 

There is a great museum right next to the round house in Durango which we toured.

The round house that we saw in the '70's burned down, but they rebuilt it and refurbished the engines that were inside at the time of the fire in 1989.

 

Yesterday we trekked 80 miles west to see Hovenweep National Monument, on Cajon Mesa on a huge expanse of sagebrush with very little population in the area. We retreated from the idea of camping overnight at Chaco Canyon to the south due to the rains and the heat that the area is getting. While we had been to Chaco, we had never seen Hovenweep. It was a very worthwhile trip and stimulated a lengthy conversation about these Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called Anasazi): where they came from, why they were here at all, why they aggregated here, why they left, who their competitors were, where those competitors came from, etc. Certainly changing climate and drought played a perpetual role in their constant migration, as did possible warring either among themselves or with other peoples. What is known is that Chaco was a little earlier in establishment, and the ruins seen at Hovenweep were built in the mid 1200's in canyons where there were water sources. These were agricultural people who needed land for growing corn, a reliable source of water, and some security. They may have achieved this for awhile, but by the late 1200's they left. The Hopi, Zuni and other Puebloans are acknowledged as their descendants. So these ruins were used for only about 50 years.

There are ruins all over the Four Corners area. Hovenweep is a significant area and what is left there may be but a small part of what was once there.

 

 

We walked the 2 mile loop near the visitor center where there were some other people, but then we drove on some dirt roads and hiked in to see some other ruins, and there was not another soul around - very good! (I was going to say, Very cool, but it was anything but cool!!)

We sat on a rock right by this little ruin for awhile - the only sound was the breeze and a few birds.

 

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Grand Teton National Park

We have been camped at Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park for several days. This campground is every bit as nice as I remembered it being from when we were here in '08. Once again, however, there is very limited cell service and WiFi, so this blog post will have to happen later.

On the Fourth of July we journeyed down to Jackson, Wyoming and Teton Village (the ski area) for the day. First, we saw the parade in Jackson which was good, not quite as funky and interesting as Talkeetna, Alaska, last year, but pretty good.

We wandered around Jackson for awhile. To say that Jackson is an "upscale" town would be an understatement. Houses are very pricey in the area, particularly in the outlying valleys (called the "hole", hence the area is known as Jackson Hole). The retail area downtown includes many high-end sporting goods shops, art galleries, restaurants, clothing stores, and much else, all with a distinctly Western flavor.

We drove on to Teton Village for the remainder of the day. This is the ski area just to the northwest of the town of Jackson, also very upscale. They run a very diverse music festival there which includes music on the green, which we enjoyed for awhile. It was hot, so we were happy to have the shade of the overhead canopy. Musical offerings included jazz, pop, local groups, and then, on into the evening, there were some featured artists which we didn't hear.

We then really enjoyed the Music in the Hole 4th of July Concert at the Walk Festival Hall which is right in the middle of Teton Village. The hall is not huge, but it is a wonderful venue with very lively acoustics. Donald Runnicles conducted an orchestra of very talented musicians apparently drawn from orchestras all over the United States. We immediately recognized Charles Ullery who is bassoonist from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. I was able to take a photo where Chuck is in the very center. Perhaps some Twin Citians will recognize him. Not a great photo. We spoke to Chuck after the concert and he indicated that he has been coming here every summer for this music series for just shy of 30 years! His wife is also here, but is not playing. She, too, is an SPCO musician.

Donald Runnicles was the principal San Francisco Opera conductor for many years, and we really enjoyed the operas when we lived in the Bay Area. He is now conducting several other orchestras and is in demand around the world. The soloist was Donnie Ray Albert, baritone. We had never even heard of this WONDERFUL singer whose deep, rich tones were perfect for the Gershwin, Kern and Copland offerings of the evening.

We drove back to Colter Bay after dinner in Teton Village. It was dusk and we took a back road, hoping to see some wildlife, but no luck.

Our next day we kayaked on Jackson Lake in some bays that poke off from the main lake. It was beautiful and interesting. We saw one eagle and several blue herons. The views of the Tetons from the lake are wonderful.

 

Yesterday we were up early to drive to South Jenny Lake. Right near the visitor center is the boat launch which takes people across the lake to a major Tetons Park trailhead.

 

One can also hike around the lake to this trail head, which we had previously done. After you disembark the boat, you can then hike up to Inspiration Point overlooking Jenny Lake, and to Hidden Falls, which is probably THE most popular hike in the park. Thousands of people do this every year. Then just past those points is another trail head, also extremely popular - the Cascade Canyon trailhead. You can hike this trail for miles! Most people do what we did - hike the 4.5 miles out to the fork and back. Another very popular extension of this hike is up to Lake Solitude. We had strongly considered including this portion, but the weather turned on us just as we reached the fork with thunder rumbling. It then started to rain, first a light drizzle, and then it really rained. We had rain the entire way back. We were prepared with raincoats, but another fleece layer would have been welcomed, especially because the boats going back to the other side of the lake were delayed due to the lightning in the area. We had to wait about 45 minutes on the dock, waiting for the go-ahead. Not fun. It cooled down at least 25 degrees from the lovely morning temperatures.

All this being said, it is a fantastic hike. We saw a bull moose in the woods, both coming and going. We also saw two yellow-bellied marmots. Here is the moose. Can you see him?

Cascade Canyon

 

We heard that a ranger was stationed at Paintbrush Divide, turning people back due to snowy and icy conditions at the pass. There is so much water this year. Everything is very green and the wildflowers are spectacular, as they have been everywhere we've been in Wyoming.

 

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