I-70 and Denver

Surely one of the most spectacular Interstate drives in America is the I-70 corridor from Richfield, UT and east to Green River, UT. This marvelous piece of road is an engineering marvel, and winds through a portion of Utah that not only is adjacent to several of the spectacular red rock national parks in Utah, but argueably should be a national park itself. 

We had a beautiful day to do this drive, and as we were doing so, we were reminiscing that we drove this section of I-70 with our kids exactly 40 years ago, returning from Los Angeles and Disneyland, stopping in Denver to visit my parents before returning to Minneapolis. Much of the road was two lane only, and there is one section that, even today, is 100 miles without any services. I can still see the sign 40 years ago warning travelers that there are  "no services for 100 miles", placed near the last gas station. There still aren't any services, but there are improved parking spots along the way. The initial I-70 road - two lanes - was completed in the early '70s, but the final two lanes, making it a 4 lane road, were not completed until about 1990 to Interstate standards. It is maybe the only Interstate route to go where there was no pre-existing highway. There are sections of this roadway that are jaw dropping for the engineering that was required to put a road like this through this region.

Here are a couple of photos, but they don't nearly do this region justice.

I-70 begins/terminates at Cove Fort, UT at the western end. There is a stone building there, maintained by the Mormons, an early Mormon outpost built at the request of Brigham Young.

We stayed that night in Green River, UT. There isn't much left of this town, but as we drove around we saw these two wonderful vehicles.

A view of the Green River.

Our next day was the drive from Green River to Denver which, as many know, goes over Vail Pass and under Loveland Pass through the Eisenhower Tunnel. We knew that our timing could not have been better. We were racing a storm that had already dumped a foot of snow in Salt Lake City and even more than that in the Utah mountains. But our drive was without incident. I will say that this is an exciting drive in a motorhome! Gary has to watch the temperature gauge carefully to avoid over heating the engine on the inclines. We had no problems. We just get in the truck lanes and plow along.

We had a great, albeit short visit in Denver with my brother John and his wife Nancy, and their daughter (my niece) Amy, her husband Joel, and my great niece Alyson and great nephew Jake. We met John, Nancy, Alyson and Jake for a fun time in Boulder to see a Lego exhibit in Old Main on the Colorado University campus, a replica of the old part of the campus. We were so busy looking that I forgot to take any photos!

I did snap a few of the beautiful Colorado University campus.

Gary and I "met" at CU in the summer of '62 while we were both taking summer classes. We didn't actually know one another at Grinnell until after that summer. John's and my dad graduated from CU in 1932.

We had a lovely pizza dinner at Amy and Joel's house that night. Here is a photo of this terrific family with these two darling kids.

Meanwhile, the storm was coming, and come it did the next morning. We got up, saw heavy wet snow on the ground at the RV park, looked at the weather forecast, and decided to leave one day early. We got going pretty fast but not until Gary had to get up on the roof and clear the awnings over the RV slides of heavy wet snow so we could get the slides closed! It was not great driving through Denver, but by the time we got out near the airport, the snow was gone. We did drive in rain on and off throughout the day, but that is no big deal. Heavy wet snow makes RV travel challenging.

We are currently in Des Moines, IA, and expect to be home late tomorrow. It is raining now and will probably rain on us tomorrow, but at least it is not snow!

Los Angeles and Disneyland

We have had a wonderful time in Los Angeles! An Angels game (pre-season), a trip to the Huntington Botanical Gardens, Library and Museum, and finally a three-day visit to Disneyland.

The Huntington gardens were very pretty as always, but there was almost nothing in bloom. The Garden's vast collection of desert cacti and succulents had finished blooming. It has been very pleasant here in temperature while we have been here, but I believe it was very hot here last month, and so the blooms have come and gone. The same in the other gardens- sub tropical, Japanese, Australian, etc. We were extremely impressed with the very recently completed Chinese Garden with lovely buildings, waters, hardscapes and plantings. This is taken on the pathway going behind a beautiful waterfall.

This one section in the desert garden was still modestly in bloom.

For the last three days we were at Disneyland with Rob and family. It was wonderful, and we enjoyed every minute - walking miles, going on rides, seeing attractions, eating, wandering around, looking for hidden Mickey's (didn't know that throughout the park there are Mickey faces - the shape of ears and face - three circles - casually put in decorative designs, gardens, on walls, and many other clever ways to hide the image of Mickey. There are over 400 of these in the park. Henry and Annie had a guide book with suggestions of where to look. We did find quite a few of them. 

