Nice day in Moab

September 17 – No rush this morning for sure!  I think we both slept pretty well.

I made a dozen rhubarb muffins this morning.  Picked up a recipe somewhere but decided to shortcut it by using Bisquick.  Diced up the rhubarb pretty small and topped them all with a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar.  They went really well with some fruit and Canadian bacon.

Eventually we left for the main drag after a quick stop at the post office.  We bought new Dirt Shirts at the Original Dirt Shop store.  Bill realized when he got home that he bought one exactly like the one he already had!  We stopped is several shops, looking for bargains and anything “special”.  We only bought a few Christmas gifts.

Bill chose Fiesta Mexicana for lunch.  I had a salad with lots of avocados, shrimp and chicken.  It was good.  I brought some of the chicken home.  Bill had a combo and he brought some home as well.

We checked out all of the shops on the way back to the truck and decided we’d seen enough for today.  The only grocery store in Moab is City Market so we stopped for a few things.  We had hoped they had huckleberry ice cream as several of the ice cream shops advertise it, but no luck!

After we dropped off the groceries to the RV, we headed south to Hole In the Rock.  We’d been there a long time ago and they have added a lot more “stuff” outside.  We took the 12 minute tour and were not impressed with the tour guide.  The house itself is fantastic.  Three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, huge living area, fireplace vented 6 feet up through the rock, a big kitchen, office space  -- all blasted and chipped out of a mountain.  There are 4 entrances, 3 right through the rock

One of the entrances

and one that was first that they built a small building on the outside and carved out the first 2 rooms inside and now it’s a gift shop but they had a café that they ran.  Great spot to visit for $6.50 a person!

Made from lots and lots of parts

We visited the gravesites that they carved out before their deaths and they are buried near their home.  They have some other unique yard art and another pricier gift shop and a General Store where we had ice cream for our afternoon “pick me up”.

Time to head home and chill with a glass of wine and get another load of laundry done.

I baked a pork loin in a bag for dinner and we finished off the fried apples and leftover broccoli!  Nothing for dessert unless we opened ice cream so we each had a rhubarb muffin!

And more driving.....

September 16 – We got an earlier start today and left at 8:30.  We drove 150 of our 330

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miles today on “America’s Loneliest Highway”.  I wasn’t excited when Bill told me the name – that was scary!!  Well we did have a small bit of traffic, more than I

expected but geez, there is NOTHING for miles and miles.  No livestock, no farm houses, no nothing!  What we did have lots of today were mountain passes!  I think we crossed 6 or 7.  I’ve been up and down so many times today, I was truly ready for nothing but flat land!  I did see ONE male antelope with a nice rack and the scenery today was beautiful.

We crossed into Utah and there was a continuous supply of beautiful red rock mountains, some streaked with gold. I haven’t looked to see how many photos Bill took, but

he’d barely put the camera away and then get it out again. 

At lunch time it was also fuel time, so we stopped at Flying J and filled the RV and ourselves with lunch.  Then it was back on the road.  I was so happy to finally see a sign that read “Moab”.  We came into town from the north where Arches National Park is.  Traffic thru town was busier than we expected as well.  Our campground, Moab Rim RV Campark, is just south of town and sits on a hillside.  We have a view of the red rock mountains out the front window.

We had reserved a full hook up pull through and that’s what we got!  The site was pretty level so Bill put some boards down on the low side and just pads under the high side.  The moment of truth was seeing if the legs would quit complaining that I needed to “return for service” and actually go down.  At first it said the same thing and then changed over to putting the legs down.  Yee Ha!

I put another load in the washer and set things up for 3 nights!  I’m not crazy about one night stays.

For dinner I made cheese tortellini in a red sauce with salads.  Since we are out of cookies, I did 2 mug brownies and that hit the spot! 

I caught up on the happenings for the last 2 days, now to get working on the photos and see what I get posted!

Driving and more driving...

September 15 – This morning did not start our day off well!  We were up earlier than normal to get on the road and all was going well until we retracted the leveling legs.  They went up but the control panel insisted they were down.  I tried several times to retract and got the same response.  We had no choice but to go ahead and leave as planned.  The panel stopped chirping after a couple of minutes and continued to do this EVERY time we turned the engine off and restarted.

