old west ghost town museum...w-o-o-o

well, sunday being a day of rest, we rested, after doing the laundry, that is. sunday was a well-deserved day off. we did go for a drive in the afternoon so that i could take some photos of old barns and run-down buildings and equipment; only found one old barn, but it was a doozie! nancy spent some time in the evening doing some hand-quilting to relax her before bed. but, today found us on the road again leaving strasburg, co on the way through colorado springs, co via i-70, e-470, and i-25. we had found a brochure at the strasburg koa about a ghost town museum in colorado springs, so we decided to stop and check it out. it looked like they had captured the late 1880s in this huge building. i think they had saved an old ghost town in colorado from destruction during building of freeways and developments and reassembled it in this climate-controlled exhibit. it was a very well-done exhibit, which we both enjoyed. we even found a couple of old ghosts there that tagged along with us as we left. then it was back on the road to colorado city, co for the afternoon and evening at the koa. on the way, i found a camping world, and you know we just had to stop. i have been looking for some wide straps to help hold the water hoses coiled after we pack up to leave each site. and, of course we found a couple other things that we just had to have. tonight was cookout night, as i barbeque'd a couple of small steaks on our portable propane grill. tomorrow it's on to the land of enchantment, new mexico. yep, we're still headin' fer home...

a-quilting we will go, a-quilting we will go...

today was nancy's day to check out another quilt shop, this time in parker, colorado. and it was a day for us to spend some time with nancy's stepdaughter, chrissy, who lives, coincidentally, in parker, colorado. but first, i had to take care of truck business and get the oil changed in the explorer, which was slightly overdue. after leaving the grease monkey (an oil change place) we were on our way to the high prairie quilt shop, when nancy and chrissy decided they needed a break at starbuck's for a caffeine fix first. when we arrived at the quilt shop nancy had all the time she needed to find fat quarters, patterns, and what-have-you that can be found in quilt shops (you all who quilt know what i mean). more goodies than you can shake a stick at and then some. as you all can see, nancy and chrissy just had to model some t-shirts that the quilt shop had for sale: the pink one says "lead me not into temptation, except quilt shops" and the white one just says "inventory control" showing a quilter not sharing her stash. nancy and chrissy also found stuff to make a quilted bag for chrissy, and lucky me, i found a quilt piece about 2-ft.x2-ft. of a horse head, so i guess maybe this'll be a start for a new "western" quilt for me. ple-e-e-e-ease, honey, i need a quilt, too...

rocky mountain high in colorado...

driving from grand junction to strasburg, co (30 miles east of denver) gave us a break from the dry and arid high desert and showed us the diversity from the farms and ranches to the very high rocky mountains, which were still snowcapped. the nights are getting warmer and last night nancy had to sleep with the windows open. in joking, i told her that she is now thermostatically challenged so i am composing today's blog here in strasburg, co with the air conditioning going. on our travels today we went through avon, co, but we couldn't find the avon lady anywhere (avon...ding-dong calling!), then later as we drove through hidden valley we couldn't find any ranch dressing running in the streams. what is with the truth in advertising, anyway? oh well, it was a fairly short day at only five hours driving including stops for gas and potty breaks. the rocky mountains are so majestic with the snowcapped peaks still visible and it is almost the first of june. there was a small lake along the interstate that still was frozen over at about 10,000-feet. we thought it would be cooler again, but when we parked the truck and unhitched the trailer, it was about 90º. needless to say, nancy asked me to plug the trailer in to power so she could fire up the old air conditioner. well, now i have to admit that it is nice inside, so we are chillin' until tomorrow...

and, baby the wind must blow...

nancy let me sleep in a bit this morning; i didn't roll out of the sack until 8:30. what a treat! now that's what i think i needed. so, it was just after 10:00 when we pulled out of the campground in richfield, utah. this was probably the nicest koa we have stayed in with plenty of shade trees. the wind was blowing so-o-o-o hard that when we made a stop for coffee, my big new cowboy hat acted like a parachute and lifted me off the ground and deposited me at the front door of the cafe. it is a good thing that i had tipped my head to let the air escape when i did or i would have been atop the roof, i think. anyway, the landscape was really varied today as we passed through the redrocks area of utah between richfield and green river. some of these canyons were truly spectacular as the photos illustrate. the photo of the redrock canyons with the large yellow sign, says: "runaway truck ramp, 1 mile" (what a thought while driving 60 miles per hour with drop-off canyons on the side of the road). as we got nearer to grand junction, colorado, we saw more and more farming and ranching operations. at one of the many viewing areas along i-70, i was able to take a mini-movie of the surrounding landscape and canyons (to view the mini-movie, just press the "play" button). we are all settled in this afternoon at the koa in grand junction, co and tomorrow will find us in the denver area at the strasburg koa (east denver). it will be great to have two or three days of down-time again and see family that live in the denver area. whoa, but this retirement is hard work...