While I personally didn't go on all the rides the others did, they did get me on California Screamin' - OMG - the very high speed roller coaster with a loop! I didn't know there was a loop! I am not sure I would have done it if I had known, but I survived. We loved Radiator Springs Racers - went on that twice. Also went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, and many others. I avoided the ones where you got really wet. Gary did go and did get wet.

Some photos taken in the park:

Loved watching Annie get her hair done at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique:

Just this morning we had breakfast with a niece, her husband and their adorable daughter, Morgan, 18months.  So much fun watching this little one with the Characters.

Sadly this fun time has come to an end and we move on tomorrw, heading east and for home.

Aguanga, CA

We have been at a campground in Aguanga, CA for three nights. This ownership campground is about 30 miles east of Temecula. It is in an area of very sparse population, very dry - mostly chaparral. But the campground itself is irrigated with a golf course running through the middle, dotted with ponds. Given California governor Jerry Brown's announcement yesterday of a mandatory statewide cut in water usage of 25%, I wonder if places like this will look very different in a few years. 

The RV lots which are owned (most of them) have been highly customized and developed, very like several we have stayed at in Florida. Large covered outdoor areas have been built with huge outdoor kitchens, seating areas, extensive landscaping and hardscape. Here are a few photos of the campground.

I noticed on a walk the other day one owner's developed site which I will try to get a picture of today. It is over the top of anything I have ever seen anywhere else in places like this. Hope to post it later.

Our first day here we went wine tasting in the Temecula Valley, which has become a destination wine region for tasting within the last 20-30 years. They are making some very nice wines here, and the tasting rooms rival those of any in Napa or Sonoma Counties. We stopped at one such place, Oak Mountain, and thought some of their reds were excellent. Had a wine country picnic which was just like the many we had when we lived in Sonoma County - nice views and warm temps.

Yesterday we did a scenic drive to Julian, CA, a historic mining town and now a charming tourist mecca. We had lunch there and walked around. Nice little shops. The drive getting there was beautiful - poppies are in bloom and many other wildflowers. While in Julian, one shopkeeper told me that they had received 1 ½ feet of snow on New Year's Eve, and another foot in February, so the surrounding area is currently quite green and hence the wildflowers. We had been in Julian years ago with Gary's dad when his second wife was living - we went with them to her second home there. Julian is noted for apples and the shops selling apple pies.

These photos are from the Internet - forgot to take some.

We continued our drive to Anza Borrego State Park, hoping to see some more wildflowers. That was a pipe dream because it was 96 degrees in Borrego Springs, and it was apparent that the desert blooming period was at least a month ago here. We didn't stay there very long - way too hot. But I did snap some photos of the area around the visitor center which give an idea of the landscape.

We continued our loop drive, heading back to the RV park. As we climbed out of the valley where Borrego Springs is located, we ascended to 4000 feet and the temperature dropped 30 degrees! We once again reached the wildflower region.

As we drove, we saw a bicyclist standing beside his bike by the road, trying to hitch a ride. A quick appraisal said this guy was OK to pick up and needed help. We stopped and he introduced himself as Jack Something originally from Des Moines, which is, of course, where Gary is from. Small world and coincidences are really amazing sometimes. He told us his gear shift was not working and he needed to get to Anza, a ways north of our RV park where he had found the nearest bike shop. It all aligned - our direction and his need - and we loaded him up. Gary has a bike rack on top of our Saturn, so they got it up there, and away we went. Jack is in his mid 60's, retired, no wife apparently, and is committed to traveling around the country on his bike. He had come from San Luis Obispo where a daughter lives, and was heading east - wants to go to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, etc. Frankly I think it is a little late this year, given the weather temps already, to be doing this, but he was undeterred. He has no particular agenda, no schedule, just goes with the flow. This seems like the right attitude. We dropped him at the intersection with the road heading for Anza, and as we were turning away, we saw a pickup truck stop and it was apparent that he would have a zero wait time to get another ride to his destination. He told us he had been amazed at how many nice people there are in the world. Everyone was always ready to help him if he needed it. Glad we, too, could help Jack.

I so wish I had snapped a photo of him with all his stuff, getting picked up by his next ride, a very old pickup truck from somewhere around here.