Hi all,
 

Well, we are off again!  This is going to be a fairly short 17 day trip .  We left home at Prescott, are driving up to Delta, CO to visit some good friends near there, then we will do some sight seeing along a leisurely loop east and south ending at Farmington, NM where we will attend a 4 day motorhome rally.   It will be home from there.
 

Friday, October 8
We spent much of the day yesterday loading the motorhome, which we had pretty well cleared out after our last trip.  By a little before 9 AM this morning we had the motorhome out of the garage, the Honda connected, had a last minute chat with our next door neighbor, Ernie, (who had just pulled his motorhome out for a weekend trip), and pulled away.
 

We headed north on hwy 89 to Ash Fork, east to Flagstaff, then north on 89 again for a number of miles.  We turned of onto a couple of byways (160, then 191) , crossed the Utah border, went through Bluff, and stopped at a campground in Blanding.  Today's drive was a tiring 350 miles.  We arrived in camp just before 5:00 Utah time, which is an hour later than Arizona time.
 

After settling in, we went into town and did a quick tour.  On our way back we stopped at the only restaurant in town, the Old Tymer and ended up ordering two Navajo tacos.  These were more like a tostada, served open face on Indian fry bread with all the "fixins".  They were delicious!  The fry bread  was just a little tough to cut with your fork, but then just melted in your mouth.
 

I got to try my new CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) nighttime breathing assistance device in the motorhome for the first time.  It wasn't a full trial, as we have electricity here and I didn't try out the 12 volt cable and the new 12 volt outlet I installed before leaving home.  It worked just fine!
 

Saturday, October 9
We left in the Honda this morning and headed back south.and west, first to the Natural Bridges National Monument.  There are three natural bridges here.  Kachina is a very young bridge, with massive arch and supports.  Sipapu is a mature bridge with the greatest span and height of the three.  In fact only Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell is larger than Sipapu.  Owachomo is in it very old age, with a span only 9 feet thick.  This bridge could collapse tomorrow, or continue to stand for centuries.  There is a loop road close to the Visitor Center which allows viewing of each bridge with a short hike to an observation deck.  I was able to take Betty to two of the three observation decks, but the third would have been very difficult.  The paths were well paved and quite wide, but the one overlooking Kachina Bridge was just too long and steep.  I took videos so Betty can see that one.
 

At the Visitor Center there was a sign labeled "Solar Cells" pointing down a path.  We took the path and came across about an acre filled with photo-voltaic solar cells.  These were installed in 1980 and were the largest array at that time.  They produce 50 kilowatts and supply all the electrical needs of the Visitor Center, the Administrative Offices, and the worker residences.  The battery bank can supply full power for two days if there are dark days.  They say the Park Service saves $25,000 a year, but did not say what the installed cost was.  It was a  very interesting side trip.
 

Leaving Natural Bridges, we went south on highway 261.  This was a well paved good road.  After a while we passed a sign stating that there was gravel road with sharp switchbacks and steep grades 17 miles ahead.  We approached another set of warning signs advising against taking trucks, busses, RV's, or towed vehicles.  We reached gravel and a speed limit of 5 mph.  They were right!  We dropped 1000 feet in 3 miles, with about 6 or 7 very sharp switchbacks.  I think we would not have had a problem taking our rig on this road if there was not other traffic on it - especially in the opposite direction.  I think we only met 2 or 3 vehicles going up as we went down.  There was one section where the rock wall overhung the road.  I would not want to be in my motorhome going up there.  I am sure we would scrape if a vehicle coming down met us there.  Shortly, we reached paved road again and we were on excellent road.
 

We drove on through Mexican Hat to Monument Valley.  As it was around 3 by now, all the formations looked very hazy until we drove past them and could look back on the sunlit side.  Now they were beautiful!  We drove to within 4 miles of Arizona and turned around to head home.  (Home is where you park it!)
 

Upon reaching Blanding, I drove past our campground back into town to where Betty had spotted an A&W right next to the grocery store.  It turned out that A&W was IN the grocery store.  The store was very interesting.  It was like an oversized 7/11 with some groceries.  One whole side of the store was chips and snacks.  Entering the other side, walking toward A&W we passed several very large racks of videos and DVD's for rent.  To the right of the videos was a freezer section with about 6 or 8 doors.  Half this was filled with ice cubes, with the remainder frozen food.  The other side of the videos were several rows of dry goods.  Produce was along the back wall in a single open top refrigerated section.  Dairy was in a couple of high refrigerated units with the balance of the wall being frilled with soft drinks.  Guess what?  The prices were high, too.
 

As long as we were there, we each got a root beer float and a coney dog (As in Coney Island).  When the total bill was $4.13, I checked to see where the girl had goofed.  There were two entries listed as "Happy Time" that turned out to be a 50% discount on the floats!  I like that policy!
 

Tomorrow we head out on our 250 mile trek to Delta.  We hope to stop and do some sight seeing on the way, but that will depend upon our ability to find a suitable place to park the motorhome for a couple of hours.
 

I forgot all about having gone to Gooseneck State Park during our drive of yesterday (Saturday).
 

This is an area where the San Juan River makes 3 very sharp, very close turns.  Standing on the overlook, you can see 4 stretches of the river as it flows south, then north, then south, and then north again.
 

This is exactly the configuration that over the eons, creates the natural bridges.  Where the water flowing one direction is very close to water flowing the other direction after making the loop, erosion on both sides keeps narrowing the dividing rock.  Eventually the wall is so thin that it fails creating a hole.  Often the river will now flow through this hole instead of continuing around the original loop.  Continuing flow, along with rain and wind keeps opening the hole and the bridge keeps getting larger, until at the late part of its life (millions of years later), the wear is so much that the bridge fails and its life is over.
 

Sunday, Oct 10
We got up and ready to travel with no particular hurry.  We left around 9:30 heading for Delta, CO, a drive of about 250 miles.  We made a number of stops so I could walk around and loosen up my left knee.  The all day drive to Blanding left the knee quite stiff.  I need to keep it moving!  It feels just fine today.
 

We decided to not even try making a "tour" stop on the way.  By mid-afternoon we found our RV park and got a spot directly overlooking the Gunnison River.  It can't be over 100 feet from us.  This is the same park we used in September 1999.  In fact, we are in the same spot within the park!
 

I called Barbara and John Cairns early evening.  They had just returned from a several day visit to their daughter and family who live between Denver and Colorado Springs.  We arranged to meet here at 10 tomorrow morning.  John and I used to work together in the early days of our careers and we got to be good friends with them both.  After many years apart, we are now closer than ever thanks to the miracles of email and rv's.
 

Monday, Oct 11
Happy birthday Kylie!  Our oldest granddaughter becomes a teenager today!
 

John and Barbara arrived around 10 and we had a session of "catching up".  Around 11:15 we decided to have early lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, but by the time we stopped talking and got going, we had a late lunch there.  We then headed to their home in Cedaredge, about 17 miles from the RV park.
 

They have a beautiful home at the edge of a mesa which gives them a view that goes forever!  On the 4th of July, they can see 3 separate fireworks displays from their deck!
 

The highlight of this visit for me was seeing John's G gauge garden railway.  G gauge track is about 2 inches between rails.  It was much more extensive than I had imagined.  He has hundreds of feet of track in several loops, mostly elevated and a number of switches.  There is a line feeding it which runs through a window into John's basement shop.  In there is his "train yard" consisting of a 40 foot workbench about 2 feet wide.  It runs the full length of the basement wall.  On this are multiple runs of track, 4 abreast at one end with many switches, and a "Y" feed to the outgoing track, so he can turn a train around if needed.  He stores his locomotives and many cars here.  This also holds his charging station.
 

John made the decision early in the project to not try and electrify the track for power.  Instead he opted for battery powered, radio controlled trains.  This eliminated the many problems involving running power cables throughout the layout, having to keep the track very clean for proper electrical connection, etc.  His rechargeable nickle hydroxide battery packs run a train for over an hour per charge.  When I asked him what size batteries he used, he replied "AA batteries!"  True enough, his packs are made of AA cells.  He uses 18 volt packs for his larger locomotives and 12 volt for the smaller.
 

He ran a Santa Fe diesel locomotive pulling 3 coal cars for us.  After about a half hour he brought out a small switcher and had the two trains running on the main line.  He has to make sure neither train overruns the other.  He says he can keep up with 4 trains at a time OK, but 5 is really pushing it.
 

We took both trains back to the switch yard when we felt a few drops of rain.  It was time to go in anyway.  What a marvelous hobby!
 

We sat in their living room and were treated to a showing of their Alaska video.  Barbara shot about two hours of video on their recent 48 day Alaska RV caravan, then using a software editing program, did a wonderful job of preparing a 1 hour video, which also incorporated a number of their digital still photos.  It was a very well produced, nicely titled production.  We enjoyed it immensely and had a feeling of being there ourselves.  Good job Barbara!
 

Tuesday, Oct 12
We did some exploring of Delta this morning.  They have a number of murals on the downtown buildings.  One in particular is very interesting.  It is a perspective view of several buildings.  When you first see this, it looks like more buildings are on that block.  It plays with your senses!  We visited Confluence Park.  This is where the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers meet.  The park is very large and beautiful.  We then tried out Delta's brand new Super Walmart!
 

After lunch, we went to Cedaredge and picked up Barbara and John, who were then tour guides for a magnificently picturesque drive through some of Colorado's prettiest mesas, valleys, and mountains.  The trees were just beautiful!  We overlooked a number of green valleys which were dotted with vivid yellow Cottonwood trees.  There were large expanses of Aspen which were also a vivid yellow.  There were hugh jagged, snow covered peaks which made us feel like we were in the Swiss Alps!  It was a totally enjoyable several hours.  We stopped on the way home at a barbecue restaurant.  I had ribs!  Delicious!
 

After getting back to Cedaredge, they showed us their "igloo".  This is a fabric covered metal framed shelter where they park their 26 foot trailer.   It looks like it does a great job protecting it from the snow and other elements.
 

We said a sad farewell and headed back to the motorhome.  Tomorrow we have about a 150 mile drive to Poncha Springs, CO.
 

Till next time,
 

Betty and Dick