Day 119 - Sunday - Cedar City, Utah and not a cedar tree in sight

Day 119 - Sunday - Cedar City for the First Time this Year

Time to pack up and leave for a short and hopefully uneventful 22 mile drive that will take us down 5,000 ft in altitude.  We get everything in its place, pull in the slideouts and reassure the cats.  We've used the leveling jacks this time and Vicky greases them before I retract them.  They all come up with no problem but the control panel is telling me jacks are still down.

There will be no problem driving since we know the jacks are up, but for the first 2 miles or so, and intermittently thereafter, we get loud warning bells from the system.  Even though we know it's crying wolf, I do stop to check that the jacks are up - they are.

We've decided not to hook up the car until we get out of the boondocks and back to the place 2 miles down the road where we unhitched on the way up, so Vicky drives the car to the parking area and Quill, Cosette and I get to listen to the warning bells from the jack system.  The noise stops just before I pull up near Vicky, and we hook up the car and check that everything is working.

The forecast is for sun and clear skies, but winds of 20mph or more after 12 noon, so we set out soon after 11am for the short trip.  Nevertheless, by the time we start the twisty downhill stretch on Utah Route 14, it's already noon.  Fortunately since we're traveling though mountain country, there are no nasty crosswinds or even tail winds, so no problem there.

I pull over in the brake check area and let several cars pass me, then set off downhill.  I have 2 controls on the RV to help preserve the brakes on deep downhills.  The first turns off the overdrive and the second drops us yet another gear.  I engage both of these right away but still have to use the brake to keep us down to 35mph which is all I feel comfortable with driving 22,000lbs of RV pulling a car on this 7% or more slope.  A line of vehicles builds up behind me but there's nothing I can do about it.  Most of them manage to pass me on one or another of the few straight stretches of road and eventually, about 2 miles short of the bottom of the hill, when both Vicky and I think we smell the tires, we find a safe place to pull over.

I open up the engine compartment - it's not hot - and we check the tires.  The monitor says the pressures are in the range we expect although the temperature of the tires is a little high.  We both walk around and feel the tires - nothing particularly hot, although the hub of the driver side front tire is very hot.  The monitor says it's over 120 degrees which would be very worrying if it were the tire itself, and as we stay parked it increases to about 138 degrees.  Vicky is concerned about this but I point out that we're not moving and the car is in direct sunlight - and the air temperature at this lower altitude is much higher, so I'm not overly worried.

While we're there 2 other RVs pull over.  One had been following us down the hill and he comes over when he sees I have the engine cover open.  The other - a gentleman from Quebec, had stopped to unhitch his tow car before attempting the uphill climb.  He comes over and gives us some good advice about changing down to second or even first gear on steep hills and we're able to reciprocate by sharing good places to camp with him.

After a while we resume the downward journey and Vicky announces that the tire temperatures are going down.  The last 5 miles into Cedar City are relatively flat and we traverse them, and the mile down Main Street with no problem and arrive at the KOA campground where we'll spend the next 3 nights.  We get a nice pull though site with full hookups.  The first thing we do is dump our wastewater tanks which are close to full after almost a week of "dry" camping, and fill up our fresh water tank which is totally empty.  Since it's 80 degrees here we both jump into the shower and feel much better after that.

Vicky, Quill and Cosette all lie down for a rest, which I work on updating this blog and check the email.  We decide to have an early dinner at Milt's Stage Stop, a steakhouse 5 miles back up UT14.  This is a place where we splurge once every year.  The steaks are tender, juicy and cooked just how you like them, and are accompanied by a bountiful salad bar and a choice of side.  Vicky opts for a baked potato while I savor the buffalo chips.  These are slices of potato, deep fried and coated with a mixture of spices.  They're just as unhealthy and as delicious as they sound.

But it's not the food, as flavorful as it is, that makes Milt's special.  Their restaurant backs onto the forest and has large picture windows.  Outside each of these windows they hang hummingbird feeders.  We get there early and ask for a window table so we can enjoy these "little miracles" as Vicky calls them.  If you know anything about hummingbirds you know they're fiercely territorial - but not here.  Each feeder has 5 slots and it's not unusual to see all 5 slots occupied and 2 or 3 other birds waiting their turn.  In fact, at one point we see two hummingbirds politely alternating at the same feeding spot.

Vicky brought her hummingbird guide and we're able to identify various species, including broad tailed, black chinned and the more rare rufous hummingbirds.  I have the camera and am able to capture them (not literally!).  A very special experience as always.

We return to Cedar City and the RV park.  By the way there are no cedar trees within miles of here.  Apparently the original Mormon settlers mistook the local juniper trees for cedars and named the city.  Later arrivals asked where the cedars were and pointed out the error but the name stuck.  When the National Monument was declared in 1933 they elected to go with the historic name even though it's not accurate.

We make friends with some of our overnight neighbors, a couple from Texas who had trouble with the high winds today but survived the trip.  They are into horses so Vicky has a great conversation with them about that.  One of the great things about the RV lifestyle is that you make lots of new friends, although so far none have been long-lasting friendships.

Days 117 and 118 - Cedar Breaks

Days 117 & 118 - Friday & Saturday - Cedar Breaks

Cedar Breaks is a natural amphitheater built of multiple layers of sedimentary rocks laid down over the past 30 million years or so.  It's also the site of an ancient lake - Lake Claron - which dried up about 15 million years ago.  But the geological description, as shared with us by Ranger Maya in her talk, doesn't do justice to its beauty.

We're in Iron County, whose name is apt since there was, and is, a lot of iron here.  In particular many of the rocks contain iron which, given the chance to oxidize, produces vivid red and orange colors.  Other rocks, deposited under Lake Claron, weren't able to oxidize and are white, or light colored.  The result is a large basin with irregular sides, including some columns of rock known as hoodoos, all of which is layered in different colors.   It's breathtaking and never crowded with people.

You can stand at the overlook near the visitor center and be awed by the multicolored walls of the amphitheater, and by the view down the open sides of the amphitheater all the way to Cedar City, 5,000ft lower in altitude.  You can also hike trails varying in difficulty from a relatively flat 2 mile roundtrip paved trail to a 4 mile rugged trail with multiple up and down sections.  What they all have in common is lots of views of the stunning amphitheater from different spots.  You actually don't have to go anywhere to savor different color combinations of colors of rocks - all you need do is wait for the sun to go behind a cloud, or go lower in the sky, and yet another color combination takes your breath away.  This is our 5th year coming, mainly for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.  But we always take time to come up to Cedar Breaks and this year, with multiple nights here, we're able to take out time and enjoy it to the full.

