Good morning, my friends. It's our last morning in Moab. We're holding off leaving until the very last minute and slightly beyond. We're supposed to check out by 11:00 a.m., but we're going to fudge a little and leave at 11:15. We want to have lunch at the Moab Brewery (another tradition), and then we'll visit a quilt shop. We have only about an hour's drive to our next destination of Monticello, Utah (pronounced with a soft "c"), and we can't check in there until 2:00 p.m. So, we'll be killing a little time here this morning.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we first stopped off for breakfast at the Jailhouse Cafe. The food is always delicious, and it's served up with a smile and good humor. We both had the Southwestern Eggs Benedict. It was delicious. There was just a little kick in the hollandaise and the potatoes.

Looking to my right, I noticed the indentations in the cliffside and the "fin" and pinnacle to their right.

It's about 30 miles north of Moab to reach the park entrance.

We drove straight to the visitor center, where I picked up a refrigerator magnet and a shot glass. The visitor center was mobbed. There were a few people wearing masks, and I was reminded that COVID is still among us. That had me wanting to flee the place, so I made my purchase and left quickly. Outside was a short hiking trail and viewpoint. And this was our first "Wow!" That's Mike on the right for scale.

I don't know when I've seen such spectacular scenery anywhere. The canyons went on and on forever. It was impossible to stop taking pictures.

Here's a pano of the area. You can make the image larger by clicking on it.

Looking across the expanse, you can see these "Solar Evaporation Ponds." Here's a sign explaining them.

Okay, but we really wanted to get out to Dead Horse Point Lookout. The road goes to the end of the point, makes a small loop in the parking lot, and then you drive back the way you came in. There is a short hiking trail from the lookout, but honestly, you can park anywhere there's a space and hop on the hiking trail wherever you want to. You'll be seeing different angles of the same view. The path is marked with hashmarks to guide you along the way.

We saw some blooming desert shrubs. This looked like "baby's breath."

This looked like a yellow version of the same thing, but the flowers were a just slightly larger.

In our rig, we're always looking for a parking space where we can fit. We noticed some picnic areas where no one else was around, and so we stopped there. We could open up the slides and give the kitties some room. Crossing the road, we scrambled over some rocks to find this view. 

You can see a road below between the area where we were standing and the Colorado River. In one of our first visits to Moab, we rented a Jeep and drove that road (Schafer Canyon Road). It was one of the more memorable experiences of our lives, and a great way to see Canyonlands National Park. Here's a picture of Mike taking in the view on that day:

After taking in the canyon, we went back to the camper. Here's where we're parked. You can see the sheltered picnic table behind us.

We could hear people and woofies all around us, but Smitty still wanted to get out for a walk. We took our shadow selves with us.

Oh. My. Gosh. He really needed this. He sniffed...

And he looked...

And he took a luxurious dust bath, turning his white parts a nice shade of terra cotta.

Sadie watched from inside the camper. She really wanted to be outside, but her safety is our first priority. 

Smitty had about a 15-minute walk before his courage ran out. 

From there, another huge wow. It was breath-taking.

Looking to my left a little, I saw this:

Here's a pano, but honestly, pictures cannot do it justice. You need to see it for yourself sometime.

We took the requisite selfie before getting back in the truck and heading for the grocery store.

It was our second big grocery shopping excursion of the trip, and we worried about getting everything loaded into our small refrigerator. Think Tetris, and you're there.

So, as a few of our friends have noted, there's a sad reason for the name of this park. The park literature describes this as a "legend," but when I consulted The Google, I found no competing stories.

According to one legend, around the turn of the century, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

Sigh. What can I say? People suck sometimes.

When we arrived back at the RV park later in the afternoon, Sadie got her revenge by soaking up the sunshine on her catio. She did not yield to Smitty for the rest of the afternoon.

Okay, so I've already told you what the morning holds. We've been experiencing high winds for the last 12 hours or so, and we're expecting more wind as we make our way to Monticello. It makes for hazardous driving. Fortunately, it's only a short distance, and we'll be driving into the wind for the most part. Our reason for visiting Monticello is to do some more riding in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. I didn't think ATVing was permitted in any of the national parks, but the website says we can. Cool. You can also see some beautiful photos at this website from Earth Trekkers. We'd also like to do a little sightseeing in the park and at nearby Bears Ears National Monument and Newspaper Rock. Whatever we decide to do, it will all be new territory for these explorers.

As always, I'm only hoping I'll have internet access in this remote area of Utah. I believe we'll be close enough to the highway to pick up a good cell signal. We have four nights in Monticello, and then we'll spend one night off the grid at Goosenecks State Park near Monument Valley. If you don't hear from me for the next five days, our next opportunity will be in Kanab, Utah. So, I'm hoping I'll be back tomorrow. If not, then look for me next Wednesday. I'll tell you all about it then.

Good morning, my friends. What a fabulous day of riding we had yesterday! I have lots of pictures for you, and so there's no time to waste. Let's just get right to it. First of all, some pictures from our campsite. We're finding more wildflowers here in Utah than we did in Colorado.

It has long pods that look like green beans. Some are green, and some are purple.

When we left yesterday morning, I noticed a few had opened.

Also, there are plenty of red anthills. This one is about 4 inches in diameter with tiny red ants, and they dot the area outside our rig.

Also, a previous camper was kind enough to paint this rock. It's about the size of a large watermelon.

Smitty has a nice window seat.

Sadie prefers to be stealth, looking out the window from our dark bedroom.

So, it was a day to ride. We took our favorite Moab trail: The Monitor & Merrimack Trail which leads out to Determination Towers and Tusher Tunnel. Along the way, we passed this abandoned schoolhouse.

This sign was posted at the staging area where we loaded up and began our ride.

I've cropped out the text to make it easier to read.

We didn't actually walk out to the dinosaur tracks. It's a hike, and we were there to ride ATV's. Today we'll be visiting Dead Horse Point State Park, and we may return to take the short hike out to see them. Looking at this diagram (also from the sign), it's just a short round-trip walk.

We'll get to that in a minute, but first, some more wildflowers. Again, I don't know the name of these. Maybe one of you will know it.

Riding on, we could see Courthouse Rock just ahead. If you look to the left of center on the rock, you can see a small arch.

Here's the stagecoach "Halfway Station."

And here's the sign explaining it. It's a small structure, given its purpose.

Okay, and then off we went. We paused here to take in the view. That's a small cinder cone below us. I tried to find some information about it, but The Google let me down.

Riding on, I was just taking pictures of these monoliths and admiring the colors of the landscape.

These two monuments are Monitor and Merrimack. That's Mike on the left for scale.

The trail yesterday was rocky and challenging. In some places, we were riding on soft red sand. I liked this picture for the notch in the cliffs that allowed us to see into the valley beyond.

This is one of our favorite spots. These are the Determination Towers. You can see our ATV's in the lower right-hand corner for scale.

On the right, two small arches can be seen. Recall that arches are created by wind, while a natural bridge is created by water.

Riding on, I looked back for this profile of Determination Towers.

A little farther along, I saw this balanced rock.

Here, the colors and the shapes of the landscape were fascinating. This is the sort of thing you'll see at Capitol Reef National Park with the white caps over the red bases.

Here, you can see the stripes of red and tan.

What intrigued me most about this place were the parallel lines spaced so close together. We were heading into a wet area on the trail, and so I can only assume this is caused by the rush of water during rainy weather. We rode along in a wash for a short distance.

But this was the object of our desire for yesterday's ride. This is our third time riding this trail. We missed Tusher Tunnel on our last ride, and so we were happy to turn off and find it for another look. There is a small area for parking, and then one must hike a short distance to see the tunnel. We signed the log book, just for grins, and then continued on a short distance.

It's a short climb up...nothing too difficult, and then the opening to the tunnel is to the left of where Mike is standing.

The tunnel is created here from water coming down through a crack that forced laterally on encountering an underlying impermeable layer, so that the lateral flow eroded the basal part of the crack into the flared cross-section. 

Once inside, you can look up and see the crack.

The tunnel is about 83 feet in length. Here, Mike reached the opposite end.

Coming out the other end, this is what we saw.

Looking to the left, we could see this:

Heading back, I used my flash so you could see the colors of the rock.

My shadow self was nervous in here. Shadows have a way of disappearing in dark spaces.

Back outside, we climbed back to where our ATV's were parked, and I turned to show you the short climb. The opening is that triangular area in the center of the photo.

We were nearly finished with our ride by then. From there, we rode back, mostly on soft sand, to where we'd left the camper.

Along the way, we saw a herd of American Pronghorn Antelope.

The only other wildlife we saw along the trail were these White-Tailed Antelope Squirrels. They were way to quick for me to capture with my camera. Mainly, I saw the white streak on their tails. I found this picture on Creative Commons.

Well, you know something like that has me consulting The Google. The UMTRA project is a toxic clean-up project resulting from the mining of uranium ore (also known as "yellowcake"). You can read more about it at that link I've given you. It's an interesting story. In a nutshell:

The scope of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project is to relocate mill tailings and other contaminated materials from a former uranium-ore processing facility (millsite) and from off-site properties known as vicinity properties in Moab, Utah, to an engineered disposal cell constructed near Crescent Junction, Utah. 

We were tired by the time we were back at our campsite. We had a late lunch, took naps, showered and cleaned-up, and then it seemed like a good day for margaritas. Smitty joined us on the veranda.

Later, we enjoyed a pretty sunset.

In the other direction...a crescent moon. It's my favorite moon phase.

And that was the end of our day. 

Let's do some shopping today, my friends. It's the first shop we've visited together this trip. Mike had some business to take care of in Grand Junction, Colorado, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to take in a quilt shop...this one:

We'd been traveling many miles, and so I started at the back of the store...you know...where the restrooms were located. Out in the store, the first room I came to was a colorful classroom. While I shopped a woman came in toting a pile of stuff. I had the feeling a class would be starting later.

Continuing on, I passed by this stuff for the Go! cutter. I'm not a Go! person, and so I have now idea what all this stuff is or how it works, but maybe you do.

Continuing along the back wall, there was a nice supply of notions.

And then, this table. All the fabrics here were 25% off. I gave them a passing glance. There was one I might have liked, but then I forgot to go back for it.

Moving on, they had some beautiful solids. 

Some patriotic fabrics.

There were plenty of kits if you're of that persuasion. Isn't this snail quilt cute?

Here there were some pretty landscape prints.

Some yummy stripes and polka dots.

Some southwest and food fabrics.

Rounding the corner, there were some cute sewing themed fabrics. I liked those red tomato pincushion fabrics on the left, but I need more fabric like I need another hole in my head. If I'd had a use for them, maybe, but I couldn't think of anything.

Look at these cute camper fabrics. I've used the one on the right in some quilts in the past. These were tempting, but again...I couldn't think of any projects where I might use them.

I'm always on the hunt for what my regional print will be to include in a Shop Hop quilt. I looked at these for a long time, thinking of the many black-eyed Susans we've seen on this trip. I decided against them, since they're really sunflowers. That one in the middle might have been okay.

Moving on, there was a panel of quilt labels.

And here's something I haven't seen before. These QuilTiles were magnetic, and you could arrange them to form quilt blocks.

I'm not sure why these fabrics were on a table rather than shelved, except possibly the shelves were full.

Hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the store was a row of panels.

There were more panels hanging here.

And more rolled up here.

I liked this cozy rag quilt. Since making a rag quilt a while back, I've been plotting my next one. I don't think I would do it so Christmas-y like this one, but it does look cozy with those snowflakes.

Here, there were Halloween and Christmas fabrics.

I decided on a fat quarter of the fabric below for my regional print. It doesn't photograph well at all. I gave it three tries with two different cameras. The camera wants to focus on the background and blurs the petroglyph subjects. It made me think of the pictographs and petroglyphs we'd seen at Dinosaur National Monument. So, I'm sorry it's such a poor picture, but I think you can get the idea.

There are other quilt shops in Grand Junction, but this one was rated highest on Yelp. It was a large store, spread out, and roomy. I complimented the woman behind the counter on the ample space for really getting a good look at things. She eyed me and then said, "Well, some quilters are getting up in age..." Who're you looking at? I thought. And she continued, "quilters come in with walkers and wheelchairs," and so she kept the aisles wide for everyone. The doors opened automatically too. I hadn't considered the needs of disabled shoppers until that moment, and then I considered some of the shops I've visited where I could barely see anything because of the cramped quarters. And all of that to say that this is a shop worth visiting if you find yourself in Grand Junction. It was an enjoyable visit. 

Good morning, my friends. So nice to meet up with you here in Utah. As I mentioned in my previous post, we were up and out of the campground early yesterday morning in order to get through the construction zone before it closed to one lane. It was still dark when we pulled out at 6:09 a.m. We were nearly to the bottom of the hill before we were able to see the pinkish sunrise.

The formation to the right reminded us of our visit to Cathedral Gorge.

The Blue Mesa reservoir extends for many miles, and we drove alongside it for awhile.

Eventually, we approached the road construction. 

We stopped in Montrose for breakfast, and then continued on our way. It was a colorful landscape.

We had some business to take care of in Grand Junction. Mike needed to find a hardware store to pick up a replacement screw for one that had vibrated loose on his ATV. Also, we wanted to fill our propane tank, and what the heck? I wondered if there were any quilt shops in Grand Junction. Sure enough. We stopped at the one closest to our route. I'll tell you about that in a separate post.

The hardware store in Grand Junction turned out to be permanently closed. But, no problem. We found one just down the road in Fruita. Fruita happens to be at one end of the Rim Rock Drive in Colorado National Monument. We drove Rim Rock Drive on a previous visit to Colorado. The scenery was some of the more spectacular I've ever seen. You can read about our drive through the monument at this post right here. You can see some bighorn sheep there too. Yesterday's drive took us past the entrance, but it reminded us of what we might have seen had we turned off here.

Looking in the opposite direction, this is the Grand Valley, formed by the Colorado River.

Fruita had some fun life-size metal sculptures at its turning circles.

Driving on, it was raining ahead, and we saw more than a few bolts of lightning

Shortly after leaving Fruita, we left the state of Colorado...

and crossed the state line into Utah. Hello again, Utah!

From there, it wasn't long until we turned south onto Hwy 191 for the last leg of our journey into Moab. We always enjoy the drive when the first red rock monoliths come into view. In the image below, you can see a road at the bottom one-third of the cliff-side. We've ridden our ATV's there.

And then, it just gets more impressive as we go.

We have three nights here in Moab (two now). We'll spend one day riding ATV's on the Determination Towers trail. We've ridden it before, and you can see some pictures here. It's one of our favorite trails, and this will be our third time riding it. On our last ride, we missed the turn-off for Tusher Tunnel, and we're determined to see it again this time.

