The Ray Adventures: May 2018

We've had a delightful trip from Texas to Oregon, we met our two great grand daughters, visited with Gary's brother John in Buffalo Gap, Tx., and have seen some amazing scenery. We're settled into the Salem Elks Club RV park, the sites are close together but we've got a great backyard, it borders Gateway Park, all we have to do is cross over a small bridge and we're there among the geese (probably 50 babies) disc golf players and fishermen.

Friday, April 13, it's still quite windy in Albuquerque, Gary went to the Museum of Nuclear Science, it has replicas of the first two atomic bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, a great place for school kids with lots of hands on exhibits. I worked on my blog while nestling in away from the wind.

Saturday April 14, We left about 9:30 for our 192 mile drive to Farmington, N.M., the landscape changed dramatically to some unusual rock formations. Our plans were to stay at the WalMart parking lot, well, it was one of the smallest parking lots we've ever seen for a WM and it was packed. Plan B. We found a RV park that had a place for us, not a bad park either. As we approached our turn we passed an Adult Video store but just before it was a billboard sign saying "Jesus is Watching", don't know if it was intentionally placed there or not. Farmington has a population of over 45,000, elevation 5,292, much higher than Rockport by 5,286 to be exact. One of the worlds largest coal mining operations, the Navajo Mine is just west of town, and south of town is an area called Bisti-/De NaZin Wilderness, area of weirdly eroded hodoo's and sandstone/slate mesas. We had dinner at 3 Rivers /Eatery and Pub, one of four business on the same block owned by the same people. The restaurant was decorated eclectically, they could re-open as an antique store. Good food too.

Sunday, April 15, We left Bluffview RV park at 9, we had to fuel up before leaving town, the price of diesel is rising as we head north and west, $2.93. Our first stop, 4 Corners Monument, about an hour out of Farmington and really in the middle of nowhere. Last summer we hiked up to the point where 3 states meet at one point, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia in Cumberland Gap so of course we had to go one better. Gary's dad visited here many years ago so he wanted to see it too. All around the monument were Indian vendors selling beautiful jewelry and artwork.   We pulled into Bluff, Utah about 12:30, a short drive of 100 miles. After a delicious lunch (and ridiculously expensive) we visited Bluff Fort, the original fort has been re-built, its the site where the Mormons settled after a harrowing trip through Hole in The Wall. (Google Hole in The Wall, it's quite a story) Individual family cabins were rebuilt and many of the furnishings were donated from their ancestors.

Monday, April 16, we drove in a circle today to Natural Bridges National Monument, OH MY!! all three bridges can be seen from the scenic 9 mile loop, many trails heads leading down for close up views. We chose the short flat view of Horse Collar Ruin, near the bottom you can see a couple of native "buildings", especially if you remembered to take your binoculars with. The first bridge, Sipapu, and second Kachina Bridge were easily seen from the road. The third bridge, Owachomo was camouflaged, I didn't see it at first. We took the180 ft change in elevation (HA!)walk to under the bridge, so many views so little time. Our drive back to Bluff was scary, the last 3 miles were 10% grade down the gravel Moki Dugway, whoever thought to put a road down the face of a canyon was ?? brilliant or crazy I'm not sure. The winds blowing dust obscured the view, we did glimpse the Valley of the Gods, a step sister to Monument Valley.

Tuesday, April 17, we were pleased most of the haziness was gone for our drive through the Valley of the Gods, previously part of the Bears Ears National Monument but Trump decided to tamper with the acreage (oh never mind!!) A miniature Monument Valley, the 17 mile gravel road winds through the valley of mesas and sandstone formations. As we discovered later - -the roads are MUCH better than Monument Valley, and virtually deserted we saw a few boondock campers and very few cars.