We drove to the back of the fairgrounds where a public dump station is and we were the only ones there, so that went fast and well! 

Then we stopped at the Truck stop beside the interstate.  We fueled up and filled our DEF can.  Bill checked the tires and discovered his pressure gauge would not work on the RV tires so a truck driver loaned him his.  Our passenger rear inside tire was WAY low, so he aired it up along with some in each of the others and finally at 9:45 we were on our way.

Long bur NOT winding road

We drove about 330 miles today!  We took 93 from Twin Falls down into Nevada and ended up in Baker, NV for the night.  There were very few towns along the route and I was a little concerned that we’d be in the middle of no where with no cell service and something would break down.  I was surprised at how much traffic there was! 

Once we went through Jackpot, NV (where there are

Farm house along the way

4-5 casinos and not much else), there was pretty much nothing but fenced in fields with a few cows here and there, farm houses dotted along and miles and miles of flat landscape.

Baker is very close to the Visitor Center for Great Basin National Park.  We stayed at this little slightly Deliverance RV park when we went to Great Basin but this time we were just pulling in for the night.  We

Now this was a cook sighting

got in about 4, which gave us a little down time.  The site was not very level but we decided not to challenge the leveling legs and just spend the night a little ca-ca!

I made corn on the cob, hot links and heated up leftover green beans.  We finished off one of our half gallons of huckleberry ice cream.  I didn’t feel like getting out the computer so I crocheted and read in my down time.

I did do 2 loads of laundry and changed the bed sheets.

We watched a couple of shows on TV and called it a night.

Losers once again....

September 14 – Our last day at the rally!  I will say everyone has been very nice, welcoming and friendly.  The rally, however, is not nearly as much fun as others we have attended.  There are only 52 rigs here and they don’t have a lot of activities.  There was entertainment only one night, which is fine as a lot of the entertainment we get in Florida we would rather be home watching TV.

After breakfast this morning we went over and checked the Silent Auction items as we had

Bill on third after his triple!!

bids in on 4.  We made the adjustments we needed to make and there was no one in the hall doing anything so we came home.  We signed up for Bean Bag Baseball at 1:00 so after quick lunch we headed over and found our team.  Bill played great, 3 for 4 with a home run, a triple and a double!  I did not fair as well, as I was 2 for 4 with a triple and a single.  I was very happy as the first 2 at bats I was horrible.  We ended up getting hammered 11-4!  After the game we were told that Chapter is always good at Bean Bag Baseball!

It was getting time for the Silent Auction to end at 2, so we went in and adjusted our bids AGAIN.  I was trying to score on 2 different sets of hummingbird feeders and one set had gotten a bit high and the other set the lady bidding against me was there waiting.  I had the bid and she went up .50 so when she was occupied chatting with her back to me during the last 2 minutes of the bidding, I went up and outbid her.  In the end, we won all 3 things that we wanted and the lady had the nerve to say I had placed my bid after the deadline!  The timekeeper was standing there when I placed it and I did not cheat, I was just sneaky!  I told her I had done no such thing and I paid the $30 that we owed for my 2 bird feeders, a pair of bag chairs and Bill’s car wash sprayer with a soap canister on it!  We didn’t need the chairs but for $5 for the pair I thought they would be handy to have.

Once we put our loot away, we checked out where the dump station was for in the morning before we took a ride to Wal-mart.  It’s on the outside of the fairgrounds and very easy to get to. 

I was hoping Wal-mart had a decent souvenir section at the local store, but they did not.  I did get a couple of post cards and picked up some fresh corn for tomorrow night’s dinner and Bill got Snapple and bananas.

Tonight was the banquet, closing ceremony and final raffle drawings.  First we went to the closing ceremony and it was nice.  There were a couple of raffles but we didn’t win.  Dinner was to be a 6 so we went ahead in and were invited to sit with some nice folks.  The meal was catered and we had a choice of chicken or beef with sides of scalloped potatoes, baby carrots, cole slaw and 2 kinds of cake for dessert.  We provided our own beverages and table service.  The food was good and there was plenty to go around.

After dinner there were drawings for 2 big baskets of goodies that we bought tickets for, however, as is normal we did not win.  Then we did not win the table decoration or any of the door prizes. Still it was a nice evening with nice folks.