Good afternoon, my friends. I told you I might be posting again today, and here I am. Sorry to interrupt your day. I'll make it quick, and you can get back to whatever you were doing. There will be no more interruptions until Tuesday morning, at the earliest. As I mentioned in this morning's post, we'll be heading to Moab at zero dark thirty tomorrow morning, and so I want to put all the computer stuff away in preparation.

It was very cold this morning, but it warmed up to a lovely day. I had some time to start the second "Kittens" block this morning. First, I added the three colors on the left to the ones I already had on floss bobbins.

When I had the floss wound on the bobbins, I took the first stitches. It seems I'll be stitching the same "Smitty in drag" kitten throughout.

It had warmed up significantly by then, and so we left the kitties preparing for their morning naps.

They look sleepy, don't they?

So before the rain moved in, we started this trail, but then turned back when the sky began to look threatening. It started out like this:

This is the nearly-identical photo taken on our first try. It looks so much different when there's blue sky and sunshine.

Continuing on, we were treated to some splendid mountain vistas.

Here, I zoomed in so you could see the aspens turning their fall colors.

About half our ride was through wooded areas like this:

In one of these areas, we spotted two mule deer. They ran off before I could get a photo. I found this one on Creative Commons.

(Image credit: "Mule deer doe and fawns on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge 01" 

by USFWS Mountain Prairie is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

Since no one was home, I looked through the front door to see this. Hm...it could benefit from a woman's touch.

Directly behind where I was standing was a clear-cut area that has been replanted with little evergreens.

From there, it was a quick ride back to the RV. Along the way, we passed a row of mailboxes. I knew you'd want to see this one.

Okay, so that's all I have for you. Please carry on with your day. We'll see you in Moab. Until then, take good care and do a lot of sewing.

Good morning, my friends. Well, as expected it rained for a good part of the day yesterday. Please purrmit Smitty to demonstrate the day's activities.

We should all have such beautiful tummies, don't you think?

While he was sleeping, I spent quite a long time on my slow-stitching. It's been neglected for much of the trip, and so it was good to spend some quality time on it. I finished off the kitten.

Now I've moved the hoop to the next position to encompass the "bucket." At least I think it's a bucket. I suppose it could be a flower pot too. The color there is dark purple, although it photographs as black.

Before the day was finished, I'd stitched about 25% of the bucket. It's a lot of stitching.

When we were ready to get a start on our day, Smitty checked outside with complete disgust. A stupid woofie!

Day before yesterday, Smitty seemed bored. I got out his harness and he stood still while I put it on. (This process ordinarily takes some coaxing, but he really wanted to go.) Then, we were literally just opening the door when a huge toy hauler pulled in next to us. There were Mans and Dogs and noisy ATV's. Well, don't you know our outing ended before it even got started, and it's been impossible to get out since then. The place has been invaded by woofies and a rowdy group across the way. Sigh. 

Well, okay. So Smitty hasn't been able to do any walking, but Mike and I got out for a short walk when it stopped raining. We walked down to the general store, just to see what was there. The RV park is situated on a hill. We walked down a steep driveway. In the image below, you can get an idea of what the place looks like. There are cabins on the left and right side of the image. The RV park is to the left of the left-side cabins and outside the frame.

The large structure you can see at the bottom of the hill is the Nugget Cafe. It closed for the season after Labor Day. Good think we brought enough food to get us through the week.

Directly across from the restaurant is the Taylor Park Trading Post. There, you can buy the sorts of things people might forget. Things like cooking oil, bait, ice cream, beverages, small tools and hardware. You get the idea. It's all exorbitantly priced. To the right is a small gift shop selling lots of t-shirts, sweatshirts, pajamas, and other knick knacks. 

At our last visit, I was able to find a refrigerator magnet and a shot glass there. Yesterday's visit didn't entice me to buy anything, although there were some things I liked.

And, of course, no mountain community would be complete without a life-size carving of Big Foot.

There were some nearly bloomed out dephiniums near the gift shop.

Walking back, we noticed that Cumberland Pass got snow during this storm. Fortunately, there is no snow at our level, and we're not expecting any. Still...we just rode our ATV's up there two days ago. Glad we went early.

So it was a day to chill, both literally and figuratively. This morning is still foggy, dark, and dreary, but the rain has stopped. We expect the overcast skies to clear as the morning wears on. We're planning to get out and do more riding today, but we'll wait and see what the weather holds. 

We have one more day here tomorrow, and then we'll be on our way to Moab. The only way out of here is the way we came in. Recall that we were delayed for 35 minutes by a flagger, and then took a slow meandering drive behind a pilot car to get through the road work.

The website tells us that the road is open in both directions between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on Mondays only. It will mean packing up and hitching up the night before to get out early enough. And, of course, the websites have lied to us before. So we're hoping we can avoid the construction on Hwy 50 by getting a very early start on Monday. Also, this RV park will close for the season on Monday. With snow in the mountains surrounding us, it's easy to understand why the folks who work here are ready to skedaddle.

Good morning, my friends. Well, the stormy weather arrived as expected yesterday afternoon. It rained most of the night, and we expect it will rain all of today. Oh well...into each life, you know. We don't mind. We got in a short ride yesterday morning before the raindrops began to fall.

As we were getting our ATV's and our bodies ready for the ride, we had some bold visitors to our campsite. First, these birds. I've looked at the Colorado bird identification websites, but I don't see anything similar. I've put it out to my birding Facebook friends. Possibly one of them will answer before I publish this post. I believe I'm picturing a male and female of the same bird, but I really don't know for sure. First, the supposed male:

And then, the guy below stuck his head above ground. This was another I tried to identify. Eventually I tagged my very smart friend, Carol, and she correctly identified it as a Wyoming Ground Squirrel. He's a little larger than a chipmunk, and he has a tail about two inches long.

Okay. Well, that was entertaining. 

Here, I zoomed in so you can see the dam...close to the middle of the image.

Looking right, we saw this. The mountains are so beautiful here.

And then, we rode on in a different direction. In the image below, we were riding the trail on the left. On the right side of the image, you can see the trail we took on our first ride. It leads to Tin Cup.

We rode on for a bit. The sky was looking threatening, and it looked like rain off in the distance. We had a brief discussion about whether to go on or return to the RV. 

In this case, common sense ruled out, and we turned and headed back to the RV. Looking to the right a little, we could see the RV dump station below. 

See the greenish-blue ponds there? Here...let me zoom in a little.

Good morning, my friends. Well. What can I say? Sadie was pawsitively 'zhausted yesterday morning. She spent the better part of her morning snoozing on Mike's lap.

We had a leisurely morning. It was overcast and cold most of the day. When the clouds gave way to some sunshine, we packed up to head out. Smitty snoopervised from the back window of the camper.

I wanted to show you this nifty device Mike has for navigating the trails. Of course, we have a printed trail guide for back-up, but he has an app on his phone that allows him to download GPS maps to his phone. We can ride along, and the app tells us which way to go.

Yesterday's trail was the Texas Creek Trail. At our last visit, we saw moose out here, but none yesterday. Just for grins, here's a picture of the moose from our last visit.

We saw three moose that day...one singleton, and then this cow with her calf.

In the image below, you can see some beaver activity in the creek, but again...no beavers.

Moving on, we paused here to talk to some men on horses. They were rounding up cattle to move them down the mountain. They asked us if we'd seen any cows along our way. We hadn't.

At this spot, in the image below, we were required to traverse Texas Creek. There is a bridge off to the left, but it is too narrow for ATV's. Motorcycles could use it, and of course, people could walk across on foot. Having done this during our last visit, it was less scary than before.

