Nomads2

Our rig kind of looks out of place parked in a full hook up site. I’m not sure we got our fifty-six dollars worth for the one night we stayed, but right behind me are the showers and we did get our monies worth out of them. The Glenwood Canyon Resort park is a very nice place to stay, about one and half miles east of Glenwood Springs with a large number of sites right next to the Colorado river.
This is the view toward the river. The resort had a number of small cabins and larger park model ones.
This is Edwards Colorado, or at least part of it. I’m not sure how many blocks this area takes up, but it was a really neat place to shop and eat. Retail stores take up the first floor areas and the floors above are apartments or condos. That sure is a great looking truck in the background.
In the early Colorado morning, Norm finds a new friend.
If you are ever in Aurora Colorado, you must eat at Lam’s. One of our all time favorites! We have never found better sesame chicken any where. With our bellies full, we headed to our friends, Bruce and Becky’s house. We had a fine time of catching up, a feast for dinner, and then Norm and Becky left for some gambling in Black Hawk Colorado, while Bruce took me to the local motocross track to check out his up coming race. We were sad to come to the end of our Colorado trek. The next morning we left Denver for Oklahoma City.

Norm tells me that is a long, long way to the bottom. I believe her.
Norm took this shot with me having a death grip on her waist line. This, and the photo above was taken from a place called “Exclamation Point.” I’m sure that there is a variety of exclamation’s when you first look over. This particular area is a group of rocks that stick out and you can actually see the canyon in a different and scary way.
Us having a really great time, even being without a shower for three days. It’s a good thing we really like each other.
Most of the trail was marked by these piles of rocks called carins. The park did not spend too much on markers for many of the areas we visited.
This is a juniper tree that we saw on the North Vista Trail. The tree looks totally dead at the bottom and about half way up, but is all green at the top. The tree does this in times of draught to preserve it’s self. This trail climbs eight hundred feet in elevation and the views make the effort worth it.

This photo and the next are from the drive on highway 92. There are two reservoirs on the way to the north rim, the Gould and the Crawford.


These series of photographs are still from our driving tour of the north rim sites. Two from our drive to Crawford. We saw all of three cars on the (maybe) six mile drive. The road is unpaved, but in good condition. There are five viewing points that all require a short walk. Still sore from our inner canyon excursion, we limped and moaned our way to every one of them. As you can see, it was well worth the effort.

Some of these views are from the drive to the north rim by way of back tracking on highway 50 east bound, and than turning north on to highway 92. Highway 92 is a great drive with the maximum speed being around thirty miles per hour. Lot’s of twists and turns. Norm had to take some motion sickness pills for the first time. She just can’t sit and look straight ahead on a road like this one. Way to many awesome views. We drove past the turn to the north rim for a trip into Crawford Colorado for some supplies. Crawford is a real nice little town, but sadly, not for supplies. We headed back toward the road to the north rim with only a bag of ice. We could not find any type of food other than packaged stuff. Another eleven miles down the road for a real grocery store. We decided that the food we had left would have to do.

Here is Norm on one of our last rest stops prior to collapsing in the truck and drinking all the water we had.
These next series of photographs are from our drive around the south rim route to complete our visit here in the south, and head toward the north rim.
Some how I found enough energy to hang from this rock. I think I could have made the summit if I had not been so sore from yesterday’s hike/climb. It takes a long time for bodies like ours to recover. This is the most physical we got for the entire day. We drove to the north rim, and finished the drive there and after setting up our camp, took the afternoon off. We took a short, self guided tour just outside our campground. It had outstanding views, and was very educational.

Okay, here we are climbing back up the 80 ft. chain. Dave is making it look like a piece of cake.
Me on the other hand, am making it look and sound, not a very lady like sound either, as hard as it really was.

I’m telling you folks, this was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. All in all other than falling and rolling some of the way down, bringing home some nice bruises, the climb back up was easier, I think. Correction, other then not being able to breath, thought I was going to croak, (Dave thought I was going to croak), climbing back up was easier. But none the less, it was a great hike. I think we all take the beauty of God’s creation for granted sometimes. Take a moment today and look at that beauty around you, and be very thankful. We are.

This is just part of the trail, no signs or posts, just piles of rocks to point the way.

There is a trail here, you just cannot see it real clear.
I have probably done harder things in my life, survival and POW school in the military, Norm making me run five and ten K races in Miami, but nothing really hard in recent history. It was a real physical challenge for both of us. The temperature was in the low eighties with abundant sunshine and things would have gone a lot smoother if I would have just taken extra water. Our next hike a day and a half after this one (it took us that long to recuperate), we not only brought enough water with us, we carried it back out, so I did learn something.

The person you can barely see is Norm, she is not sure if going down or going up was the worst part.

This is the Gunnision river taken from the bank. We could hardly imagine carrying camping and fishing gear down the “trail” we just came down. This is the most popular unmaintained route to the inner canyon, but it is also strenuous, real strenuous for a couple of RVer’s. It is the route to take for a first time hike to the bottom of the canyon. The hike has an 80 foot chain 1/3 of the way down! That should have told us something. You have to get a “back country permit” before anything can begin. The permit, as was explained to us, meant that if you could not come back the same day, be prepared to spend the night and be rescued the following day. Another warning, not heeded. Here are the highlights of the hike, 1.5 hours on the descent, distance: 1 mile, vertical drop: 1800 feet, ascent: 2 hours, with 3/4 miles of river access, 3 campsites and believe it or not, a compost toilet. We were also informed that the poison ivy could be chest high. After learning all of this, it makes one wonder why we would not only go ahead and do the hike, but are already planning on another inner canyon hike from the north rim next summer.

The Blue Mesa reservoir at first light. A boat was already out on the water trying their luck.
Another view of the reservoir, although the light was not quite right, we had to take the photograph as we were heading out.

When we turned in to check out the campground, a couple of Mule deer were enjoying an early breakfast. The Airstream trailer in the background belongs to the campground host. It is the smallest trailer Airstream makes so I’m not sure a larger RV would have fit in any of the loops. There are three loops in all with loop B having electricity, for a few more dollars a night. The photograph above was taken from the first pull over, Tomichi Point, just past the campground. This quote really sums up what it is like here, “Some are longer, some are deeper, some are narrower, and a few have walls as steep,” writes geologist Wallace Hansen. “But no other canyon in North America combines the depth, narrowness, sheerness and somber countenance of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.”

This is the Royal Gorge bridge, it is quite a sight to see.
I had to get this photo approved from the model before I could use it!
This was on the way to our camp site. Norm really liked it.
We went in the gift shop here and had some great ice cream and when we came out it was sleeting, almost snow like.
We had this whole section of the camp ground to ourselves. The Blue Mesa reseivior is off to the left, with the sun setting on it. This is in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. Lots of camp sites all along the highway and marinas too. We hit the rack early for our assault on the Black Canyon of the Gunnision on day three.

We stopped in Canon City Colorado to visit this old prison museum. Norm’s Dad is retired from the Pennsylvania Prison system, maybe it runs in the family. This is the last gas chamber used in Colorado, I think.
The prison used to be a women’s prison, with a working prison located just next door. The cell this prisoner is in is located in the basement, for trouble makers, the sign said. Finally the government gets something right.
This prisoner is in one of the old cells that were in use prior to 1979. One inmate sued the state and all convicts got bigger cells.

After the tour of the Colorado prison museum, which cost seven dollars each for the self guided audio tour, we both think it is a must do if you are ever in Canon City. The photo above is of rafters going down the Royal Gorge. The gorge is west of Canon City and quite expensive to even just walk across. At forty-eight dollars for the two of us, we just walked to the edge and looked over. If you have the coin, you can raft, helicopter over and through, ride a tram, train, do a sky coaster and a bunch of other stuff. We came, we saw, we headed west with our $48.00 secure in Norm’s purse.

Near La Junta Colorado the United States operated a Japanese internment camp. We passed it east of La Junta, but the sign did not say what it was so I didn’t stop. Next time we will check it out.
If you have ever seen the wind power everyone is talking about, this is just one of the three blades that go around. It is located at the Colorado visitor center in La Junta. Very friendly folks, will give you anything you would ever need to know about Colorado.