They were playing card games after or watching the Boise – Portland State game so we came back to the RV and filled the DEF tank and Bill put away our water hose.  I packed up some things inside so we hope to make a quick getaway in the morning.  We have about 325 miles tomorrow so want to get a decent start.  Only one city to go through and that is Twin Falls which should not be bad.

Time to put Dell away after posting this and reading for a while!

Second day in Twin Falls

September 13 – Today we left right after breakfast to go back to Twin Falls. The only games today were card games and we don’t play cards.  They don’t do a lot of outdoor games like we’re used to. 

First stop on the agenda was Bill wanted a hair cut and had checked where some places were.  He ended up at a walk in place like Fantastic Sam’s and boy, did he get his money’s worth.  Plus she put some sticky goop on it that was still sticky at dinner time.

Panorama of the Shoshone Falls

Then we drove out to Shoshone Falls.  It’s in the gorge at the other end from yesterday.  We didn’t have to pay, I think because we are seniors!  Sometimes it does pay to get old! 

The falls were as breathtaking as when we saw them before.  There are actually 4 different falls, one is the “main deal” and the others are the back up!  It’s

Proof we were there

tough to get them all in one photo.  We just watched for a long time.  There also 4 dams so these babies generate a lot of

power.  We were told that in the spring it looks nothing like it did today and I can’t imagine it being any more beautiful. 

Closer up view

I picked lunch today and I wanted Chick-fil-a!  Yum!  Then we went to a used bookstore that was awesome and we traded in about 10

books we were done with.  Our other stops were O’Reilly Auto
Parts, Winco, car wash and once we got on the road back we stopped at Wal-mart so Bill could pick up his script and some corn for an upcoming dinner.

We got home in time to chill a while before starting dinner.  I cooked the apples for dinner and they don’t cook like they do in cast iron!  They were still delicious and reminded me of all the times in my childhood that I helped make them with my mom.  Then you keep stirring and flipping them til they caramelize with the butter and sugar.  I forgot how long it takes but there were enough for 2 meals so it was well worth it.  The leftover pot roast was just as tasty as the day I cooked it so were we good to go!

Trip to Twin Falls

September 12 - We had a great day in Twin Falls today!  We had planned to get back for the 7:00 drawing and entertainment.  We just didn’t quite make it back in time!  We didn’t leave until after lunch as we planned to have dinner out tonight.

First view into the gorge

Once we crossed the bridge we stopped at the Visitor Center and checked out the exhibits and bought a few post cards.  Then we went out to the bridge that is over a huge gorge.  Beneath it is the Snake River which is very wide at this point.  On one side of the bridge down in the gorge is a

Road going down into the gorge

beautiful golf course and a park.  We’d never been down there and it’s a narrow road along the city side and weaves down to the bottom.  On the other side of the bridge it’s all river that flows from the Shoshone Falls further east.

Two jumpers

They do a lot of Base Jumping from the bridge and we saw some guys with small backpacks headed to the walkway along the bridge so we scurried under the bridge to the other side where they jump from and glide down to a designated spot on the city side of the river.  We got to see

One of the two

3 jumpers, 2 went at the same time and I couldn’t get photos of but one as they don’t glide for very long.  The single one was an older heavy guy that we were surprised to see jump but he did great!

We found the road that zig zags down to the bottom and we saw the various water falls on that end and the beautiful

One of the waterfall
down in the gorge

golf course.  We also stopped at the park where they launch a lot of kayaks and small boats and were surprised to see 7 feral cats.  They all looked different and a couple were a bit tamer and didn’t run off right away.  There were

Golf course from the restaurant

also lots of apple trees and I could not reach them but there were plenty on the ground so I picked up about 18 that were good and planned to make some fried apples.

Our shopping stops for the day were Goodwill, Deseret Thrift Store, Michaels, Best Buy and vet (for Molly’s special food).  We got a few books mostly and I checked out a couple of cameras.  No big spending today!

When we got back in the truck at Best Buy, there was a dog that Bill thought was loose and then it suddenly jumped into the back of a truck in front of us but there was no one around.  Then this big farmer guy walked up and Bill had a LONG conversation with him about sheep farming.  That was one of his 35 sheep herding dogs!  It was a very interesting conversation and we learned a lot about sheep farming.