Wednesday, April 18, a beautiful day for our trip to Monument Valley, or as the Navajo call it "Tse' Bii'Nazisqaii. John Wayne called it Gods Treasure. The valley floor elevation is 5564' extending from Arizona to Utah. The height of the monuments range from, 100' to 500'. Situated on Navajo lands, the drive through the monuments is 15 miles, I don't think the Navajo people spend any money on road improvements, very dusty and rough, I'd hate to be driving a low sedan through some of the areas. Cross off another thing off m bucket list.   Remember that scene from Forest Gump when he's on the highway and decides to stop running ?(with all the monument in the background)I took a picture of Gary running minus the long beard. The manager of our RV park in Bluff told us about a scenic view point, Muley Point, where you can see all of Monument Valley. The bad news is we had to drive back up Moki Dugway. Back up the road we went, it's not as frightening driving up. At the top you make a left turn, drive several miles to the point. It was worth the "scary"drive, we could see all of Monument Valley, part of Valley of the Gods and other sandstone monoliths dotted throughout the valley. We even picked up a geo cache up there.

Thursday, April 19, time to hit the road again, we need to get to the Salt Lake City area by the 20th. After we filled up with propane at the campground we headed to Moab for lunch. Gary really had the parking Gods with him, he found a spot to park the coach and Jeep right across the street from Moab Brewery. Delicious lunch. We spent the night at Price, Ut., Walmart, a 215 mile drive, arriving about 3.

Friday, April 20, Off to Mt. Shadows RV park in Draper, Ut, a suburb of SLC. We left about 9, to head through the canyon pass. Our challenges continue, close to the summit a light snow had fallen causing the roads to be wet. Gary turned on the wipers, well one of them went the wrong direction and flew off to who knows where. Thank you Glass Doctor San Antonio, they had to disconnect them when installing the glass. Fortunately Gary's wiper worked. As we pulled into the street the RV park was located, a Camping World was right next door, fixed the wipers in about 30 minutes and we were off to the park. We were all settled by noon, after lunch we drove to Grandson Tyler's home to meet our newest G Granddaughter Aspyn Josephine. Of course you know she's the most beautiful baby ever and such a good baby girl too! She joins big brother Anthony7, and Sis Briella, 4. We got a big surprise, Tyler's brother Tim arrived from Oklahoma the day before for a little family reunion.

Saturday, April 21, Son Stacy and daughter-in-law flew in from Spokane today especially to have a 4 generation picture taken. Anthony had a 10 am soccer game, we were bad g grandparents, we didn't go, the temperature was in the low 40's brrrrr. About 4 we went to Tyler's for a bbq. He shares a home with Ashley's mom Linda that has a beautiful view of the Wasatch Mountains.

Sunday, April 22nd, we drove up to American Fork Canyon, for a hike and some geo cacheing. Baby Aspyn slept through the whole walk. A beautiful area just a few miles from the SLC valley, I think most of locals took the day off to enjoy the beautiful spring day, parking spots were at a premium. All of us had dinner at the Cadillac Grille, a race car theme brew pub. Delish! Thank you Linda, Tyler and Ashley for hosting a lovely weekend.

Monday, April 23rd, we began our marathon back to Salem - we were in a hurry to make sure we got a spot at one of the Elks Club RV campgrounds. We stopped for fuel just short of the Idaho border, we paid $3.25 a gallon for diesel. We drove over 400 miles to Fruitland, Id, 3 miles from the Oregon border. We spent the night at the Neat Retreat, a mobile home park with some RV spots, at least they didn't advertise it as a "resort".

Tuesday, April 24th, we left about 8:30 MDT, stopped for diesel in Hermiston paying $3.33, grabbed a quick lunch at the Rest Area then drove straight to Salem, missing Portland's rush hour, arriving at the Salem Elks at 3:40 PDT 425 miles. Daughter Chris was hosting a BBQ for Leah and family who happened to be in town so we invited ourselves. It was great to see them.

Sunday April 29th, Grandson Nick and his wife Sam brought over Miss Lyla Rae for us to meet, she's almost 18 months old. And of course she is the most beautiful baby girl you've ever seen with a wonderful personality. We wish we would have been around to watch her grow into such a sweet little girl.

Tuesday May 1st, Grandma Talena came over from Bend to see Lyla and us too. I cannot believe our kids are becoming grandparents.

That's it for now, I probably won't put out another blog until we're on our trip to Alaska. We leave from Dawson Creek, BC on June 23rd for our 48 day caravan tour. Enjoy the pic's.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam