The Road to Moab (05-05-19)

Paul and I have been wanting to revisit Utah, with the Jeep, so we could do more extensive exploring, and we figured now would be a good time. Our final destination was Moab, but we made several stops along the way.

Monument Valley is on a Navajo reservation, and although there is one road you can drive on your own, they say the best way to see it is with a Navajo guide. I disagree.

Our guide was not wonderful and we saw only one or two features that we couldn't have seen on our own. The main thing we did see is an arch, where a young man played a few songs on the flute for us.

The Navajo are mostly ranchers and live a fairly solitary life.  There are few towns, mostly homesteads.  When I mentioned that the names of the buttes seemed to be very "European", our guide let us know that the Navajo share some information with outsiders, but not all. In other words, they have their own name for the buttes but he wasn't going to tell us what they are.

 This was taken at "Forrest Gump Viewpoint" and yes, they actually call it that. It was very crowded with people taking pictures.

Ok, been there and done that now with Monument Valley, we were ready to move on. 

Traveling in the truck camper means we can get into smaller campgrounds, which is a real bonus sometimes. This is the view from our camp site and Gooseneck State Park in Utah...

We did several scenic drives in the area- probably the best one was the Moki Dugway up to Muley Point. The dugway is a road that was constructed by a mining company to move ore from the mine to the processing plant.

The drive up the road was ....interesting...to say the least.  

Once to the top, the views of the San Juan river were stunning, and we took the walk to Muley Point.

Off in the distance we could see Monument Valley.

We also drove up and over one of the peaks in the Abajo Mountains, but the scenery was just so-so. We were glad we had 4 wheel drive though!

We moved a little ways up the road ( not too far) to Bluff, Utah. Here we took the Jeep on yet another adventure, as we had to go seriously offroad to the trail head for the trail we wanted to hike.











The trail itself was pretty good- after a mile and a half it ended at the San Juan River, and there were even some pictographs along the way. We found out later that we were hiking on the old road that the pioneers had built while finding their way to Bluff.

Done with our hike, we drove through town looking to see what else might be of interest. We came upon a museum with a reconstructed fort, complete with houses. We almost didn't stop but we were SO glad we did.  Every once in a while you happen upon a gem, and this was one of those times.  Bluff was settled in 1880 by Mormons in order to establish a supply route for other Mormons making the trek across the United States.



The 70 families that settled here were the same ones that traveled thru, and survived, the Hole in the Rock (a 1200 ft cliff that they had to descend) in Glen Canyon.

The museum was incredibly well done- each cabin had a button you could push that played an audio clip that told the story of the family that lived in that cabin.  One of the cabins is actually still the original.

After seeing Monument Valley, our next scenic drive, a 19 mile trek down Valley of the Gods Road, was pretty much more of the same. Enjoyable because we are easily entertained.
We did find some interesting boondocking sites along the road if we ever decided to come back and hang out for a while.

Our final hike before arriving in Moab was Mule Canyon Ruins. The weather was such that we almost turned back but for the most part the rain held off and we hiked a very nice 6 mile trail to 700 year old puebloan ruins.




Some of them were accessible, some were not, but the trail was great so we had a good time.

 

April 2019

April was a month of highs and lows.

It started on a high note, as my early birthday present arrived on April 1st. I turn 60 in May, and Paul and I decided to celebrate with a new Mustang convertible.

Half the fun for me is to let other people drive it, which means, I have had a lot of fun with it!

The girls and I had a Thelma and Louise day, taking the car up to Oatman for lunch.  We decided we are all Louise, and the car is Thelma.

Liz and Randy, and Mike and Julie were still in the yard, so we had a great time just enjoying retirement.

Although the boat didn't get much use, due to the constant winds, we did have a few good days on the water.

My favorite was the day we brought everything to make quesadillas, and stopped at one of the many picnic spots for lunch.

Mid April brought more first time visitors to the PPP.  Two of my childhood friends made the trip out here for vacation.  Paul and I picked Linda and her fiance Alan up in Vegas, and the 4 of us made an overnight stop at the Grand Canyon.






By the time we got back to the house, Rita and her husband Ed had already arrived and been greeted by our stand in hosts, Mike and Julie.







I was looking forward to a great time, and I wasn't disappointed! Although the weather didn't cooperate, we still had a great time-

More outings in the Mustang...

Dinners on the back deck..

A game night that had us laughing ourselves silly..

And a Dance Party..

They even surprised me with an early birthday party !

We had a great time- I hope they come back soon!

Unfortunately, as soon as my friends left, the month went from the high to the low.  We knew our cat, Dozer was having problems eating, and things got worse in April. Finally we knew it was time to let him go.

 He had plenty of adventures during his 16 years with us, and was more well traveled than many people.  He even wrote a blog post about his Alaska adventure.

From Newfoundland to Alaska, he had lots of opportunities to explore the great outdoors.

Of course, like most cats, he had to check everything out...

And usually managed to be in the way....

But mostly he was a great companion, and his loss will leave a large hole in our lives.

February (and March) 2019

Yep, I am combining February and March. Not because I suddenly got lazy, but because although March was a busy month, there wasn't much going on that is blog worthy.

 So here are the highlights:

Early February brings both mine and Paul’s anniversary (our 19th, this year!) and the Super Bowl.

I was determined to be home for both. We made it just in time.

No one was happier than me when, after the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots could change their tagline from “Everything we Got” to “We got Everything”

Soon after we settled in at the house, people started arriving and the fun intensified.Hiking was still a regular occurrence, and the views of the lake never get old.

Planet Fitness was also a frequent destination for most of us. It’s so much easier to go to the gym when someone texts you in the morning “are you ready to go?”

Mid February brings the Winter Blast. This is a pyrotechnics show that lasts 4 days. We have been going for about 6 years and still enjoy it.  This year we booked two RV sites down at the show, so we could park our 5th wheel and still have room to park and set up tables and chairs.

Last year, in addition to RV friends, my cousin Linda came, and some friends from Michigan came as well. This year, our Michigan friends brought more friends of ours! We had a full house and had a great time!

Although our friends Carol and Larry were only with us for a few days, we managed to find time to bring them to the Desert Bar…














My cousin Linda and her husband Michael also made the trip to the Desert Bar with us. One of the perks to being in AZ is that I get to see her more often. We are only 6 months apart in age…and I have no intention of revealing who is older!

February and March are our biggest months for visitors..

and we always have a good time!

We had barely recovered from Winter Blast when Paul’s birthday came around. We celebrated at our new favorite restaurant, El Paraiso, famous for their flaming Margaritas.

Late February, early March we made a short road trip to El Paso to check on Paul’s mom.

On the way back we met up with some friends in Yuma, at the home of our good friends Steve and Carol.

March brought in slightly warmer weather (although this winter has hit some record low temperatures and hasn’t warmed up all that much!)

One of the perks to the rain we had was the awesome double rainbow over the house!

March also brought in a changing of the guard so to speak, as our vacationing friends left for home, and our RV friends settled in.

On the rare occasion that the weather was warm enough for boating, we took the boat out on the lake.

Jessica had a week off at the last minute, and came to spend a few days relaxing with us old folk.

And, of course there were more shared meals….at least we got to eat some of them outside!

Although there was plenty of time for fun and games…..

There was also work to be done. Part of the reason I decided to update my blog is because Paul and I are headed to Europe this summer with Mike and Julie!  I know I will want to post about it, so I figured I’d better get caught up first.

Of course, we had some help planning our itinerary. We will spend about 6 weeks touring Scotland and Ireland, with a short visit to England at the beginning of the trip. Mike and Julie have done this trip several times, so their input has been invaluable.