It was prettier before I started
in on it!

We had chosen to have dinner at Elevation 486.  Turned out to be in a rather “off the beaten path” location.  It overlooks the gorge but it was getting a bit chilly so we had a window seat inside.  I did go out and take some photos from the edge.  Dinner was fabulous!  Any time I get to eat

Perrrine Bridge from restaurant

in a nice upscale place I have a hard time deciding as it all sounds so good!  I opted for glazed grilled quail with toasted coconut jasmine rice and a salad.  Bill had filet mignon.  The rolls were good but the huckleberry butter that was served with them was the best!  I could have eaten it with a spoon!  We had a super waitress who was from Maryland!

We were too late getting back to bother with the entertainment so we just came home and watched some TV and read!  Nice ending to a great day!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!!!

September 11 – Things did not go as we expected today!  The RV guy called about 8:30 and said his guy Richard was heading our way.  We finished up breakfast and got dressed and Bill was outside doing something in the compartments when he arrived.

Richard was very nice and reset the control module and was on the phone with Lippert (motor and slide mechanism company) 3 times and the decision is the back slide track is jumping teeth as it also makes a grinding noise.  That means a trip to a repair facility where they will jack up the slide and remove and replace the tracks.  It can’t be done on site and no one is going to do it on short notice.  So Richard got the slide in and it will go in and out, and it’s drivable up to 60 – 65.  He said we can use it as it’s in sync to come in and out but Bill is worried it will get stuck out again when we’re in the middle of no where.  So we’re leaving it in as far as it will go.  We can still get into our drawers for stuff but it’s cramped with the littler box and hamper.  As soon as I finish mapping our trip home we will call for an appointment!  So $370 later, we are very sad!!!

Well, nothing we can do about it, so hopefully we can get it in to be repaired as soon as we get home!

Time to head out for an adventure! 

Bill's new buddy!

About 15 miles away is the town of Gooding.  They have a cheese factory, Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese, where we were headed to and missed the road and pulled over to check Google Maps.  Then a highway patrol pulled up behind us and walked up to Bill’s window.  He was VERY nice, he said he had been following us and saw the Florida tag and wondered if we needed assistance once we pulled over.  We told him what we were looking for and he took Bill’s phone and told us we had passed the road.  Bill told him we were looking for the cheese factory and he said, “oh where they have the squeaky cheese?”.  Yes, we were in search of fresh cheese curds!  He was super nice and I told him we’d think of him when we ate our curds!

He gave us permission to U-turn in the road and off we went.  We had no trouble finding the farm and we pulled in and an older lady came out and told us to pull in her driveway as milk trucks come and go and we didn’t want to be in their way.  They are in the process of expansion to increase their production.  We bought 5-6 kinds of cheese and then she took us out to see the new heifer calves that are not 3 months old yet.  They each have their own hut and Bill petted a couple and let them suck on his hand/finger like a bottle.  He thought they should be pets!

From there we drove back into Gooding to have lunch at Zeppe’s, which is known for their pizza.  Bill had his usual pepperoni and I had the sandwich special, pastrami with provolone, toasted.  It was very good but a bit too toasted.  Bill said the pizza was as good as Wild West in West Yellowstone and Rock City, in Almo, ID.  He had half left to have for lunch tomorrow!

As we headed back to Jerome, we stopped at thrift store in Gooding and picked up a few books and I got a southwestern patterned jacket. Once we got back to Jerome we stopped at the Wal-mart for a few things and drove around to see the town.  Their schools are beautiful!  We checked at the Jerome Cheese Factory about a tour but they have to schedule 3-4 days ahead so that won’t be happening.  It’s a monster facility.   

Once we unloaded our finds for the day, I got on the computer and Bill got into his books!  Once dinner time rolled around I cooked hot links, corn on the cob and put together a kale and cranberry salad.  Good meal!  There are still cookies, so that was dessert!

I posted yesterday’s blog and then started working on the rest of our trip home.  Will call a couple of campgrounds tomorrow to finalize reservations and then will know when we will get home and can make an appointment for this crazy slide!!