Below is a video from our last trip. It's important to pick up your feet. My shoes were waterproof, but I picked them up anyway. (If you can't see the video, then click right here.)

Crossing over Texas Creek led us to Texas Lake. We found a comfortable log where we could sit and eat our Clif bars. As we sat, we could hear the call of an eagle, but we couldn't see it anywhere. 

I noticed these red berries growing at the base of a nearby tree.

Moving on, this is the same lake from a different spot.

And from there, we headed back to the RV park. I paused to get this shot of the reservoir. I wish I'd had better light for these pictures.

Riding on, I paused here so you could see the location of the RV park. We're in what amounts to a "bowl" surrounded by mountains. Oh yes, and this blog post is brought to you by the new cell phone tower in the middle of the image below.

When I went to settle up in the office, I told them I was happy about the cell phone tower. They all groused about how the company that put it there hadn't been back to make final adjustments. "You're on the list," they keep saying. We have five bars on our phones, and so I think it must be Verizon service. They were complaining that it wasn't working well for them. It's the only explanation I can think of. When I asked what service it was, the woman behind the desk responded, "Pathetic." Oh well. Sorry for them, but I'm a very happy camper.

And here's how our morning is going. Two laps. Two cats. It is ever thus.

So there's rain in today's forecast, although the sky is getting brighter as I write. We could see some thunder and lightning later today. Mike has gone back to bed, and so I don't know for sure what the day holds. We've been able to stream TV with our Dish satellite set-up. Mike noticed the Barbie movie was available on Amazon Prime for the hefty price of $25. We passed at first glance, but then...it really isn't that much more than it costs to get into a theater. We haven't been in a theater since before COVID, and so I really don't know how much it costs these days. In any case, we don't really want to go to the theater, which is the reason we haven't seen the movie up until now. After giving it some thought last night, I told Mike that if it rains, I want to shell out the bucks to see the movie. Rain or shine, it's going to be a good day.

Good morning, my friends. We're having a very nice time here in Colorado. It's on the coolish side at these high altitudes (9,400 feet), and it's a nice change from the heat of summer. It reminds us that fall is just around the corner.

Smitty has been in search of a new He-Man Woman Haters Clubhouse.

With the laundry started, I walked back to our rig and found Mike firing up the ATV's. It was a little hard getting them started at this altitude, but they went eventually, and we had no more trouble with them.

When the laundry was finished and we were loaded up, we rode up the Cumberland Pass Trail. It starts out on smoothly graded roads, but gets rockier with elevation.

We rode some distance through an open meadow with a stream. We're always on the lookout for wildlife in areas like this. We saw a deer on the far side of the meadow. It appeared to be a 3-point buck. As I reached for my long-lens camera, it ran off. Bummer. 

We rode through the historic town of Tin Cup. This is listed as a ghost town, but there are plenty of people living here. It's far from abandoned.

This next image is from our visit in 2019. When we rode past yesterday, the doors and windows were boarded up. Just FYI, I've wanted to make a quilt from this image for years. I've circled it for a long time, and I think I'm finally going to get it done within the next year.

With doors and windows boarded up, it wasn't nearly as enticing photography-wise, but I did capture this "town hall" which doubles as a church on Sundays.

After Tin Cup, we rode and rode, up and up. We paused at this spot shown in the next image. You can see the road down below. It's a bright almost white short line right in the middle of the image.

This was our goal. It's one of the higher elevations in the area.

From there, we had an expansive view of the mountains and the valley. The weather could have been better. It didn't rain, but we felt a few sprinkles throughout the day. Also, with the sun behind those dark clouds, it was downright chilly. We donned our warmer coats for the ride back.

Oh yes, and I can't let this special occasion go by without blogging about it. It was my first time wearing my newly-patched jeans. Check out that left knee. Stylin' huh?

Here, we came to this cross. Mike discovered a geocache box stashed among the rocks.

Inside, we found this message printed inside a small notepad.

The pages that followed were filled with signatures of people who'd visited.

As we rode along, I saw this Mourning Cloak butterfly. This image is from Creative Commons. No way I could get my camera out fast enough for my own image.

(Image credit: "Mourning Cloak Butterfly" by ksblack99 is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.)

All told, we rode 34 miles by the time we returned to our rig. When we arrived, nothing would do until we got Smitty out for a walk. He searched and searched and searched for the best of Colorado's grass. Not surprisingly, the grass is always greener over the sewer connection. (With my apologies to Erma Bombeck.)

Also, he gave the ATV's a good inspection, making sure they're meowchanically sound. He'd hate for something to happen to us. Who would dispense kitty treats?

The sky is still gray and cloudy today. We're hoping for blue skies, but we might not get them. In any case, we'll do more riding today. I'm not sure which trail Mike has selected for our riding pleasure, but it will be more challenging than yesterday's easy ride. 

Good morning, my friends! It's so good to see you this morning! I was sure we'd be without internet here, but there's a brand spanking new cell tower right on site, and the cell signal is banging in! If you thought you were going to get a break from my compulsive prattle, you're going to be disappointed.

The kitties were chill as always when we took off yesterday morning. Smitty rode the side slide in. (We call that "surfing the slide.") Sadie was in her cubby. 

Eventually we crossed over the top of a mountain. Here we slowed way down to make some hairpin turns and steep inclines. In the image below, you can see the road above us running diagonally through the middle.

It was back and forth like that, around sharp curves, until we reached the summit of Douglas Pass at around 8,200 feet. What a view! This is one of the things we love about Colorado. It's easy to reach the top of a mountain and feel as if you're king or queen of the world.

And then it was down, down, down, still negotiating sharp curves. We traveled like this for many miles. And at such slow speeds, we probably added an hour to our trip just getting over this mountain.

When we reached the bottom...there we go...straight as an arrow.

We passed through the tiny town of Loma where I captured this old schoolhouse. It appears to be abandoned with the lower windows and doors boarded up.

There was scant information about this building, but Wikipedia tells us "[t]he first school was established in the 1890s, and the two-story Loma School was constructed in 1910 from yellow brick, fired on the grounds. The brick school remained in use until 1982, when Loma Elementary School opened."

It was a nice view, but we were stopped here 35 minutes waiting for a pilot car to take us through some major road construction. It went on for miles. It was hard to tell what was going on here, but they appeared to be completely rebuilding the road. Perhaps a landslide or flood caused some damage, but we couldn't tell for sure. 

Unfortunately, we'll have to go back the way we came. There is no alternative. Just now I looked up some information about the project. We'll be leaving here next Monday, and the information informs us that if we get through the area between 6:30-8:30 a.m. on Mondays, we can get through without delay. We're filing that information away for our future travels.

The Google tells us that "[t]he 9,000-acre Blue Mesa Reservoir is the largest body of water entirely in Colorado and one of the state’s best beach spots. It’s in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, which has 96 miles of shoreline for sunbathing and other outdoor activities." It's formed by "Blue Mesa Dam ... a 390 foot tall earthen fill dam on the Gunnison River. ...[B]uilt in 1965, it created the Blue Mesa Reservoir."

Also, this one:

It was a long day of driving, and so we were pretty happy to reach this final stretch along the Taylor River. It's a beautiful stretch of road.

We were very near our final destination of Taylor Park Reservoir. We thought it might be raining, but it was actually sunlight shining through the clouds.

And there's a sight for sore eyes after a very long day of driving. Right in the middle of the image below, you can see Taylor Park Reservoir and Sky High Colorado RV park where I'm sitting as I write this post.