Our first RV park was a KOA off highway 50 in La Junta. Usually my last resort for an RV park is a KOA, but the folks here were more than friendly and generous since we really do not fall into an RV or a tent site, so they gave us an RV spot for much less. The park was also very nice with good showers, a pool and a large recreation room. As a bonus, a Wal-Mart was within walking distance, which we would make good use of the next morning. We discovered in the morning, that our old sleeping pads were no longer good for us. I think they worked real well when we were in our forties. Not now! Our ice chest also proved to be not camping ready, so we purchased a new air mattress and a new ice chest, both worked beyond our expectations. The truck tent turned out to not be water proof. Waking up in the morning, we noticed the tent sagging with heavy dew, just then a large drop of water hit Norm and as I was laughing, one hit me. So, we beat it out of the tent and as Norm was in the shower, the sun came up and dried the east side of the tent. We left the tent on the truck and drove at a snails pace to the Wal-Mart parking lot and positioning it to the west side, shopped for our new products. When we came out, eighty-eight dollars less, the entire tent was dry. We fired up the diesel and turned west ward.

Here are just a few of the items we packed to take with us on our very first, and the start of many, we hope, of a truck camping trip. We have an aged tent that fits (kind of) on the bed of our truck. I will publish photos of it in a future blog. We have two aged thermo type pads that we Velcroed together for a double bed. To fill out all the other old equipment, we borrowed back an old sleeping bag that we had given to our son when we moved into the RV.
This is pretty much what our truck will look like as we head north west out of Oklahoma City. We will be driving into Colorado and plan on stopping at as many things that we find interesting. We plan to hike, drive over as many mountain passes as possible, ending up in Denver Colorado to visit our friends, Bruce and Becky.

We snatched our grandson up and hit the road west out of Oklahoma City for a visit to the Hinton Historical Museum and Parker House. It is located at 801 S. Broadway in Hinton, which for some reason, my GPS could not find. So I located it the old fashion way, I stopped and asked for directions. The museum has an old farm house (that we had to pass up, as one in our party had enough visiting) a 25,000 square foot two story barn filled with lots of state and local history showing how people lived from the late 1800’s forward. They have Oklahoma’s largest buggy and barbed wire collections.
This is a fire extinguisher, I guess one of the first on wheels.
This is the first “station wagon” or so we were told. We had a private tour given by Art Peters. He has a great slide show and really explains the canyon system running east to west and how it was used in the 1800’s. The original wagon tracks are still visible in a few of the canyons.
This is a copy of “rules of conduct” for riding the stage coach. I hope you can read them, pretty interesting.

A lot of small towns in Oklahoma have similar paintings on some of their buildings, and we think they look really neat.

We have been trying to visit Route 66 while we are here in Oklahoma and, again this week, I am working ( maybe) on planning a trip later this week. I seem to do much more planning and thinking, and little to no action. The photo above is not from the real Route 66. This photo is from one of my regular sites that I like to read, www.michaeltotten.com. This site gives the reader a good view of the middle east and Europe. The Route 66 signs in this shop window is located in Pejton, Prishtina, Kosovo. The story is titled “An Israeli in Kosovo.” Kosovo is a Muslim-majority country so seeing Route 66 signs and Israeli business’s seems strange, but I think it is a good thing. Michael’s blog is always a good read, well written, great photography and entertaining, sadly, everything this blog is not. But, we will keep trying to improve.

This is not a very good shot of Medlar Field where the State College Spikes, an A-affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates play. Their web site, http://www.statecollegespikes.com/ has a wealth of information on the Spikes. “Fear the Dear” is their official logo. I’m afraid there is not much fear of the team as when we attended a game I think the Spikes were five and seventeen or something close to that. We had a great time though, thanks to our good friends, Ken and Dodie, for the great seats and my Mom and step-Dad, we were just to the left of home plate and carried on like we were life long fans. Norm even won a gift certificate for Wegmans, a very cool grocery food store. If, in your travels, you come across one, make sure to stop and shop, you will be glad you did.
Harry Carson’s gas station had been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and he was still there when I made my move away from Pennsylvania. You could always get gas, milk and bread any day of the week, from early morning till late at night, either Harry or his wife Mickie were always there. The original building is gone, replaced by a convenience type store with gas. This plaque is all that remains with a likeness of the original building and garage. Now known as Carson’s corner, it will always be Harry’s to me and all the long time locals. This guy sure seems glad to see us back in Oklahoma. I think his Mom and Dad were also!

We went to the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and spent about eight hours meandering through all the exhibits. This tiny water park was sure popular later in the day. Those are real boulders that are hauled in for the week. If this is not one of the biggest arts festival, it is one of the best ones in the country.

Wow! Look who showed up for the festival. Just like real life, he answered no questions. I’m still not sure if it was because he only has about one hundred and forty some days of experience in the senate, or, and I think this was the real reason that he did not speak, no tele-prompter.
Penn State has been around for a long time, this looks like an old building.

We are at the Highway Pizza joint in State College Pennsylvania with our good friends Steve and Linda. We have been meeting here for years and call it our “regular place.” Our connection goes way back to high school. I think we have been friends since Norm and I started dating way back in 1970. The four of us were even kicked out a few years ago! Steve and Linda and their two daughters spent the night in our bathroom with the four of us in Miami during hurricane Andrew. Four adults, four kids, a dog and two cats rode out the storm in our average sized bathroom. Always a good time with these two. Norm and her Mum-Mum in Centre Hall. She is 91 and as feisty as can be.
Ryan, Ken, Lorri and Leigha. My brother and his family here in Pennsylvania. Ryan is an all around athlete, Ken took over our Dad’s construction business and made it grow and prosper, Lorri works at the school and takes the summers off, and Leigha just scored a job with the Pennsylvania department of corrections, and graduates high school next year.
This is Renee playing’ Guitar Hero ( I think she is one). We are related somehow, but I’m not quite sure how.
This pie was one of two our Aunt Elsie made us. She makes the best pies in the world!

That is Norm way over there doing prep work on my Mom’s roof. With Norm leading the charge and telling my step-dad, Bob and I what to do, we got the job done in two days.
Bob sprayed the first third, I took the second third (that is when Norm noticed some runs) so she took control to finish the spraying.
The finished product. Nice and white till today when the rain returned to central Pennsylvania.
Norm weeded my Mom’s garden and it looked so good from the roof, I had to photograph it.
When we travelled on route 66 in Oklahoma we found a round barn that was open to visit. This round barn is, I think, still in service. It is along route 45 near Centre Hall Pennsylvania.

They had bench’s all facing the crash site with the passengers and crews names on.
This book was of great interest to me and I have read quite a few CVR’s in my career, but none as moving as this one.
This fenced off area is due to erosion around the site. It is a temporary memorial and to learn more about the permanent memorial, check out www.nps.gov/flni. To donate to the fund go to www.honorflight93.org.
Norm and I both felt a special reverence here. They also have interpretive (interp’s to all our friends from DETO) talks now. The talk fills in the story and has insights into some of the hero’s involved. If you know the story of sheep and sheep dogs, than you know that this flight had all sheep dogs aboard.

I asked Norm to take a photo of the Arch in St. Louis and she put her foot in it.
We, not because we planned it, found our selves on the Flight 93 memorial highway and thought that was cool. After coming across this sign, we knew we had to take the time to visit.
Highway 219 to highway 30, also called the Lincoln Highway, turn right when you see this sign in Buckstown.
This the view of the temporary memorial from our parking spot along the road. To the left of this area is another parking lot with port-a-potties, but it was full of motorcycles.
Hard to see, but an American flag is in the upper center, and to the left of the flag and close to the tree line is the site of the actual crash.

We have left our RV and have been living the home life staying in our kids home and taking care of a number of animals. It is just like having grand kids or petting another persons dog. You have some fun and than you give them back. We have a history of dog and house sitting, but the difference is this time we are taking care of three animals and two houses at once! Quite a bit of work for a couple that have no pets and a fifth wheel. This is Sammie, a puggle ( is this a word?) part pug and part beagle. Check out that smile!
This is Barron. He is caught here doing one his two favorite activities. His other is screaming and making all sorts of chatter. He does say “Hi Barron” about a hundred times a day.
Here are the three trouble makers caught in the act.

This is another shot of the Salt river.
A long view of the area.
This the view to the north.
In New Mexico we departed highway 60 and took highway 36 north to 117. Our friend Todd wrote about this area on his blog and it is well worth the effort to find. Highway 117 skirts the eastern edge of the El Malpais National Monument.
This is a natural arch bridge, really pretty drive the entire length. No charge to drive through either, which I thought was strange.

These shots are all from the Salt River Canyon, east of Mesa Arizona on highway 60. The canyon is located at the far north western part of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.
This the bottom of the canyon with Native Americans selling their wares. Behind us as we took this photo, a tractor-trailer with his brakes smoking passed by.

We took this from the other side, if you look real close you can see the road we just came down.
We have gone this way in years past, but it is just a great drive, I think an RV with careful driving would have no problems.

This guy was in our yard right by my feet as I was getting directions from Norm about cutting branches off our tree. The only reason I knew he was there, I heard him crawling around. I could have stepped on him! We think this is a bull snake about six feet long. From the colors, it looks like two different snakes.
A large area of the desert is gone to developers. This used to be pristine desert and now it is all built up with dirt for houses and a golf course.
Norm in top form blasting through the Hassayampa river.
One of the largest lizards we have seen out in the desert.
We had a lot of reptile encounters on our visit. Not sure what type he is, but he stayed long enough for me to get the photo.

We took a road trip to Congress Arizona and than on to Mesa to bask in the sun and heat (plenty of both). It was a great time as we always look for different ways to go so we can see more of our country. This is Oak Creek Canyon on our way to Congress by way of Sedona. It was a fun drive in a car as you can see by the road. Really tough for anything other than a small RV.
They had a nice walk way with good views. There were also lots of Native Americans selling some cool handmade (I think) stuff.
Norm enjoyed the scenery and the mild weather. Just a little on the cool side for me, perfect for her.
I think the road is down there somewhere. Maybe?
A lot of rock formations, too many to shoot them all. They were mostly outside of Sedona, where we found some fine BBQ for lunch.

This guy was not only huge, but good looking too.
Leo kept calling this little horse a dog, but would not go near him, even though he let us rub his nose.
Who would have thought a photo like this could be shot in Oklahoma. Just west of the Express Ranch, this very nice display had information about the Chisholm Trail.

We visited the Express Ranch in Yukon, Oklahoma, located just north of Route 66. As soon as we arrive, Leo has to take a break from riding in his car seat to relax next to the barn.
This looks like he is all alone, but both Mom and Gammi were just out of the shot with out stretched arms to catch Leo.
Inside the barn were lots of equipment displayed and some antique desks and chairs.
This coach is huge as you can see with Tamara and Norm standing next to it.
Norm had no luck coaxing this big guy up close for a nose rub.

This is by the old red barn in Arcadia Oklahoma.
We spotted this out house and you know Norm….
“Do you have any T.P.?”
This old Ford Model A or T, I don’t know was a part of a group of old cars going to California on route 66. The wheel spokes are made out of wood and the head lights had a lavender color to them.
This big guy and a couple of others like him were nearby on the way back home.

This is a place called Pop’s on route 66 east of Edmond Oklahoma. You can buy just about any kind of soda pop ever made. They have a nice place to eat with good food also.
This roof structure is huge and mostly free standing. I wondered how well it would hold up in a storm. They sell gas and diesel fuel for a fair price.
We drove east on route 66 and visited this big round barn and I realized this is about the only photo I took of the barn. Norm is checking the view from the second floor.
I have no idea what this is, but it looked cool.
This is the inside on the second floor, they do dances and parties here.

Thanks to our friend Todd, we found this trail system with a parking lot right next to where our son Paul works. It was pretty much empty so we had it all to ourselves.
Leo forgot to bring his hat, so Norm gave him her ball cap to use, but he had to give it back.
I think he is telling his Gammy to tell his Pappy to get out of those rocks.

Security at Hickory hills campground
Phone service

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