After the ranger talk on Friday we walk the paved trail to Sunset Point, which takes us from the amphitheater rim, through a nature trail featuring delicious currants (we leave most for the animals), various pine and spruce trees and flowers including an exotic thistle, across an alpine meadow and eventually to another breathtaking view of the amphitheater.  We identify numerous bird species and a cute chipmunk, but no larger animals, then visit the gift shop where I arrange for Vicky to adopt a pika.  This cute little rodent - think of a very fat mouse with no tail - inhabits the high mountain plateaus and although we don't see any today, Vicky has helped with the conservation and we now have a cute pika to add to our collection of stuffed animals in the bedroom.  Quill can't figure out why we do this, since we have her.  Why bring home stuffed animals when you have a cute Abby?

Time for dinner of homemade chile accompanied by Vicky's first attempt at fry bread.  It doesn't taste or look anything like what we had on the Hopi reservation but it really melds well with Vicky's inventive chile.  Now it's time to drive over for the sunset walk with the ranger.  Vicky decides to give it a miss as she's tired from our earlier walk, and the temperature has cooled considerably.  I decide to dress up warm (shirt, sweater, jacket and gloves (and yes, I was wearing jeans) and join the hike.  On the way over I pause to observe a family of deer with 3 cute fawns, then brake to avoid two deer crossing the road.

It turns out we're walking the same 2 mile roundtrip paved trail that Vicky and I did earlier, but it's a wholly different experience.   In the early part of the hike there's enough light for the ranger to identify various plants to us and talk about how animals use them, but soon, despite the full moon and the cloudless night, we're able to see lots of stars and planets.  Both the ranger and a volunteer who accompanies us are amateur astronomers.  So we quickly learn to identify Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, all of which are clearly visible.

When we reach Sunset Point and after we've gaped in awe at the amphitheater in moonlight, we're given a tour of the heavens and show how to identify constellations from the Big Dipper (The Plough to you folks of British extraction!) to Cassiopeia as well as the Milky Way.  The ranger tells us that every star in the sky is part of a constellation and when I ask her which constellation our sun is part of she says nobody has ever asked her that.  Shawn, the volunteer I mentioned, goes further by saying that from our point of view the sun visits different constellations at different times, but if another planet with a different star as its sun were inhabited, no doubt people there would place our sun in one of their constellations.

We take it easy on the return, but for the last quarter mile or so my body tells me it's not used to walking 4 miles in one day at an altitude of over 10,000ft, so I'm glad to get home.  Vicky kindly left the lights on and the curtains open so I could find the RV in the dark, but with the full moon it's no problem anyway - and I really didn't feel cold at all except for my hands.  needless to say I slept well.

Saturday we sleep late.  Vicky and I both have work to do - she a writing assignment and me class preparation.  So it's mid afternoon before we venture out.  This time we decide to attack another 2 mile trail - the Alpine Pond Trail.  This is a loop - a lower trail and an upper trail - around (guess what?) an alpine pond.  It's not paved and quite rough and steep in places, especially the lower loop which descends several hundred feet from the road to the pond and then climbs back up again.  But with the help of a trail guide and 25 numbered markers, we learn about everything from how to tell a spruce tree from a pine tree (the shape of the needles, and whether the cones grow up or down) to how marmots and pikas make their homes in rocks, and how they survive winter (marmots eat all summer, get fat and then sleep through the winter, pikas make caches of food to help them through the snow covered months).

Unfortunately we don't see any of the above, but we do encounter a deer and various squirrels and birds.  We hiked the more difficult lower trail first and as we come near the end of the loop we're glad we did, since 2 miles of rugged trail is even more tiring than 4 miles of paved trail.  So after dinner we're happy to curl up with Quill (Cosette finds her own place) and sleep.

A great 2 days and although we're leaving tomorrow we'll be back later in the week.

Day 116 - Thursday - into our 10th State - Utah

Day 116 - Thursday - Into our 10th State of the Trip

We're currently at 8000 feet and headed for Cedar Breaks National Monument which is at 10,500 feet - a 2,500ft rise, right?  Wrong!  We have to pass through the small towns of Fredonia AZ and Kanab UT which are at less than 5,000ft, so it's up and down again.

After the scare on Monday we're a little apprehensive so I take the first 30 miles to Fredonia carefully.  Fortunately it's a more gentle slope than Monday's and the RV has no problems getting us through Fredonia and into Utah, out 10th State on this trip.  We stop at Kanab to add some gas to the tank - it's expensive here and we're in no danger of running out, but the heater in the RV, which we figure we'll need at 10,500ft, runs off gas and cuts out if you have less than a quarter of a tank.  We also stock up at the grocery store and head out of town.

We've descended from the Ponderosa Pine forest at Jacob Lake into spectacular red rock country - not only brilliant colored mountains but fantastic shapes.  We're now on US89 which would take us all the way to Canada but we only have about 30 miles to go.  For 10 miles of this the orad is under construction so it's the usual job of balancing the RV between the dropoff at the side of the road and the cones in the middle.  We do this successfully, even negotiating a short one way section, and then I discover we're back in Ponderosa Pine country and ready to turn onto UT14.

This is a road we know and love - it's 40 miles from where we turn off US89 to Cedar City, where we'll be next week.  This takes you up into Engelman Spruce and Pinon Pine country, and back down again to 5,000ft.  For today we're staying at the peak and again I'm worried after what happened when we were climbing to Jacob Lake, but today the RV gives us no problems and we arrive at the turnoff to UT148 which goes into Cedar Breaks and beyond.  For the last mile or so there is what appears to be snow at the side of the road, and eventually even some on the road.  We pass a car that has skidded off the orad and is being attended to, and make to safely to the turnoff.  We unhitch the car and leave the RV in a large lot, and head up towards the Monument.  I'm surprised at the snow since the daytiime temperatures are in the 60's!

There's a campground there but we've decided to check out a place in the nearby BLM land where we can "boondock".  We identified a great spot last year and want to see if it's available before we drive the RV a mile or more down a cinder road.  We find 2 men - deer hunters - camped there in a tent with 4 vehicles, right where we'd hoped to stay and drive further up the road.  There's really nothing suitable without driving for miles, but there are large flat open spaces on either side of the spot where the hunters are camped.

We stop and talk to them and they point out that they'll be away all day and only want to sleep at night, plus there's plenty of space for us, so we decide to bring the RV up - but not before they relate the story of how lucky we are that we didn't arrive earlier.  The "snow" we saw was not, in fact, snow but the remains of a severe hailstorm that came through a half hour before we arrived.  The hunters had also skidded in their 4 wheel drive, so God has certainly taken care of us again.

The skies are looking ominously black but we get the RV parked, leveled and set up before the rain comes.  It doesn't last too long.  We find, curiously, that we have internet service here but very sketchy phone service, and I go online and check out ranger programs at Cedar Breaks, which is now only 2 miles away.

There are geology talks at 10am and 2pm every day, but we're lucky to have arrived at the time of the full moon.  Tomorrow Friday and Saturday evenings there will be ranger led hikes departing at sunset.  I call and reserve us spaces on tomorrow's hike, and we enjoy dinner and our first night at 10,500ft, glad that the heater is working since the low is in the 40's.  The forecast is clear for the next few days so we're looking forward to spending time in one of our favorite places.

Days 114 and 115 - Rain in the Forest

Days 114 and 115 - Tuesday and Wednesday - Rain in the Forest

The promised rain arrives so we spend all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday indoors, working on HRB stuff and reading.  Late on Wednesday the weather clears so we decide to check out the small community of Jacob Lake.  If you drive up Hwy89A and turn down AZ67 to the North Rim, you see nothing but the NPS campground we're staying at.

However, a slight detour past a gas station with prices that will eat up your paycheck, and we find the Jacob Lake Inn, and a Visitor Center.

The latter is already closed but we check out the Inn.  A cool place to stay with nice looking hotel rooms and rustic cabins, but it's the food that captures us.  They claim they're famous for their cookies so we each try one.  Chocolate raspberry turns out to be a very light, very chocolaty cookie smothered with raspberry jam - need I say more?  Vicky settles for a more healthy 5 grain cookie.

We decide to find Jacob Lake itself and then come back for dinner.  We drive down the road to the lake and find a historic ranger cabin but no lake, so we keep on driving.  The lake was supposed to be 1 mile from the turnoff and after about 3 miles we decide we must have missed it, so we turn round.  Right across from the aforementioned historic ranger cabin we see a wet area in the middle of a filed and decide this must be Jacob Lake.  We look inside the ranger cabin and take a couple of pictures of the lake, which is very easy to miss.  As we pull out of the parking lot we see a sign at the side of the field
"Jacob Lake", so we know we've actually found it!

Dinner in the lodge features a jalapeño meatloaf for both of us - tender ground beef with large slices of jalapeño (so I get a double portion) accompanied with sliced squash and spicy skin-on fries for me and a more healthy polenta for Vicky.  The food is great but the highlight is a book on Navajo rugs sitting in the middle of the table.  The dining room and gift shop walls are both festooned with rugs of all sizes for sale, and with the book we're able to identify various traditional patterns as well as learn about their origins.

Vicky tops things off by surprising me with a lemon raspberry cookie - delicate lemon flavor with more of that tangy jam - and we head back home for our last night here.

Day 113 - Monday - up and down, up and down

Day 113 - Monday - up and down, up and down

We decide to start with a Hopi breakfast - for us, that is.  The cats prefer their usual raw meat.  Vicky goes for their light breakfast - one egg, bacon and a blue corn fry bread, while I splurge and pay $2 more which gives me 2 of everything except the fry bread (one of those) and a bowl of chile beans.

Fry bread is a delicious specialty of most southwestern Native American tribes.  This is the first time we've had it with blue corn.  The traditional recipe calls for mixing wheat flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt and lukewarm milk or water.   You knead it, divide into balls and then flatten to a half inch thick, all by hand.  Let it rest for a while and then fry in lard, browning on both sides.  I guess the blue corn version mixes ground blue corn with the flour.  Certainly we both found it tasty, but judging from the size of most of the other diners in the restaurant, it's not something you want to eat every day!

Having eaten our fill and discovered that the Hopi museum is closed, we visit a couple of craft stores and some vendors with stalls outside.   Colorful rugs, turquoise laden jewelry and glazed pottery are everywhere, as well as the traditional Hopi Katsina dolls.  The Katsina are carved (from cottonwood) replicas of the spirit messengers.  One vendor tells us the story of each of his wares, but with little spare room in the RV we leave them for him to sell to someone else.

Quill and Cosette are ready to travel (yeah, right!) so we pack up the RV and hit the road.  Today Vicky drives the longer stretch..  First we have to come down from the mesa and then, as we continue to drive across the Hopi lands and eventually into the Navajo lands that surround them, we climb up and down several other mesas (mesae?), marveling at the other worldly rock formations and wondering how the Hopi manage to survive in the beautiful but barren lands.

After 60 miles or so we meet US160 and travel 10 miles to US89.  This, and the rest of today's journey, is a route we've journeyed on before, but never in the RV.  Route 89 eventaully leads to Lake Powell, created by damming the Colorado River, and a very popular boating area for Arizonans.   That part is still on our bucket list, but we discover anew the shifting colors of the mountains - now red, now pink, now orange.  As Vicky puts it: "I love this part of Arizona".  Me too!

Our destination today is Jacob Lake, a small town 45 miles north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, at the start of the only paved access road to that rim.  To get there we detour on US89A which takes us across sagebrush country and eventually to Lees Ferry, a crossing point on the Colorado River.  It's the only point in more than 260 miles where the river is not hemmed in by steep canyon walls on one or both sides and in 1870 John Doyle Lee started a ferry service to help Mormon pioneers headed for Arizona.

The ferry survived until 1929 when the so-called Navajo ridge was built 4 miles downstream.  The current bridge carries route 89A, and the spot is the paunching point for raft trips through the Grand Canyon.  We don't stop today but continue through many more miles of sagebrush country alongside the Vermilion Cliffs, now a National Monument.  The name says it all.  Especially at sunset, the colors of the cliffs are stunning, with ever-changes hues.  Today it is partly cloudy and the colors are more muted, but it's still spectacular.

The road has been rising slowly all this time since we left Lee's Ferry at 3,110 feet elevation, but in the last 10 miles to Jacob Lake we'll ascend the last 3,000 feet, taking us from the sagebrush desert, first to an area with Juniper and Pinon Pine, and eventually to the Ponderosa Pine forest of the Kaibab (Mountain lying on its side) Plateau.  The highway gets steeper and steeper and finally, when we're only about a mile from Jacob Lake campground at 8,000 feet, the RV decides it has had enough.  It loses steam going uphill, jumps when it tries to change down the gear, and so I stop it - on one lane of a 2 lane road.  We put out cones and direct traffic around it and before long an ADOT van arrives.

The engine is not hot, so none of us can figure out what the problem is.  The ADOT guy suggests vapor lock, and I don't know enough to argue, although when I look it up later it seems that can only happen with an overheated engine, which we didn't have.  However, after about 45 minutes I start the engine, and the RV takes us up the hill to the campground, where we'll spend the next 3 nights.  A mystery, but it seems to be OK!

I check the weather forecast - clear this evening but rain and thunder for the next 2 days, so we unhitch the car and drive down to the North Rim right away, hoping to see wildlife.  We're not disappointed.  3 wild turkeys at the side of the road almost immediately and soon after we enter the National Park a large herd of beefalo.  We heard the story of these on a previous visit.  they're a cross between bison and cattle.  Inside the park they're protected but outside they can be hunted - and they know this so you always see them just inside the park boundary.  Today there are 3 on the road and 30 or more, with babies, at the side.

At the North rim we walk the Bridle Trail and are rewarded by 2 deer - a buck and a doe - close enough to photograph.  I also get some good shots of sunset over the Grand Canyon.  After a good dinner at the Lodge we attend a ranger talk and learn about the history of tourism at the North Rim.  It all started with a man named Wooley who saw the potential.  There were few cars, no gas and no roads, so he build all of the above.  Eventually the Union Pacific railroad, seeing the success of the Santa Fe's El Tovar at the South Rim, built the Grand Canyon Lodge and arranged transportation from the station at Cedar City (which is now a steakhouse!).  The present Lodge is the second - the first, made of wood, burned down in 1932..  The UP built the second one in 1938 and eventually sold it to the National Park Service for next to nothing after passenger train service died in the 1970's.

Another bit of history learned, we drive back in the dark, seeing (and bumping into) no wildlife on the way.

Day 112 - Sunday - a new culture

Day 112 - Sunday - a new culture

After a good night's sleep Vick goes out to feed the cats and receives a 1000 year welcome - I guess they would have preferred we spent the night with them!  While they're enjoying breakfast we do the same, and later gather up our belongings and negotiate the hotel parking lot to get on Historic Route 66 - the main street of Gallup.

Although we filled the tank yesterday gas prices in Gallup are reasonable so we "top up" the RV, discovering that the 138 miles from Albuquerque cost us $65 in fuel!  We also need some groceries and I've discovered 2 Albertson's supermarkets on Route 66.  The first one has no space in the parking lot so we keep going.  About the time Vicky is worrying we've gone too far, and the street numbers are so high the second store must not exist, we also realize we're heading out of town in the wrong direction.  Vicky summons the phone lady who takes us across the railroad tracks, around a residential block, back across the tracks and back on Route 66.   She gets us on I-40 and we head 4 miles east (!) and come to US491 which is the road we need to take.

There's a Safeway supermarket on this road.  We get into the parking lot and walk down to the store - at the other end so we get good exercise.  We do our shopping, walk another long distance back to the RV and set off up the road.

Our first stop was to have been the Navajo Nation Zoo where one of my ferret charges from the Phoenix Zoo is enjoying a well earned retirement.  Except that today is Sunday and the zoo is closed so we don't get to visit her.  No problem - we have another planned stop at the Hubbell Trading Post National Monument. 

Vicky has printed directions to this.  We've headed from New Mexico into Arizona on AZ264 and the directions say US191 0.3 miles.  We turn left on US191 and after going a mole realize something is wrong.  The phone lady is still available and has me turn the RV, with the car in tow, onto a country road that is mostly sand.  We figure she wants us to do a u-turn but you don't do that in a 11,000lb RV pulling a car on a sand road!

After consultation we unhitch the car and I'm about to try to turn the RV.  This is when Vicky investigates a road that leads to a ranch with a large parking lot.  I drive the RV down there and with Vicky's help get it turned around.  She drives the car down, we hitch up and are able to get back on US191 and retrace our steps.  At this point I'm really stressed out!  Turns out we should never have turned on US191.  We get back on AZ264 West and after 0.3 miles there is the entrance to Hubbell Trading Post.

The access road involves a narrow one-lane bridge that is wide enough for the RV but at this point I'm so stressed it's not easy for me.  We make it across and then into the parking lot.  Fortunately there are only about 4 cars there so with Vicky's help I'm able to turn the RV around and we park it where it will be easy to drive out.  But I need a rest.

The Hubbell trading Post was built in the 19th century by a Mr. Hubbell who lived there with his wife and 2 sons until his death in 1930.   He spoke English and Spanish and taught himself the Navajo language.  He traded with the Navajo and became highly respected.  The trading post remained in his family until his daughter in law gave it to the National Parks Service.  It still operates today and we were able to see Navajo rugs and jewelry, as well as food and supplies.  We also visited the barn which had yokes for fraft animals and even a vintage gas pump!   At this point we returned to the RV, ate some lunch and then went into the Visitor Center.

The ranger explains to us how to see the rest of the complex and then takes us into the Hubbell's home - a large log cabin that still has the original furnishings and family photos.  The ranger lets us out the back door where there's a large (non working) oven and sitting in one of the grill areas is a large black and white cat!  He's happy to let us pet him, then gets up and starts to lead us around the back.  We figure he iswas our tour guide but we soon come to a door he obviously wants to go through, and he leaves us there.

We check out the rest of the yard including their small flock of churro sheep - their wool makes the best rugs, and finally head back to the RV.  Vicky volunteers to drive.  She has no problem with the narrow bridge and we're soon on the road again.  The only problem is that, to get to our planned stop at the Hopi Cultural Center we have to go exactly 63.7 miles from a certain traffic circle (roundabout) and then turn right - no street names or anything!

Vicky gives me the odometer reading and we head across the Navajo lands, eventually entering Hopi country - the Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by the Navajo reservation.  I haven't talked about the vegetation - mostly scrub land that's not much good for farming although at one point we rose to 7,500 feet and were surrounded by ponderosa pines.

As we travel the Hopi country the land is rugged - small mountains with rocks and not a lot of vegetation.  We climb to the top of a mesa - Second Mesa - and do find the Hopi Cultural Center right where it was supposed to be.  There are craft shops - now closed, a hotel and a restaurant but they're happy to let us park the RV in their parking lot.  we do that, give the kids their dinner and then head into the restaurant.  We have a traditional Hopi dinner - for me red beans and ground beef in a spicy broth, accompanied by green chilies and blue corn fry bread, of which more anon.  Vicky settles for a lamb stew, also with the chilies and fry bread, and we both agreed it was great.  We'll try their breakfast tomorrow.