The kitties never act as if they know how much time they've been alone in the RV. They have access to their potty box, food, and water. All they care about is getting their treats. We arrived past their usual dinner time, and so Smitty struck a pose in his most handsome self to communicate his need for some food in his dinner bowl.

There's always a lot to do upon arrival, and so dinner was delayed for about five minutes. Delays in the serving of dinner will result in stern looks.

Okay, so here we are, and I'm going to be able to give you the blow-by-blow of each day's activities. I'm pretty happy about that since I hate to fall behind. Besides, it's a hassle setting up the time traveling machine, as I'm sure you can imagine. Today we'll do some ATV riding. We'll keep it simple to start and then take on some more difficult trails as we get acclimated to the surroundings. Temperatures have cooled significantly since leaving Utah. Being at more than 9,000 feet makes a big difference. Temperature outside just now is 35°F. It will warm up as the sun rises, but for now, it's frosty cold. There's actually some frost on the ATV's. 

Good morning, my friends. I have a little time left before we need to be on our way, and so I'll spend the last of our time here in Vernal chatting with you about the national monument. Oh my goodness. So much to see, and we only saw a fraction of the park, as you'll see in just a minute. I have a lot of pictures for you, so you might want to fill your cup with whatever you're drinking, and then we'll get started. Go ahead. I'll wait.

As we reached the far side of town, we drove past this iconic Vernal dinosaur. This is Dinah the Pink Dinosaur. You can read more about her at that link I've given you. I remembered her from our last visit here.

There was a dinosaur to greet us.

We were approaching the Quarry Visitor Center. I was able to pick up a refrigerator magnet there, and we learned some interesting facts about the place. I'm afraid this post is going to feature a lot of signs since my images require some explanation. I always figure you can read them as well as I can.

Just outside the doors to the visitor center is this life-size replica of a stegosaurus.

This is exciting, I know, but please mind your manners.

The stegosaurus was featured at the New York World's Fair in 1964-65.

Here's a little information about the original inhabitants of this area.

We're told this is the best example of the rock layers through the ages.

This next sign shows all 23 layers. It's a little hard to read, but I think you can get the idea. Remember you can make an image larger by clicking on it. (If you're reading via email, you'll need to click on the title to the post to be taken to the actual blog. There, you can click on the image to make it larger.)

There was a large 3-D relief map taking up a good portion of the room. The image below only shows half of it. I wanted you to see how this large national monument spans two states: Utah and Colorado. We'd wanted to take the Harper's Corner Road Scenic Drive, which is shown on the lower right.

It would have meant leaving the park and driving on farther to Dinosaur, Colorado, where we could enter the park at a different spot. Then, the scenic drive itself was 31 miles one way. Adding it all up, we realized we were going to need to drive over 100 miles before we could return to Vernal, and so we decided to save that for a future trip...probably our Eclipse 2024 Trip next year. 

After that, we hopped on a shuttle that took us to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. It was the one other thing we wanted to see during this visit.

The shuttles run about every 15 minutes, and this was well worth the short wait to see it. Here's a picture of the exhibit hall. It is two stories, and our tour started on the second floor.

But before I take you inside, I want you to come along as we take a different scenic drive...this one:

We're starting here because near the end of the drive, you'll see an explanation for how so many dinosaur bones ended up there at the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

Approaching the shelter, we read this sign.

This next sign discusses how they were carved or painted.

And here are some good examples of pictographs. You can see some of the ones on the top right still have the red coloring used when they were originally created.

Here are some more on a different rock face.

These were carved into the rock face, and so these are petroglyphs.

Moving on, we had some pretty views of the Green River.

Looking in the opposite direction, you can see how the river has split the dome of the mountain in half here. This is the area identified as "Split Mountain Canyon."

Looking straight ahead, there was a primitive campground below. There was also a boat launch here.

The guide book mentioned these ants. It's hard to see the ants without being able to see their movement. This ant hill was about three feet in diameter.

Here's what our tour book told us about them. Indeed, you can see the husks of seeds all around the opening.

We drove through the campground where I could get a different view of the colors in the canyon.

There's a private ranch out here. The sign explains the image that follows.

From where we were standing, this is what we could see:

Finally, this next portion of the tour book explains the image that follows, but it also explains what you're going to see when we tour the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

Here you can see the bands of color described above. What I really wanted you to understand was the last part about what caused the die-off and how so many different kinds of bones ended up all piled together like a bone log-jam.

One last stop...this is Turtle Rock. Can you see the turtle's head at the upper middle of the image?

Okay, so let's return to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. That's Mike in the blue hat.

Inside was nothing short of fascinating. It's a rock wall two stories high embedded with more than 1,500 specimens. In the image below, you can see the vertebrae from a single animal.

Here are more bones. Looking at the middle and near the top, you can see two femur bones from two different animals. 

Below is a zoomed in shot of the same two femurs. The larger heavier one is from an apatosaurus. The one to its left and a little lower is from a diplodocus. The ranger likened it to finding femurs from, say, an elephant and a giraffe. Both are large animals, but the elephant would be heavier with a heavier frame to support his body.

Imagine being Earl Douglass and discovering all of this. It was actually his idea to keep this portion of the wall intact for educational purposes. 

More informational signs to follow.

Here are some more images of the wall. At the top of the image below, you can see a rib cage.

This was a model of a femur. I had Mike stand there for scale. (He's already geared up for next year's eclipse trip.)

Need help identifying it?

Here are the partial toes of the allosaurus.

There were also smaller exhibits containing fossilized remains. The one below is a salamander.

This next one is a tiny frog. The main part of the body on the right would fit inside a quarter.

Here's a little more information about Allosaurus.

And here he is all put together.

This next image shows a neck vertebra as if you were looking straight down into a drinking glass You can see the oval shape of it.

And check out these benches created in the shape of a femur.

We saw a few blooming things...repeats of things I've already shown you. When we crossed into Utah, we started seeing our old friend the blooming Rabbitbrush.

This can be seen all over the west.

Good morning, my friends. It was nice to have a leisurely morning yesterday with no place to go. We've been so busy for more than a week. Ordinarily, we give ourselves an extra day at our first stop so we can rest up for the journey ahead. It gives us a little transition from "normal" life to "vacation" life too. (It's hard to tell when you're on vacation when you're retired.) This time, we just wanted to get on down the road, and so we postponed our day of rest until the fourth day. I guess that means this is the "official" start of our "vacation." We have one more night here in Vernal, and then we'll move along tomorrow.

Smitty was busy first thing. He was helping Mike repair our closet hanging rod.

And we saw some dinosaurs. Vernal fully embraces its former life as a place where dinosaurs roamed. There are still some visible on its streets today.

This next one is the little-known unicornisaurus. Or maybe he's wearing a party hat. What's you're take on this guy?

And then there was this big guy...the fearsome T-Rex.

There's a little story behind him:

The recognition was off to the left, but I didn't include it in the photo.

Sadie watched from inside the camper.

For anyone who's new to reading this blog, I should explain about Sadie. She's not permitted out for walks. She was formerly feral, and regresses to feral when she's in strange surroundings. She's escaped from every harness we've ever tried, and when she gets loose, she runs away. We nearly lost her in Teddy Roosevelt National Park a few years ago. That was Sadie's last walk. She used to whine and cry to join us. With the passage of time, she seems resigned to being an indoor-only kitty when we're traveling. Smitty always gets treats of valor when we return from a walk. Sadie gets treats of condolence.

So we had a pretty relaxing day. I finished off the remaining "book spines." I have one for each of my accumulated Shop Hop fabrics now. 