i'm so lonesome i could cry...

whoa! but it was another day driving across the "great american desert" or as some know it "the great basin" area that includes nevada and utah. today was almost a carbon-copy of yesterday...lots of high desert landscape with rabbit brush, sagebrush, sierra juniper, and piñon pine. and the wind is still with us (i don't think we have a wind-free day since we left tennessee). as we approached richfield, utah on the eastern side of utah, the scenery got a little bit better as the high desert gave way to ranches and farming operations. the lush fields of alfalfa hay growing in circular fields being water-sprinkled by "pivots" that circle around and around for watering. these fields are about a mile in diameter. there were also quite a few old wind-worn structures like barns and houses that were abandoned years ago. some of these old structures were falling to the ground. as you can see, this was not one of the most interesting days on our trip. maybe we are both getting a little bit bone-weary from traveling for almost a month, but there are a couple more days that will be just driving from point a to point b. tomorrow we will enter colorado and stay at the koa in grand junction before continuing on to the denver area to see more family. we are hoping that will be our rocky mountain high...

goin' down that long lonesome highway...

traveling on us-50 from virginia city to ely, nevada has got to be not only the "loneliest road in america", but also the "curviest road in america". about half the time we were driving between 35 and 45 miles per hour, but it was a very scenic day. along a portion of us-50, the pony express trail parallels the highway and there are historic markers all along the route to interpret the history of nevada. if you are into technology and city-life, nevada is probably not for you. but it is a great place to visit and absorb some of this great nation's history. nevada not only was a rich silver mining area in the comstock lode, but also was very rich in gold and copper, which is still being mined in and around austin, eureka, and ely. i love the high desert, its rugged and rocky mountains, and the solitude, while nancy said she needs a bit more communication with people. and, as i promised in tonight's blog, there is a photo of me with my new cowboy hat posing with a display about will james, a famous 19th-century cowboy artist that was hanging at the prospector hotel, casino, and rv park. a couple of very unique pieces that we found in the lobby (unknown wood carver) was a handcarved wood desk and matching chair, and a bench also made to match the desk and chair. i have included them in tonight's blog for y'all to enjoy. (please note that i am only poking a little fun at ely with the photos and their captions; i am not serious, nevada is one of my favorite places to visit) tomorrow morning we are going to try to find another quilt shop, if there are any here in ely to be found. then we continue our trek eastward and homeward into richfield, utah for the night. it is only a four-hour drive, but i have finally learned to take it easy and not-to-worry about when we get to the next stop. so, as we settle in for the evening, we'll face tomorrow and whatever it brings...

some days technology sucks...

well, i had some great photos that i took today with the iphone, but wouldn't you know it—i lost most of them while they were downloading from the camera on the iphone. i was able to salvage 6 or 7, so you'll see most of them here tonight. no use crying over spilled milk, eh? today was a rather short travel day. we took off from auburn, ca around 11:30 am after having a relaxing morning and showers. that was a luxury—to depart from camp so late. the travel was easy enough on i-80 over the donner summit from california to nevada...just before the first photo, there is a mini-movie of donner pass overlooking donner lake in california [click on the "play" button to view]...we stopped awhile at the donner monument (pictures that are lost forever). i was going to create a funny about there was a different meaning on the donner summit to the statement "bite me!", but i thought it might be in bad taste. sorry, i just couldn't resist. we arrive in virginia city around 2:30 pm, due to several stops along the interstate to see the scenery and take photos. the only photos that survived the download process were a mini-movie i shot at donner summit overlooking donner lake in ca and a few photos in virginia city, nv. after we parked the rv, we opened the door and found that our view this afternoon and tonight is the old virginia city cemetery, which i about a mile away. we walked around town for awhile, but it is so cold here this afternoon that we had to head back to the rv to warm up. it is a good thing that we thought to bring our winter coats! of course the tourist season has not started yet, so over 50% of the shops were closed, but it was fun to browse. i even found a new straw cowboy hat, which if y'all are good, i'll show it to you tomorrow night (unless i lose the photos again). tomorrow, it's off to ely, nv on us-50, which we saw is nicknamed the "loneliest road". I think that sums it up...