Since everything else is closed we end up having a quiet evening with the cats, and I, for the first time on this journey, get the blog totally up to date!

Day 111 - Quill finds a new spot and Cosette escapes again

Day 111 - Southwest across New Mexico

The RV park wants us out by 11am and it's not much after that when we hit the road.  Although Cedar City is almost due west of Santa Fe you can't go directly without a rugged off-road vehicle so we need to head south and go across in I-40.

The first leg takes us down I-25 to Albuquerque where we make two stops - a gas station to fill the RV and a Petsmart to stock up on the special prescription food for Quill and Cosette.  Filling up the RV is always a stressful experience, not just because of the expense (60 gallons today at $2.51 per, which is by far the "cheapest" we've seen recently) but also because of the sheer size of our rig.  Towing the car makes it even harder.  Today it isn't a problem until I'm pulling out.   Vicky has guided me around the corner when a car pulls in right in front of me.  I hope the driver can't read lips (lol), but maybe he can since he backs up and gets out of the way.  The delay allows a large pickup truck to pull up in front of a food truck just to the right of my exit.  It doesn't stop me - just makes the exit harder!

Mission accomplished we head for the pet store.  Their parking lot looks impossible for the RV but I can and do park at the side of the road and we get the supplies for the cats.

Vicky has planned a route back to the freeway for us but unfortunately the road doesn't do what the map said it would, so we stop and work out another route and finally get back on I-25.

From here it's an easy 2 miles to I-30 and all that's left is 138 miles of freeway driving.

We decide to stop for lunch at a promised rest area 50 miles down the road only to find it's closed - in fact we can't even find it!  Fortunately, a little further on is El Malpais (more Badlands!) National Monument, which we've visited before.  The landscape in the area is volcanic in origin and has spectacular black formations among the other rocks.  We remember a large parking lot and little traffic and sure enough we have the place almost to ourselves.  Wince we have done it before, we don't go into the Visitor Center but just eat some bread and cheese and continue west.

Vicky had found some campgrounds along the road but we decide to press on to Gallup, only 20 miles from the Arizona border.  This has 2 advantages - it gives us more time for tomorrow, when we want to make a couple of stops, and it has a Walmart where we can park for free overnight.  On this last stretch Quill does something she's never done before - she settles down on the dashboard in front of the co-pilot's seat.  Vicky gets a picture.

All is fine until it starts to rain and I have to turn on the windshield wipers.  Although Quill is inside and the wipers are outside she doesn't see it that way.  the first time the wipers approach Vicky sees her wince, and then she's out of there!  So it's time for a night at Walmart.

....except that when we arrive at the Walmart we find the parking lot is completely full - probably a temporary situation as it's around 5pm, but we don't see much space for RV's.

Across the road is a Home Depot with a large parking lot, and we see 2 RV's parked there so decide to go investigate.  On closer inspection we see the first RV is smashed at the back, and the lady at the wheel says she was just hit by a driver without insurance.  She recommends that we wait and stay at Walmart, which will be safer.

At this point Vicky checks out the reviews of this Walmart parking lot and finds people complaining they were awakened at all hours by panhandlers and will never stay there again.  We've already met one panhandler.  That's mild, however, compared to the person who says his tow car - a Corvette - was hit in that parking lot in the middle of the night by someone who obviously did it deliberately.  So it's back to the drawing board!

We sit in the RV and decide there's no point in going back 30 miles to the RV parks we passed, and then find there are no RV parks within reasonable distance on our going forward route.  What to do?  We both remember about the same time that there's a new Fairfield Inn by Marriott at the other end of Gallup where we've stayed a couple of times.  Thanks to our travels we are eligible for a free night there - except that the website is being upgraded and I can't redeem the free night today.

We call the hotel anyway and they have a room at a reasonable rate and are happy to have us park the RV in their safe lot, so we end up spending the night there.  But not before we discover that the RV door didn't close when I came in, and Cosette is nowhere to be seen!  This is a busy street with lots of traffic and as I've said, not a very nice area so we're worried until we discover she's under the RV.  After some persuasion she does come out and we're united. 

At the hotel we order in a pizza and while it's coming I go down to the pool, only to find it's full of small kids, so no chance for a swim.  I get an individual "Fire Eater' pizza - with jalapenos and hot sausage - it's tasty but not overly hot to me (but if you know me you know that doesn't mean it wasn't hot!".  Vicky gets a calzone stuffed with mozzarella and hot sausage and declares it excellent.  So we get a night in comfort, and a "free" breakfast in the morning.

The cats can't come into the hotel but we feed them and lock them in securely and they're fine.

Days 105 thru 110 - Six Nights at the Opera

Days 105 thru 110 - Sunday thru Friday - Six Nights at the Opera

The Santa Fe Opera is located 7 miles north of the city in a stunning mountain range.  From the road it looks like a futuristic site, with prominent white girders in the roof dominating the view.  But as you drive up the long access road and into the expansive 3 level parking lot, you realize that's just the facade.  The theater itself, named for John Crosby who founded the Opera in 1957, is a large outdoor amphitheater.  The stage and audience areas are covered, and on one side of the auditorium a series of large baffles is designed to keep rain and wind out.  They don't keep everything out, although the location of our regular seats in the balcony does keep us dry!

The back of the stage can be opened up, affording spectacular views of the hills, and sunsets.  Directors often take advantage of this to create stunning sets.  Each seat has its own small screen where translations of the opera help you follow along - in English or Spanish (even when the opera is sung in English!)

Although to some, opera audiences are "stuffy", Santa Fe is exactly the opposite.  You can (and most people, including us do) dress up although I've never seen a tux yet, and they also welcome people dressed casually.  A "Night at the Opera" in Santa Fe can start with a catered meal - anything from a snack box to a sit down dinner - or, as we often choose, a tailgate picnic.  We visit a gourmet cheese shop and a fine foods store and bring a table and chairs to set up in the parking lot.  There we enjoy bread and cheese (and sometimes pate) with (non alcoholic) wine and salad.....if the weather holds!  We've seen people with much more elaborate spreads but for us simple gourmet foods are fine!

Every night before a main stage production there is a talk about the show you're about to see.  These are usually given by Oliver Prezant, director of the Santa Fe Community Orchestra and a professor of music.  Oliver has an engaging presentation style, always having his audience join in singing music from the opera as seasoning for his often hilarious stories of the opera and its background.  One Wednesday evening he began by pointing out that the opera we were about to see was the third in a row that flopped at its premiere - so why were we paying money to see it?

The operas are a mix of classical favorites, new works and rarely performed operas - a format adopted by Crosby from the beginning and still followed today.  They can, and do attract the top echelon of international opera singers - regulars at the New York Metropolitan Opera, La Scala Milan, Covent Garden London, Theatro Colon Buenos Aires and other top venues - as well as the cream of directors, conductors and designers.

This, then, is why we come to Santa Fe each August.  I'll fill you in on how we spend our days, but every evening we're at the Opera House.  Sunday, after a very quiet day, is a special event.  Since its beginning the Opera has offered apprenticeships to talented young performers (and more recently technicians).  These apprentices perform small roles or chorus positions in the main stage season.  But on two Sundays they take center stage, performing fully staged scenes from operaa of their choice, directed by professionals.  This Sunday we thrill to a scene from L'Elisir d'Amore, Donizetti's comic masterpiece,  witness a stunning performance by a soprano in the "trouser role" of Sextus, son of Pompey, in an excerpt from Guilio Cesare by Handel, and hear two arias and a chorus number from Bernstein's little known "Trouble in Tahiti", plus  5 other scenes.  The standard is uniformly excellent and we know we'll be seeing these young singers in leading roles in years to come.

Monday we perform what has become a pilgrimage visiting some of our favorite shops in downtown Santa Fe, including a tasty lunch at La Boca, a Tapas restaurant.  After returning to serve dinner to Quill and Cosette we dress up and head north to see Puccini's Madama Butterfly.  For the one person reading this who's never heard of the opera, I say Google it!  The rest of you know the story, so I'll just say this was a visually and audibly stunning production.  The director elicited gasps from the audience with just a small touch in the ending - I won't spoil it in case the production gets another lease on life.  But I will say that the ending opened up a whole new vista on what could happen after the events of the opera!

Tuesday Vicky have a business meeting and lunch with Michelle so I spend most of the day with the cats helping me prepare my H&R Block classes.  I do however, deliver Vicky to Michelle's office and pick her up.  I could have let her take the car but then I wouldn't get to spend time with Gracie, Michelle's beautiful snow white pet wolf.  Gracie is afraid of strangers and although she does warm to us, especially after we offer her treats, it's always fun to re-develop the trust with her.  When I return to the cats I get sniffed - "What have you been doing petting a canine?"

This evening it's Bernstein's operatic version of Voltaire's "Candide" - a story that generates much conversation between Vicky and me afterwards.  Candide, a bastard, lives with a count and countess and their two "beautiful and they know it" children, Maximilian and Cunegonde (a girl).  Candide and Cunegonde sing about being married - he wants a quiet life with a small house and a garden, while she wants luxury.  shades of "Green Acres" or the Annie Oakley/Frank Butler romance in "Annie Get Your Gun!"

Candide and Cunegonde do end up living his dream, but not before almost 3 hours of improbably events on 3 continents, involving people dying and coming back to life several times!  On the surface it's very funny and I found myself felling sorry for Candide although, as Vicky points out, he kills 3 people  including his future brother in law!  As always, great singing and acting!

On Wednesday we both spend the morning catching up on chores, and as Vicky has more work to do after lunch U go into town alone and after walking around, indulge in a Spicy Aztec ice cream, which I'll leave to your imagination.  Tonight we have dinner at home before the opera -  Ariadne aux Naxos by Richard Strauss.  Oliver informs us that Strauss and his librettist couldn't agree on the format of the opera - this after a 6 hour premiere that also included a performance of Moliere's "Le Bourgois Gentilhomme"!

The result is a first act in which we meet an opera troupe with prima donna and tenor full of themselves as well as a comedy troupe.  Both groups have been hired to perform for the dinner guests of "the richest man in Venice", much to the annoyance of the opera troupe, especially the composer.  Things get worse for the actors and singers and funnier for the audience when the troupes are informed that, due to lack of time, they must perform at the same time!

The second act is the "Opera" with Ariadne bemoaning the loss of her lover Theseus (who walked out on her) and awaiting Hermes who will take her to her death, while the comedy troupe tries to cheer her up.  It was well staged and I enjoyed it, although for me the second act had too much bemoaning and too little comedy!

Thursday Vicky had a meeting with Michelle and their client so I stayed home and did some laundry.  Our opera tonight, "Dr. Atomic" by John Adams and Peter Sellars *who also directed) is the story of the creation of the atom bomb at Los Alomos.  The pre-show talk is led by Sellars and features 3 individuals who worked at the Los Alamos National Lab.  They give us a lot to think about, discussing the ethical concerns that may or may not have occupied the minds of the protagonists,  and putting the nuclear age into its present context.  Sellars reminds us of the "Doomsday Clock", a measure of how close we are to nuclear annihilation.  I knew it started in 1945 at 7 minutes to midnight and has been reset many times since.  What I didn't know is that, as of February this year, it's at 2 minutes to midnight - the closest it's ever been!

The opera itself - all 3 hours 15 minutes of it - tells the story but also examines the thoughts of Oppenheimer, his wife and her Indian maid.  The libretto includes a poem by John Donne, and excepts from the Hindu scriptures.  "The Gadget", the prototype bomb, looms over the stage for the whole opera, and it does explode (musically!) at the end.

Vicky and I have totally different reactions to the show, although we both agree that, as was once said of Mozart, there are "too many notes!".  For Vicky it brings back memories of a childhood spent outside New York City during the Cold War, where bomb drills and radio warnings were a part of growing up.  For me, growing up in northern England, the danger was much more remote and I take a more dispassionate approach, analyzing the directorial decisions.  But we do agree it was worth seeing!

Friday is a day for relaxation.  we drive up to the spa at Ojo Caliente, enjoy their green chile cheeseburger with a side of "truffle fries" - which are cooked in truffle oil and sprinkled with grated cheese - to dies for!  We then head straight to the hot pools - no sulphur smell here but 9 pools, each with different mineral content and with temperatures ranging from 89 to 103 degrees (F).  I try them all, including the mud pool.  There you paint yourself with mud, sit in the sun to back it on and then sit in a pool of muddy water before showering it off..  I know it sounds weird but it's very relaxing - don't knock it if you haven't tried it!  Vicky gives that one a miss. 

Our day at the spa is always eagerly anticipated and we end up totally chilled out, and head back for the last opera.  Rossini's "The Italian Girl in Algiers" was written in 4 weeks while he was still young.  The music, in "Bel canto" style, emphasizes beautiful voices.  As Oliver puts it in his talk, "Forget the plot, enjoy the singing!".  I won't forget the plot.  It concerns Isabelle, an Italian woman who is searching for her lost lover Lindoro.  In the original story she's shipwrecked off the coast of Algeria and captured by pirates in the service of the local ruler, Mustafa.  She's accompanied by an older man who wants to be her lover.  In this version she's piloting her own plane when she lands in Algeria and is captured.    They set it up brilliantly by having the plane cross the stage several times before it landed.  Isabella is taken to Mustafa who falls in love with her and wants her for his harem.

Lindoro, meanwhile is Mustafa's slave.  Mustafa has tired of his wife Elvira and offers to free Lindoro if he will take her to Italy.  So when the lovers Isabella and Lindoro see each other, each is with a person of the opposite sex.  Things get more complicated form there on, but it all ends up happily.  The music and dialog is just plain fun, and the opera is, for me, probably the most enjoyable of the phone week - if not the deepest!

So that's our week in Santa Fe for this year but we're already planning to return next year.  tomorrow we leave to cross 3 States, heading for the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, another annual pilgrimage.

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Day 104 - Off to Santa Fe

Day 104 - Saturday - A short trip to one of our favorite cities

The reason we drove all the way from the Dakotas to New Mexico was for our annual visit to the Santa Fe Opera.  This is our 4th year since we discovered it along with our friend Heather from New Zealand, and we now have a subscription to what they ca;; "Quintet 1", a chance to see all 5 of their operas in 5 days.

Today we have only a 40 mile journey from the campground at Bandelier National Monument to Trailer ranch RV Park in Santa Fe where we will be based for the next week.  Sounds easy, right?  It would have been except that one stretch of the road isunder construction.  The speed limit on the only lane open is 25mph, which I obey religiously in the RV with the car towing behind.  Judging from the large open space ahead of me and the long line of traffic behind me, most people don't obey this speed limit!  The lane is narrow - marked by large traffic cones.  After I get though it there are a couple less upright cones than when Istarted, but otherwise no harm is done.

We arrive at the campground, pet the office cats, disconnect the car and settle in to a nice shady spot with full hookups.  After feeding our own felines we set up our camp and take a rest. 

This is the only "free" evening we'll have all week so we've arranged to have dinner with Michelle, a friend who is also an advertising executive who Vicky works with.  They'll be having business meeting later in the week, but tonight is all about catching up with each other after a year.  We let Michelle choose the restaurant and find ourselves outside in the garden of the "Midtown Bistro".  Although we're outside, next to a fountain, we have tables set with linen tablecloths, and elegant garden decor.

The ladies start with healthy salad and gazpacho, and I indulge in crispy calamari with a habanero sauce that wasn't as hot as it might have been, which is probably a good thing.  It was a great choice anyway.  For my main I order blue corn steak enchiladas.  Unusually for New Mexico, I can get my steak rare and the dish, with a delicate cheese sauce, is a skilful blending of flavors and textures.  Michelle's salmon and Vicky's chicken receive equally favorable reviews and we still leave room to share a decadent chocolate cake and a delicate tres leches cake.  A magical evening to start our week of culture.

Day 103 - The "Secret City" of Los Alamos

Day 103 - Friday - Los Alamos here we come

We have one more night at Bandelier and today we drive the 10 miles to Los Alamos.  This, of course, is the former "secret city" where the atomic bomb was designed in WWII.  Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is still doing classified scientific research and to get into the town you have to drive through half a mile or so of the lab area.  So you go through a security checkpoint both entering and leaving.  I have to show my driver's license and say where and why we're going, and I have to vouch for Vicky!  A tame version of the security people had to undergo in the 1940's, as we'll find out.

Once in town the first shock, especially for Vicky, is its size.  In WWII it was home to about 6,000 people, all who whom used the address PO Box 1633, Santa Fe NM and couldn't tell anyone what they were doing.  It's currently home to about double that number.  Our first stop is the Bradbury Science Museum, and after 2.5 hours all we've seen is the orientation movie and the history gallery, where we both study every exhibit in detail.

We learn about the Uranium bomb "Little Boy" and the totally different Plutonium Bomb (originally called The Gadget. The bomb dropped on Japan was called "Fat Man".)

Each works in a different way to create a critical mass of fissile material and start a chain reaction.    We learn about the timeline for the development and many of the people who were involved, from famous scientists like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi to the women who kept the place going and the technicians who worked on the development.  The day to day life was hard - other than the project leaders everyone lived in hastily built structures, and endured freezing winters and blistering hot summers.  But, as one woman put it, whenever things got bad you still had the amazing views!

We still have 4 more galleries to see but take a break for a walking tour of the town, that takes us past homesteaders' cabins, sites of 1940's barracks and the dining room of the Ranch School.  This school, founded in the 1920's by a Chicago businessman named Ashley Pond, provided a thorough academic and physical education for well-to-do boys.  The boys slept outside on a patio in all weathers!  The school closed abruptly in February 1943 when the US Government requisitioned the campus "for a secret purpose".  The Principal of the school received orders not to tell anyone why it had closed!  The small lake in the town was named Ashley Pond by the boys - the name still sticks but no report on what Mr. Pond thought of the idea!

After a visit to Starbucks we return to the Bradbury Museum and each goes our own way until it closes at 5pm.  I enjoy a thought provoking exhibit focusing on the two sides of the issue "Was President Truman correct in dropping the bombs on Japan?"  This is timely for us as we'll be seeing an opera on this topic next week.

They throw us out at closing time, just as the skies open for the afternoon thunderstorm, so we huddle in the doorway until it pas, then drive back to the campground to feed the children and have our own dinner.  Later we walk through the forest to the amphitheater for a ranger talk on the "3 Sisters" - Beans, Squash and Corn.  Ranger Jason spis a fascinating tale about how the sisters interact in nature.  We also realize this was the same Ranger Jason who kindled our interest in President John Adams when we visited the Adams House in Massachusetts back in 2016.  It's cool to make the connection and realize what a mine of information this young man is!

Day 102 - A walk in the desert

Day 102 - Thursday - In and around Bandelier

The morning is bright and sunny so after breakfast we decide to take a walk along a rail that leaves from our campground.  No definite plans in mind until we see a sign that says "Ruins and Visitor Center 1.5 miles".  Vicky is up for the hike as long as it doesn't get too steep and there's a cute little ground squirrel watching us, so we decide to take the trail.

The squirrel is the last animal we'll see.  We hear a lot of birds and relish the scenery - first a canyon, then sagebrush country.  The trail crosses a road and continues through the sagebrush.  We can see mountains - at least 2 ranges - in the distance but the trail is relatively flat and there's a nice breeze which, with the sunshine, makes it the sort of day you want to hike in the country.

About the time I think we're nearly at our destination a sign says "Ruins 0.6m, Visitor Center 1.2 miles".  We've already decided we plan on hiking to the Visitor Center, from where we can get a shuttle bus back to the campground, but the distances keep expanding.  Fortunately we're not tired, and the trail has been easy.  So we keep going.

I remember that the ruins (other than the cliff dwellings) were on a valley floor.  I also realize that we're on a high plateau.  Put these 2 facts together and you'll realize that the 0.6 mile to the ruins has to be a steep downhill hike!  Vicky, especially doesn't like steep downhills so I'm thinking she may want to turn back.  As it happens, the trail is a series of switchbacks so it's much easier than it could have been.  It does get a little steep towards the end, but we both make it to the valley floor, proud of our achievement.

We head straight for the Visitor Center.  We didn't bring water since it was supposed to be a short walk, but they do sell bottled water and fortunately I have my wallet with me.

We watch a short video on the ancient people and the villages and kivas they built, and then rake the shuttle bus back to the campground.  After lunch, Vicky takes to bed with a book to read while I work on preparing my class that I now know I'll be teaching for the first time at the end of August. 

20 miles down the road is the Valles Caldera, also a National Monument.  It's the caldera of a dormant volcano whose eruption thousands of years ago created the landscape around here.  We met a family who said there are 2 lookout points on the road from which you can see lots of elk.  So around 6pm, even though we know the Visitor Center will already be closed, we decide to drive over and take a look.

Just as we're about to leave the wind picks up and as we're driving west it starts to rain.  7 miles along NM 4 the road ascends a mountain in a series of switchbacks.  We negotiate these in the rain and when we get to the top the sky clears.  We find the caldera and pull over at the first lookout.  It's amazing!  The caldera is a lush green meadow that seems to go on for miles, and on the floor of the caldera we see some black dots and finally realize they are actually brown dots - the elk herd.  Maybe this description will give you some idea of the scale of the scenery in this part of northern New Mexico.

We head back over the mountain - it's still raining on the other side - and get home safely.

Just in time to feed the cats before they starve - so they say.

Day 101 - South to New Mexico

Day 101 - Wednesday - South to New Mexico

A relatively lazy morning packing gets us ready to leave the campground around 11:30.  Our site had water and electricity but no sewer connection so we circumnavigate the park to get to the dump station and clear out our tanks.  We have 3 nights coming up without hookups!

Leaving the park we follow the (gravel) side streets of Del Norte and turn right on US 160.  The 30 or so miles to Alamosa is retracing our journey from May.  We stop at the Walmart on the west side of town, finding it difficult to park as the parking lot is quite full and the RV with the car in tow takes up a lot of space.  We do find a spot and go inside to find out new, lightweight Keurig coffee maker.  It comes in Black, Red or Turquoise and they have it in all 3 colors.  We quickly rule out the turquoise as our RV decor bears no resemblance to Art Deco, and Vicky  rules out the red as "too screaming".

So we now have a black coffee maker matching our other appliances.  I've set it up but tomorrow morning we'll see what kind of coffee it makes.

Getting out of the parking lot is easier than getting in, and a mile or so down the road we take a detour that avoids the center of own and soon find ourselves heading south on US285 again.  It's about 30 miles to Antonito, terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, on which we traveled a few years back, taking a "botany train" and learning about the flora of the area.  If you ever get the chance, ride this train.  They also do a geology special as well as regular day trips.  At that time we were staying in Taos and drove up and parked in the station lot, then drove back to the hotel, so we didn't get to see the town, which is cute in a small-railroad-depot-town sort of way.

We don't stop, but continue south on 285 and five miles later we're in New Mexico.  We're traveling through sagebrush country and apart from the occasional mountain it's rolling country and a dead straight road.  There are very few towns and we're glad we put some gas into the car in Colorado.  I'm also glad we didn't fill it since when we do see a gas station later in the day it's 45 cents a gallon cheaper than in Colorado, and RVs drink a lot of gas.

Along the road frequent signs warn us to beware of cows and elk.  We see a few cows but not a single elk (nor even a married one!).  The road also drops in altitude and we start to see Juniper trees too.  After about 60 miles we're at an even lower altitude and the temperature has risen into the 90's.  Most of the early part of the journey was through National Forest lands and Vicky had picked out several places where we could camp overnight.  However, we decide to keep going.

Eventually we come to the village of Ojo Caliente, home of a spa with hot spring pools of varying temperatures and mineral content.  We've spent relaxing days there in previous years and plan on coming out one day when we're in Santa Fe next week, but for today we just keep going.  US285 would take us into Santa Fe but at the town of Espanola we change to NM30, signposted for Los Alamos.

We've never made it there but have come close.  In particular we've visited Bandelier National Monument, home of cliff dwellings for the ancestral Pueblo people from about 1300-1500AD.   The Juniper campground in Bandelier is our destination for the next 3 nights.  The sites are first come first served and after a close encounter with a tree that caused a lot of distress but no damage to the RV or the tree, we find a vacant drive through campsite and set up shop.

We pay our fee (a big $6 per night with our Senior Parks Pass) and build a fire.  Dinner is grilled sausages with salad, followed by smores.  There are warnings of bears in the vicinity (we should be so lucky) so we make sure we pack all the food and even put the tablecloth away.  The cats, surprisingly, have shown no inclination to get out.  Maybe they know about the bears.

After dinner we walk the short distance to the outdoor amphitheater (one of the nicest we've seen) for the 9pm ranger talk.  Unfortunately there is no 9pm ranger talk and nobody else in sight.  So I give Vicky a short talk on black footed ferrets from the ferrets' point of view, and she gives me a short talk on bighorn sheep from the sheeps' point of view.  Not as deep as the ranger might have been, but a lot of fun.

We walk back to the RV, discover that Vicky's repair job on the front grilles survived 170 miles of 60mph driving, and that the cats are sleeping, so we decide to follow their example.  We talk about options for the next 2 days - probably one in Los Alamos and the other here checking out the trails in the National Monument, and decide to make no decision until we get up tomorrow.

I forgot to mention the story we heard from the Florida couple we met earlier this week.  On their first trip to Arizona they stayed near Quartzsite, and decided to build a fire.  They'd never seen tumbleweed but found lots of it around and were delighted at how easily they could light it.  Once it was burning well they found out why it's called tumbleweed as they chased the burning bush around the campground.  That's one adventure we haven't had!