I'm still looking for more fabrics for the current quilt, and so eventually, I'll need more book spines. For now, each fabric is covered.

With that finished, I can start on the first block for the new "Kittens" project. It was getting close to dinner time by then, but I took some time to wind some floss bobbins with the colors I'll need for the first block.

Probably, I'll get a start on it this afternoon, but there are other things on our agenda for today. First, we'll have our traditional Sunday morning blueberry oatmeal pancakes. And then, we'll get ourselves ready to spend the day at Dinosaur National Monument. I spent some time looking at the website yesterday. For sure, we want to drive 32-mile Harpers Corner scenic drive. And we want to visit the Quarry Exhibit Hall, where we're told we can see a wall that contains 1,500 dinosaur bones. Cool! I don't expect it will take all day, but one never knows. We need to make a stop at the grocery store too. There will be no access to stores of any kind at our next remote destination, and so we need food to last us for the week.

If you're enjoying today's post, you can thank Sadie for helping me. She's an excellent helper, no matter whether I'm sewing or writing.

Next up, pancakes. I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about the national monument, but then I may be out of range when we reach our destination in Colorado. When we were there in 2019, there was no wi-fi and a very weak cell signal. Unless something has changed, we'll have to do some time-traveling when I'm back in range. Fingers crossed we have some connectivity this time around.

Good morning, my friends. I'm happy to say we still have internet access here in Vernal. We're practically right on the main highway, and so it isn't surprising. It's also fairly noisy. Oh well. It was quiet enough for a good night's sleep.

We drove through three states yesterday. As you can see, Sadie was completely stressed out at the thought of another day of driving. Actually, I think she was hoping we'd get going so she could get her morning nap.

We had around 100 miles to go before leaving Idaho. We passed from agricultural areas into plain old wide open spaces.

I like seeing fields like this with the bales of hay strewn randomly across the landscape.

Eventually, we crossed the state line into Utah. We headed south until just past Ogden before turning east.

Mike was feeling a little drowsy, and so we pulled off the road to walk around a for a few minutes. There I was able to get some close-up shots of the black-eyed Susans. We've seen these blooming in abundance everywhere.

Also, these little guys were growing at my feet. They were about the size of dimes.

And, of course, we passed by the usual assortment of abandoned structures.

This next one appears to be in use. There was a house behind it.

We stopped off at a spot we've seen before. This is an unusual geologic formation along I-80 heading east in Utah. There's even a place to pull off for a good look. This is the Devil's Slide.

You can read more about it at that link I've given you, but in a nutshell:

Devils Slide is a classic example of how different rock layers, depending on their composition, are affected by weathering and erosion. The sides of the slide are hard, weather-resistant limestone layers about 40 feet high, 25 feet apart, and several hundred feet in length. In between these two hard layers is a shaly limestone that is slightly different in composition from the outer limestone layers. This middle layer is softer, which makes it more susceptible to weathering and erosion, thus forming the chute of the slide.

A river runs past at the base of the slide. On the other side of the fence, I noticed these wildflowers growing. It seems all the wildflowers are yellow at this time of year.

Utah has its own share of abandoned structures. 

As we passed through a notch in the Wasatch Mountains, we came upon the red rock that is characteristic of much of Utah's lovely landscape. 

We crossed over into the southwest corner of Wyoming for a bit.  

The road was terrible here, but the landscape was interesting. Incidentally, the road was bad enough that it caused the clothing rod in the closet to come lose. Our clothes are currently sitting on the floor of the closet. Mike will be able to fix it today. We agreed if that's the worst thing that happens this trip, then we'll be happy campers.

Just after crossing into Wyoming, we came on Fort Bridger State Historic Site. I only just barely caught a few of the structures as we passed by. We still had far to go, and so we didn't stop.

You can read more about it and see some videos and pictures at the link I've given you. But briefly...

Fort Bridger State Historic Site maintains and interprets historic structures and remnants from its 5 eras of occupation which include the Mountain Men, Mormons, Military, Milkbarn/Motel and Museum. The site also interprets the many trails that came through Fort Bridger including the Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Pioneer Trail, Pony Express Trail, Overland Trail, Cherokee Trail and Lincoln Highway.

Just after passing Fort Bridger, we came upon this barn of a different color...swimming pool blue. 

We were approaching the Flaming Gorge-Uintas National Scenic Byway. As we grew closer, we started seeing some of the Navajo sandstone from the Jurassic period. It's hard to tell in this image, but the lighter portions were tinged with green, indicating the presence of copper.

Just a little farther down the road, we crossed back into Utah again. 

As we topped a rise, we could see the water that fills the Flaming Gorge Reservoir at the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. 

Here's how it looks on the map. The reservoir is 93 miles from top to bottom. 

We caught glimpses of it as we drove along. I was giving us a guided tour from our "Guide to Scenic Highways & Byways" book. 

Eventually, we came to the turn off for the Red Canyon Visitor Center, and so we drove back in and off the highway for about a mile and a half. We were fortunate to find the visitor center open where we could get some beautiful views and learn a little more about the place. This was the view from the window of the visitor center. 

This informational sign was posted just outside the window. 

Here's another sign posted inside the visitor center with a little more information. It's hard to read, and so the images that follow are cuts from the original, making it a little easier to read (I hope). 

Outside, there was a short loop trail. Before we go, let's get the rules straight. You could die out here. 

Speaking of crevices...there's one right in the middle of the image below.

 Walking to the end of the short trail, this was the view looking south.

Here's a little more information about the canyon. 

Looking north, this is what you see. My thanks to those boaters for providing scale. 

Here are a few more informational signs about the area. 

This next image was captured as we walked back to where we were parked. It looks south. I walked near the edge of a cliff to look over the side. 

As we walked back, we found more informational signs. 

Looking up at the tree, you can see the holes drilled there by woodpeckers. 

Here's yet another view looking north. 

These grasshoppers accompanied us on our walk. They make a loud repetitive snapping noise when they fly. It's loud enough to startle you if one takes off right beside you. 

We read this information about the reintroduction of bighorn sheep to the area. 

And then, we were thrilled to find a group grazing along the roadside as we drove back out to the main highway. 

The one showing you his better side below was reluctant to give up his primo grazing spot. 

We inched closer and closer until he moved out of the way. 

And oh happy day! I scored my first refrigerator magnet of the trip. 

We traveled the scenic byway the rest of the way into Vernal. Along the way we stopped here at Windy Point. It was windy there...go figure. I hopped out and took a picture of the colorful landscape. 

This next image is a zoomed in shot of the area on the right-hand side of the image above...right in the middle. It's an active open-pit phosphate mine. The phosphate-rich rock, used for fertilizer, originated from the decomposition of billions of microscopic marine organisms some 225 million years ago.

Also, I noticed this flag, which appears to be mounted in the remains of an old structure. I'm not sure what or why, and I could find no information about it. 

We were nearing Vernal by that time. We've checked into the RV park. It's quite noisy here, being located on the main highway. 

We added something new for the kitties this trip. When we're in our fifth wheel, they have their window hammocks where they can lie and look out the window snoopervising the goings on. For this trip, we brought along the Trashy Triangles quilt. When we're not using the table, we lay it there for them to lie on. The table has always been off-limits, but we're calling this area a "yellow light" area. (Think traffic signals and their yellow light.) When the quilt is lying there, they have the green light to lie on it and look out the window. They were a little confused by this the first few days, but they're both settling into it now that we've been on the road a while. Sadie used it to give herself a good licking down after so many miles on the dusty trail. 

So we're here in Vernal to visit Dinosaur National Monument. Today we're taking a "chill day" after driving, driving, driving for three straight days. We'll just hang out and avoid getting in the truck today. We'll visit the monument tomorrow. We'll also need to do some grocery shopping while we're here. Our next stop will be at Taylor Park Reservoir in Colorado. It's a remote area, and there are no nearby grocery stores. We'll want to stock up on groceries to make it through the next week.

There are some pamphlets in the office here. One describes a walking tour of "vintage" Vernal, and so we might get out for a walk this afternoon. So far, we're just taking it easy, and we're all glad not to be driving anywhere today. 

Good morning, my friends. It was another long day of driving yesterday. The kitties knew when it was time to leave. They're such seasoned travelers, they recognize the signs. Smitty was blocking the middle door access to their cubbies. Sadie clearly wanted to join him, and so I opened the door to the left of center, and she jumped right up. 

There isn't much to say about this part of the world. It's mainly agricultural. We saw field after field of corn and (probably) mint. The field pictured below was all in sunflowers.

We saw some interesting abandoned structures. I always wonder about their origin.

And we saw more than a few barns.

This one below was part of a larger complex. I might still be in use, although it looks abandoned.

Since leaving the Columbia River Gorge, the roadsides have been lined with black-eyed Susans. The hillsides were covered as well.

About an hour into our drive yesterday, we came to the Snake River. We drove parallel to the river for a while.

Eventually, we left our home state of Oregon...

Crossed over the Snake River...

And hello Idaho!

There were some pretty roses growing at one of the rest stops where we spent a little bit of time.

And then we just drove and drove and drove until we reached our final destination in Declo, Idaho. We spent the night here, and we'll head to Vernal, Utah, today. When we reach Vernal, we'll stick for three days while we explore Dinosaur National Monument.

It seems as good a time as any to remind you that I almost never know if I'll have internet access down the road. I expect to have it in Vernal. I do not expect to have it when we reach our next stop in Colorado. We're heading to a place we've been before. There was no wi-fi on our last visit, but that was some time ago. Possibly things have changed, but I doubt it. In any case, I'll most likely be blogging while we're in Vernal. If not, then I'll probably be out of range for around ten days. I'm hoping not because you know...words in my head. Always words in my head. 

This place where we're staying right now has a grill that will deliver breakfast to our rig. Their Happy Camper breakfast is hashbrowns, two eggs, two strips of bacon and toast. Sounds pretty good, huh? No extra charge for bringing it to the rig. It's kind of a treat while we're RVing when someone brings food to the door. So...what the heck? We'll do that for this morning's breakfast, and then we'll be on our way. Hopefully, I'll be back tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

 Good morning, my friends. Well, here we are! Let the fun begin!

We got off in good time yesterday morning. We loaded the kitties into the RV with no bloodshed, and then we hitched up and we were off. But before we get too far down the road, let's just catch up on a couple of things from before we left.

As you know, I was without anything new to stitch. It seemed like a good time to start on the "book spines." I finished two of them, and then in another session, three more were finished.

It's a recipe from the Washington Post. I'm no longer a subscriber, and so I'm going to give you the recipe right here if you'd like to give it a try. It was super simple to put it together, and then it was just a matter of time waiting for it to bake.

Our packing finished, we had just one sleep before we took off in the morning. The squirrels let me know they'd finish off the plums we left behind. Thank you.

And then...we were off. And, my friends, we've made this drive so many times, and I've written about it so many times, that I decided to just link to a previous trip. Nothing much has changed from one year to the next. And we make this drive just about once every year. One change was this burned out section on the Washington side of the Columbia River. This is what was left behind from the White Salmon Fire earlier this summer. You can barely see some of the orange-ish areas in amongst the green.

If you want to read more about the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, you can click here on this post from an earlier trip.

We're at the southern end of The Palouse here, and so there aren't even many barns to speak of. When we were very near our destination, I captured this one abandoned structure. There's a railroad track there. Something about this structure makes me wonder if it was a railroad station at one time.

The kitties are such good travelers. They were cool as cucumbers when we arrived. The just needed some windows and doors opened, their catio installed, and their "greet and treats" dispensed. Smitty was completely offended when the first life forms he saw consisted of a man and his stupid woofie. And the woofie was doing his doody right there in the grass!!! Smitty might like to eat some grass here, but now that he knows woofies engage in this revolting behavior, his appetite has been ruined. RUINED, I tell you!!! A cat would never do something like this. Hmph.

Well. We removed ourselves from this disgusting scene and went to the other side of the RV where Mike was busy installing the catio. Fortunately, I brought him some wheatgrass, so he can have his grass and eat it too.

When they were settled, Smitty sat in the catio snoopervising our next-door neighbors.

Sadie snuggled down in her quilt, and everything was Jake.

It was a long drive yesterday, and so we took a walk around this lovely park, just to stretch our legs. We're at Grande Hot Springs resort. This is a place with a history. You can read more details about it at this old post. This is a hot springs area, and so the water you see here is hot. Neverthless, lily pads thrive.

Their hot tubs are hot spring fed.

And I'm afraid this is a sign of the times. We actually purchased a new Blackstone Grill for this trip. It runs on propane. Most campgrounds no longer allow fires of any kind, including charcoal barbecues. We have a small Traeger grill, but we aren't able to use it because it burns pellets. Anything that can spark of send out embers is no longer allowed in most campgrounds during wildfire season.

There isn't much blooming at this time of year, but we saw some wild asters.

And these little yellow jobs growing close to the ground.

Our shadow selves were just happy to be on the road and on our way.

Smitty joined us for cocktail hour. Margaritas are our traditional cocktail for the first day of a trip. We toasted Jimmy Buffet. 

There was one last recipe I'd started while still at home for last night's dinner. This is Tortellini with Snap Peas and Pesto. It was super simple and very tasty.

There was some basil left over from when I canned pasta sauce, and I wanted to use it. It also had an equal amount of mint from our culinary herb garden. I made the pesto before we left home, and then I just boiled the tortellini and sugar snap peas together and voila! Dinner was served with a minimum of effort. We had some halved cherry tomatoes with Ranch dressing as a side salad. Mmm, mmm, mmm. It was a nice way to finish off the day.

Good morning, my friends. Today we'll begin packing in earnest for when the rubber meets the road on Wednesday morning. I have to make a quick trip into town, and then I'll pack my clothes and personal items today. Food will wait until tomorrow, but I'll be cleaning out the refrigerator today in order to mesh with our garbage collection day. I don't want to leave discarded food in the trash can for a month. Ew.

As you might imagine, the kitties are more than put out at being kept inside. Smitty let us know he was thoroughly disgusted.

Finally, she gave up and spent the afternoon on her catio.

There wasn't even any sewing to keep a cat busy! There was slow stitching, however. I had just a little bit left to finish on the Joyful Journey block, and so I spent some time on that.

That completes the eighth of 12 blocks. This one is called "Garden Glory." Here are all of the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

My day was spent getting organized for packing. I made up lists and crossed off things already in the RV. Also, I organized tour books and maps. The laptop, cords, mouse, and mouse pad are loaded. I love that it all fits under the table top in the truck camper. Space is at a premium, and so anything that can be loaded without taking up extra space is appreciated. 