thanks for the memories...

well, today we are back on the road after ten days at the riverland rv resort in kingsburg, ca. no history lesson today; just driving and not trying to think too much. we saw all the friends and family in fresno, tulare, and kings counties in central california. instead of a history lesson how about a little known fact? okay, did you know that in the 1970s that the central valley in california (which stretches from just south of bakersfield to just north of sacramento) produced about 25% of the world's food? anyway, that is what i remember from my agriculture classes in college. the central valley is about 70 miles wide and about 300 miles long. and that is enough of that! staying at the riverland rv resort in kingsburg was a very nice park to stay, as we overlooked the man-made lake as seen in the photos. after having breakfast this morning with two of my cousins and elderly aunt (90 years young), nancy and i started our trek north through the valley to the sacramento area. as we passed my hometown of selma, i thought y'all would enjoy seeing the sign along the freeway, and yes, there are raisins everywhere. the sun-maid raisin plant is near selma. and now you know the rest of the story...selma is the raisin capital of the world. but, tonight we are in auburn, california, in the gold rush country. after driving for almost a whole month (today was the 26th day since we left our home in north carolina), i decided (with some persuading from nancy) that about four hours is enough driving for one day. tomorrow we will only drive 2 hours, which will find us in old virginia city, nevada. virginia city was one of the richest silver strikes in the west about 100 years ago. (now there i go again, historizing, if that is a word). virginia city is a ghost town in the nevada mountains near the california border and we will spend the day there just goofing off and relaxing the way southerners are s'posed to do. nancy sends all you readers-of-the-blog a "hello" and just hopes i can stay cool, calm, and relaxed throughout the rest of our trip. someday we may even return home...

catchin' up is hard to-o-o do...

sorry about no blogging for a few days. but when we arrived in kingsburg, california (riverland rv resort), their internet connection was down and on the "list" to be repaired. needless to say we were going through withdrawals from not having a connection to the information super highway. so, today, we stopped for lunch at mcdonald's in kingsburg so we could have a connection. we doubt that we will have a connection at the campground, so maybe we'll have to come here again tomorrow or at least within a couple days. we are just visiting relatives and friends now. we had a pleasant drive from my son's house in north hollywood to kingsburg, taking us-101 along the california coast to morro bay and joining california-41, which took us into kings county. the first part of today's history lesson is about highway-101, which was the route that father junipero serra took to establish the california coastal missions to convert the local indians to christianity. the road was named "el camino real" or the king's highway. anyway, then it was a straight shot on california-198 to california-99 to riverland. we ended up on old-41 at atascadero instead of the new-41 and drove a very windy road through a small (really small) town named shandon. when we exited back onto new-41 we were near cholame and decided we needed a short rest. by that time it was about 8:15 pm because we also decided when we were near solvang, california that we would take a short break there, which lasted three hours. oh, well, we are retired so i guess we don't have to be anywhere on a schedule this trip, do we? we pulled into the campground at 10:00 pm, backed the trailer into our site, climbed inside and called it a day. that was the longest driving day so far at about 8 hours. we took off at 10:00 am from van nuys, california (near north hollywood). nancy also managed to find a quilt shop upstairs at rasmussen's gift shop in solvang, so a-shopping she did go! while in solvang we also visited the mission santa inez, one of 21 spanish missions along california's coast from san diego to marin county (near san francisco). this particular mission was built in 1803 and is still a functioning catholic church today, two hundred seven years later. weather is starting to get warm (nancy says hot!!) at 90º on saturday, may 15th. the swedish festival in kingsburg was going on saturday, so we joined the kids and granddaughters for the swedish pancake breakfast and a look-see. it has been years since we attended the swedish festival, so it was a nice break. now, we are at the mcdonald's in kingsburg for lunch and an internet-fix. take a gander at that 6-foot dala horse. warmin' up in central california...