Colorado has it all

So much to do here--can spend a whole summer here no problem never been a problem no problem--guy I worked with Ernie Manville had that saying --hung on to it.In the middle of Colorado -bunches of mountains-wildlife-farming-great folks and also the hugegest sand dunes in the country .Seven hundred and fifty feet high.So we thought that must be tough to walk in --use to Cape Cod dunes worn out after 5 steps--well we made it almost to the top Mim higher.Sand it's packed it so hard wind blown --sorta like walking up a trail and not sinking in.The Great Sand Dunes 30 Sq miles --another sleeper Nat Park- we loved it gotta come back.This morning pulling out on a Sat morning families were there with flying saucers and Plastic sleds to ride the dunes-not a problem messing them up the wind pulls it all back together.Refiguring our mapping home finding nice places in Kansas even-- still staying low and catching the sun. Gotta send more picture of the dunes tommorow

Outa Utah into Colorado

Gotta get home and see the new babe and all the young ones back in NE!!What a struggle--- go a couple of hundred miles and its whole new adventure.Stayed two days in Mersa Verde to see the cliff dwellings the Puebloans lived back many-many centuries ago --to get down and outa there lots of ladders and footholes in the ledges crawled thru rock tunnels--not good for the vertigo --It was amazing to see how these folks lived under the protection of the the overhanging ledges. Never need to reshingle.Best history we got slapped with cant get enough of it.

Went over Wolf Creek Pass Continental divide in the Rockies Woowie! 10 miles of going up 20 miles an hour pulling the house on wheels .Stopped today in a small farming town lots of potatoes Monte Vista in the San Juan valley to eat again -small walk up to the counter and order Italian food -had the Raviolis the best--would you know it the guy was born in Boston Left at 5 years old and inherited those cooking skills.. One of those kind of towns you can sit down and chat with everyone --guy next table --huge --tried out for the Denver cowboys came back to the best farming!Today going to the Great Sand Dunes NP--highest ones in north america

Canyon lands utah

Hiked many trails in canyonland---tried to do early mornings --climbed to the 90"s in the afternoon and lots of lightning. Climbed over lots of rock formations and through canyons .Wonder how many rattlesnakes we passed by and did not see--plenty of them here.Lots of jeeping roads and mountain biking.Could stay here for weeks lots to do .On to Mersa Verde today-heading east on the slow crawl

Tues --great day new grandaughter arrived WOOWEE Quinn Sullivan ---gotta get home now.Did not have much motivation to leave this area until that event--great place Utah.Kayaked the Colorado river today for about 10 miles through canyons--amazing all the rock towers --monuments--spheres-and sculptures and face figures--maybe NH can come here to get a new one to replace the one that fell down.Check out picsee the one we found.

Arches Nat Park Utah

1. If you think you need to see the Grand Canyon and other places and think do i have the time to see it all __Skip GC --and come to Arches and Canyon Lands. Gotta tell ya more view points and hiking trails.--Did some yesterday in arches 3 mile hike into delicate arch pictures of Mim under the the best one.Today into Canyonlands--next day --float the Colorado river in the kayaks --Moab great small town no walmarts and that stuff.

Calif is beautiful east of the coast before SanFrancisco --traveled thru lots of miles of farmland we saw hundreds of miles of almonds trees,grapes veggies fruits--stop anywhere get the tomatoes get ova here 39 cents a pound.We made salsa for the rest of the trip--whole bucket.Now we get to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. WoooWee up the hill lots of switchbacks --temp went up in the truck pulling the house on wheels--was sticking out a bit on the wrong side of the road going around one of those sharp curves--truck driver hauling gas needed to screech to a stop to avoid hitting the ass end of our house--want to meet him some day at least buy him a beer a hug ? or give him our house! Got to Yosemite stayed 2 nites lots of places to hike --the Valley is the best --woke up in the morning at 29 deg .Ok time to bail lets find our summer.Outa Calif-into Nevada wow this has its own beauty-lots of flat scrub prairies -no problem going 70 plus found a remote pull off to camp for the nite very quiet --maybe two cars we heard go by all nite.

While heading to Utah passed a Nat Park Great Basin never heard of it --like lots of them. got 5 miles past and said lets go.Gotta tell ya one of the best --best camping--best stars --mountain to climb and the bonus --CAVES with stalagamites and lots of tight passages WooWee .Travelling thru Utah it just continues to be-- see that and see that --stop take a picture! Wow dont let this stop.

Outa Oregon into the Redwoods

This is amazing --going from dunes that go inland 3 miles to the tallest and biggest trees in the world .So the big guy is over 23 feet in diameter and is older than most of the people we know.Walking the trails and travelling the avenue of the giants that go back 2000 years was that before JC was born--not you John C--they are hanging in there.As we drove down some of the narrow tree lined back roads they used chain saws to cut back part of the trees as they grew to allow the cars to pass instead of cutting the trees down .Thought my mirrors were going to scrape a couple of them.We thought about going to San Fran --but Eureka was enough tomorrow move thru Sacramento in the morning-- wave to Arnold and move on to Yosemite--then pick a way back east to hold the new baby.