When we planted this tree, Mike wanted it far from the house since we already have lots of leaf-dropping trees up close. He didn't want to plant another one close to the house. That's only pertinent because it means he has to hook up all the hoses we own in order to water it at this distance. We kept it well watered this summer, but the leaves remained the color you see. One evening, I noticed the green leaves on the bottom left were cast in shadow toward the end of the day, and so we can only surmise the rest are sunburned. We've also noticed some trees around town that look the same way. It's nothing to worry about...unless you happen to worry about climate change...and we do.

As a side dish, I made something new. It looked good when I saw it online. This is Korean Corn Cheese, and it was a very tasty way to serve corn. 

The corn is sauteed with some onions and seasonings before adding shredded mozzarella cheese. Then it's placed under the broiler to melt the cheese and brown the top. I really hate using the broiler in my oven...no reason...I just decided I hated it at some point during my life. So, my cast iron skillet will fit in my toaster oven...handle out...and that works just fine when I need to brown/melt something like this. 

Good morning, my friends. We're all back in our places. It was good to step outside yesterday morning and see Sadie in her usual morning napping spot.

As expected, the only sewing I did yesterday was to finish this section of the Garden Glory piece.

Now, I've moved my hoop to the final position. I expect it will be finished either today or tomorrow. I've nearly come to the end of that green floss. Fortunately, I believe I will have enough to finish the rest of the leaves.

This is how the kitties spent their day. They were pretty mad about being confined to the house. They were sure we'd made a terrible mistake.

A few things happened in the kitchen, including baking these Breakfast Carrot-Cake Oatmeal Cakes. I've had this recipe on the list for quite some time, and I finally got around to making it.

We each had one before heading down to the neighbor's housewarming party. The rest were frozen to take along on our trip. They'll make a quick and easy breakfast. If you're looking for something that tastes like carrot cake, you'll be disappointed. Technically, they're a sort of carrot oatmeal cupcake. The cinnamon comes through on these, and they have a nice chewy/crunch texture. We liked them. Someone wrote a review saying she'd like a little more sugar and a little less salt. They didn't seem overly salty to me with just a half teaspoon of salt to the whole batch. As for the sugar, that would be personal preference. They have 1/3 cup of brown sugar to the batch. If I wanted them sweeter, a touch of maple syrup or honey might be nice. 

It's just a few days until we leave on our trip. Some serious packing will need to begin soon. I need to pick up a few things in town, and I need to do one last pile of laundry. This last few days before taking off is always boringly busy with mundane but necessary tasks. I'll keep working on my slow-stitching until it's finished. Most of my time will be spent running up and down stairs...stairs in the house, and stairs in the RV. These final days always make my knees hurt. It'll be worth it once we get on down the road, and a change of scenery will be welcome.

Good morning, my friends. Well. I have quite a tale to tell you this morning. Before I get started, however, let me just say that Sadie is fine. As you read this story, know that it has a happy ending.

In preparation for our trip, we always put some Advantage on the kitties. We don't want an infestation of fleas in the RV. We don't use Advantage more than about twice per year, and it's usually just prior to a trip. For whatever reason, we've never had a serious problem with fleas on our kitties...probably because of the Advantage. But that's beside the point. The point is that we let them out after applying it so they can take good dust baths and get that nasty residual Advantage off their fur.

They were in and out for the next couple of hours. Mike was busy working on the ATV's outside. I was in the sewing room finishing off my mini. I gave it some simple dot-to-dot quilting, just in the setting triangles. I didn't want to cover all those little quilt blocks with a lot of thread, and so I kept the quilting light.

In less than an hour, I had myself a finished mini quilt. It ends up at 12-1/2 inches square.

Here's how it looks from the back.

While I was doing the hand-sewing, Sadie came to the door a few times and looked inside. I got up to let her in the first time, but she just walked on by. After that, I stayed in my seat, waiting for her to indicate she really wanted to come in. Eventually, Smitty joined me, but Sadie stayed out. Shortly after I finished the binding, Mike came inside. We both took naps. When we awakened, we were kind of surprised Sadie wasn't at the door. It was time for her to come in, and so Mike rode around on the ATV (also known as the "Critter Getter"). She doesn't like the noise, and so that generally brings her out of hiding and to the door to be let in. This time...nothing. Well. That was worrisome. 

Here's a close-in shot. Isn't it amazing? It has two sets of petals.

Also, for good measure, I captured the echinacea. I expect it will be bloomed out by the time we return from our trip.

We were still on the hunt and every bit of wildlife movement caught our attention, including this rat bastard eating the leave on my poppies. GET OUT OF THERE!

Good morning, my friends. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty happy to have reached the month when Fall starts. We've had a good summer here with just a few hot days. We've been delighted by a nice soaking rain from yesterday. It rained most of the day, and by the time we went to bed, we had a half-inch accumulation. Many of you have suffered through brutal heat, and so I feel fairly certain you're going to be happy to see the end of summer. And for those of you in the Carolinas, I hope you've come through the storm okay. We've seen some horrendous video on our national news. Florida, what can I say? I'm sorry you're going through this yet again. So much destruction and heartache.

So, let's turn our eyes in a different direction: construction. Quilt construction, to be precise. I had more help than you can possibly imagine yesterday. There were six more tiny blocks to make for the mini quilt. When they were all finished, I laid them out, readying them to be sewn together.

Hm. See this is all wrong. You have not used propurr pawsitioning technique.

When laying out quilt blocks for sewing together, it is impurrtant to use the full-body appurroach.

When she was finished...

Well. It's going to make sewing them together more difficult. Her work complete, she decided to take a nap in her bed. 

While she was sleeping, I went to work rearranging things and adding in the setting triangles.

Then, I quickly sewed them together before being subjected to any more helpful suggestions.

From there, it just needed borders, and now it's a finished quilt top. It finished up at 12-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches. I'll use that same fabric from the inner border for the binding.

I was nearing the end of my sewing day, but I took time to paw through my bin of multi-colored scraps and came out with this one. It was used in the very first quilt I ever made back in 2008.

Here's the quilt. I call it "Bubbles."

Purrdon me. There is a purroblem with my dinner bowl. It is not fulfilling its life's purrpose of filling my ample belly.

Okay, Buddy. Let's go take care of that. And that was the end of my sewing day.

So here we are. September 1st. It's time to choose my goal for September's

We're just a few days away from taking off on our trip, and so I'm looking ahead to the sewing I'll be doing on the road. I expect to finish up the current Joyful Journey block before we leave, and that means I'll be starting on the first block for the "Kittens" quilt. My goal is to finish all the embroidery for this block:

I'll head over to the party that starts today and link up when I'm finished here. And I'm leaving my sewing at a good place. I should have no problem finishing off the mini today, including hand-sewing the binding. With that finished, I'll be back at the top of my white board lists: quilting a large quilt. 

Next up (when we get back), I'll be quilting Strips and Stripes. It's been hanging out draped over Eliza, keeping her warm, and allowing its wrinkles to settle out. 

If only it were so easy for humans to allow their wrinkles to settle out. Already, I have the thread figured out, and so it's just a matter of time before I can move this one to the finished pile. A friend has already spoken up for it, and so finishing will also mean saying good-bye and sending it off to its new home in Arizona.

As for today, I'm going to make an Original Plum Torte for Two. (I like having something for dessert on Fridays.) The plums should be ripe enough by now. Sometimes I use them to make Spicy Plum Barbecue Sauce, but this year, the plum torte will be the extent of our plum usage. I'll probably pick some to take along for snacking too. I like the Italian prune plums as much as I like cherries; meaning, I'd happily stand under the tree and eat them one after another until they make me sick. There's just one small housekeeping chore, and then the day is mine for sewing. It's going to be a good day. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself.