5/23/15 more photos from Ogden

trying to figure out how to add photos better, so trying to add more from yesterday. Now I have added too many, but don't know how to remove them!!

 green river golf course

 green river boat ramp

A/OK campground (KOA backwards)

view from John Wesley Powell museum -- the "Book Mountains"

 John Wesley Paul museum

 No Name was the boat that sunk.

they had some good nautilus fossils-- this is probably 2 feet long

Old historic 25th st in Ogden

 inside the old Union Railroad station

 a quilt exhibit there

 a train exhibit nearby

interesting to see this car

 flower garden outside the station

Old Egyptian theater that we walked past on our way to 25th St

 Wasatch View Estates RV park-- real does have a nice view!

Alaska trip Saturday 5/23/15 North Ogden UT

SATURDAY 5/23/15 NORTH OGDEN UTAH

We got up early to walk this morning since the wind and rain had stopped.  We walked past a little camper that must have come last night.  The camping “tent” like structure was on top of the van, and there was a ladder for them to climb in to the roof!  We then walked over to Green River State Park — the campground was completely full— there actually were some spots with water and electric.  The golf course was very pretty and green— no one golfing at 6:30 am.  The only other area of the state park is a boat ramp — a sign said that people can boat 200 miles on the Green River.  The water is a brownish green color, and there are lots of trees, bushes, and grass growing around it.  

We ate and cleaned up (we had the best water pressure in the shower that we have ever, ever had in an RV park!), then went to the John Wesley Powell Museum — it was supposed to be open at 8 am according to the flyer I picked up, but the door said 9 am.  We drove around town for awhile, searching for the Rock Shop Criss told me to look for, but it was not to be found.  We walked around the outside of the museum for awhile— they had some informative boards, and there was a good view of the “Book Rocks” across the river — they looked sort of like open books.  The museum was pretty nice— we always enjoy when they have a film, and they did have a 20 minute historical re-enactment of the Powell’s expedition.  Powell was an interesting man — very educated— a geology professor at Illinois Wesleyan University.  He was wounded in the Civil War— shot in the arm, and had a below elbow amputation.  Yet he wanted to explore the Green River, starting in Wyoming with 4 boats that he had shipped in from Chicago  (3 made of strong oak, and 1 made of light pine) in 1869— the railroad had just made it to Utah.  He hired strong men to come with him.  One boat was lost in the rapids, but the men were saved.  Later 3 men wanted to quit the expedition — they left to hike out from the river, and are thought to have been killed by Indians.  Powell and his remaining men made it thru the Grand Canyon, proving that the Green River connected to the Colorado River.  The museum had some wooden sculptures portraying the explorers.  It is hard to imagine those explorers in wooden boats, braving the rapids.  

It started sprinkling again as we got ready to take off around 10AM.  We had decided to head for Ogden today — we thought about boon docking in a Walmart parking lot there, but last night, I was checking stuff on the internet and found a website for Passport America.  For $44 a year, you can get half price on selected campgrounds.  We found one in Ogden called Wasatch View Estates for the half price rate of $15, so decided to go for it.  I called the guy at the park before we left— he said they had had so much rain that he just had one site left that would fit our rig, so we reserved it.  The highway from Green River to Salt Lake City starts as desolation — Larry saw a sign that said missiles from WSMR are shot to this area!  Then we had several mountain passes to go up and down.  It poured quite a bit of the trip — got all the bugs washed off the RV, but our tow car CRV looks pretty muddified.  We got to the RV park around 3:30pm and got into a nice big spot easily.  The proprietor, Len, was nice— we told him that we had just joined Passport America on line last night, and he just said “I believe you”— didn’t even take our number!  He also said he had turned down 3 other campers who called for reservations, since we had reserved our spot.  We asked about Methodist churches for tomorrow— he said there is actually a church service in the park at 10 AM.  He snickered that the Methodist church nearby was “rainbow” , then said there was another nearby church that caters to “homosexual weddings”(!!)  Anyhow, we plan to go to the Methodist church, since they have a 9 AM service.  After he helped us park, he even gave us a “God bless you”!!  When we walked thru the park later, we could see a lot of deep muddy ruts in some of the other sites.  

I checked the Trip Advisor site on the internet that I use a lot when we travel.  One of the recommendations was the “Old 25th Street Historical Area” of Ogden.  So we drove over there — Larry saw a parking spot about 4 blocks before, so decided to grab it, tho as we walked the 1/2 mile, there were actually plenty of spots.  There were a lot of art galleries, bars, eateries, and some shops -- tho they all closed at 5 pm — several had signs that they were closed for the Memorial Day Weekend — surprised me.  We walked to the historic Union Train Station  — this is near where the Golden Spike was put in, connecting the railroad tracks from the east and the west.  Apparently, 25th St was full of bars and brothels in the late 1800’s.  We walked to the Union Station — there was a museum there, but it was about to close, so we just looked around.  There was another area of old railroad cars and engines.  One car had carried the Olympic Torch Relay for the SLC Olympics in 2002.  We stopped at a bread store on the way back to the car.  I asked for some nice crusty bread that we could dip since I was cooking tortellini tonight.  We got some delicious parmesan bread, then the lady asked if we liked rye bread— we said yes, and she said she would give us a loaf for free since they also were closing for the holiday weekend!  

Back at the RV I just kept messing around till Larry said that it was 7:30 and when was I going to make supper?!  This far north, it is so light out, that it does not seem like suppertime.  Right now it is 8:10 pm and the sun is still pretty high up in the sky.  I suspect our biologic time clocks are going to get really messed up as we go farther north!  Tomorrow, we plan to drive to Nampa ID — 314 miles.

alaska trip Friday 5/22/15 Green River UT

FRIDAY MAY 22 GREEN RIVER UTAH  drove 424 miles today

Thank goodness, the wind stopped blowing by this morning.  It was still cloudy and cool, but patches of blue sky.  When Larry was disconnecting, he found that he had not put the water regulator gizmo on tight enough, so we were seriously leaking— didn’t notice the wet ground yesterday since it was raining in ABQ.  Hope the nice asphalt pad does not have sink problems because of us!  We left about 7:15 and decided to just take Tramway north to avoid the expressways downtown— it was a perfect way to go — just caught a few red lights.  It was really nice travel weather as we drove north on 25, then on to Bloomfield (stopped for gas — diesel was $2.74 — much higher in Utah we are seeing), Farmington, Shiprock, and then Cortez CO.  Everything is very pretty and green— it was interesting to see water running in all the “dry washes” along the road.  There are a lot of pretty rock formations along the way, tho it seems like a wilderness with no signs of civilization— except signs on the road.

Before we got to Moab, I got Larry to pull off at Wilson Arch which is right off the highway.  The sign said it was named after Joe Wilson, a local pioneer.  The rock is “entrada sandstone”.  Cracks in rock occurred over zillions of years from ice that formed and, with wind and water, caused collapses and arch formation.  We climbed a little ways up, but it was cold(!) and windy(!) there.  I met a lady near the base of it that had just finished a 2 days river raft trip — she said it was beautiful, but that they froze!  We drove thru Moab, and as usual— lots and lots of people walking and shopping and eating.  We had planned to try boondocking (dry camping) at a Pilot truck stop in Green River— an hour beyond Moab.   It was so chilly, that Larry chickened out and decided I should find an RV park.  I looked on-line with my phone when i had a signal.  Last year we stayed at the KOA in town — it was just dirt and rocks with no grass for $40+, so I thought I would check RVReviews.com.  They described the A/OK RV park — user reviews from 2013 said it was not fancy at all, but cheap and that the owners were very nice and helpful.  So I called to check if they had pull-thru sites and they did.  I used the GPS — this is one of those times that it took us to the middle of nowhere.  So we called and got directions.  Larry made a big turn and went over a bump, and our stupid refrigerator door flew open (I forgot to bungee it), so lots of stuff fell on the floor, mostly from the freezer since I have those little bars on the shelves of the frig.  I shoved everything back in the freezer (I was totally aggravated with myself!) and we found the RV park.  It is right across from Green River State Park (looks like a nice state park— no hookups, but it lots of trees and it has a golf course!).  

The lady at the RV park, Ruth, was very nice.  She just took over the park in April.  It had been a KOA years ago, then went to pot and lost the KOA title.  Some other people ran it for a few years, then let it go to pot even more.  They let a man stay there for free for just mowing the grass, and if anyone showed up, he just charged them.  Ruth and her brother Jay (are Green River locals) are really trying to clean it up.  It is a large grassy area with mature trees, and i think it has a lot of potential.  Ruth used a golf cart to guide us to our big pull thru spot (for $20) in the rain, then whipped back to the office to get us the WiFi password — and the WiFi works really well.  There are only about 6 vehicles in the park— one is the weird guy who stays free and does maintenance.  It is a LOT nicer than the KOA we stayed in here last year.  If I had not seen the RVReviews.com, I would not have even found this place— it is not in the Trailer Life book.  I picked up a lot of tourist info at the office, and there is a lot of stuff I would like to do in this area — we will have to come back.  The John Wesley Powell museum opens at 8 AM tomorrow, so I think we’ll go there before taking off to Ogden- -we are only going to drive about 220 miles tomorrow.

alaska trip thursday 5/21/15 ABQ

THURSDAY MAY 21 ABQ

It is SO cold in ABQ — I just looked up that the temp here is 51 —and it is 80 degrees in Seattle right now!!  Tomorrow we head north — will head for Green River, just past Moab UT.  This is a pretty boring journal for today— we got up and went out for breakfast at Wecks— our favorite breakfast restaurant in ABQ (see the only photos I took— the sun was actually shining in Larry’s face— that’s the only time we saw the sun today.)  We had delicious omelets with sausage and green chile sauce — wish we had a Wecks in Alamogordo.  We read in the ABQ journal recently that they opened one in Farmington.  

Our next “exciting” activity was to go to Big 5 and do some shoe shopping.  I felt like I needed a 2nd pair of hiking shoes, preferable waterproof — so we both ended up buying a bunch of shoes that were on sale.  We met up at Relish (a sandwich shop) with Brian, Leslie, and Josh — just had salad.  We ran over to REI with them— Brian was getting stuff he needed for the Iron Horse bike race that he will be doing Saturday from Durango to Silverton CO — he may end up snow biking!  We just hung out with them all afternoon — I “got” to play Chutes and Ladders, Triominos, Hiss, and Yahtzee with Josh.  After dinner we headed back to the RV — the wind is still blowing, it has been raining, and we are running both the heat and our space heater!   Tomorrow, we will try for an early start — it is 424 miles to Green River, so it will be a pretty long driving day.

Alaska trip 2015

Journal Wednesday May 20 ABQ

We left Alamogordo just before 10 am to drive to ABQ to visit our son before heading way up North.  We have been packing the RV for the past 4 days.  I think we have brought just about everything in the whole wide world.  I’m sure over the next few days, we will discover what we forgot.  We have talked to several people who have RV’d to Alaska — sounds like we are in for quite the adventure.  We are heading to Seattle first and have reservations in an RV park in Issaquah for 1 wk— may even stay longer. 

Before we even got out of Alamogordo, the automatic door lock would not work, and the satellite radio died(!).  The radio came back to life between Tularosa and Carrizozo, so we did not have just static to listen to the rest of the trip.  It was a nice day to travel— coolish and not much wind.  When we got to the KOA in ABQ, I played around with the door lock, and it also seemed to have healed itself!  We got hooked up in a “prime spot” — asphalt paved, not far from the clubhouse.  We are usually parked where we can hear the I-40 traffic noise all night, so this was nice.  We have amassed a certain number of points in our KOA membership, so we got this prime spot for $19 a night— this is awesome for a KOA since they are pretty proud of themselves usually!  

We made a Costco run, mainly for fruits and vegetables, then headed to Brian’s house.  Brian is on call today (our son is an anesthesiologist at UNM), so we hung out with Leslie and 5 yr old Josh.  Larry napped while Leslie, Josh, and I took a long walk to a big arroyo that has water pooled at the bottom (lots of rain this spring), and he caught tadpoles with a red plastic cup.  He practices “catch and release”, so we did not bring any home with us.  We headed to Macaroni Grill for supper, then back to the RV park.  It got VERY windy tonight, so we are shaking around in the RV a bit.  We took our usual walk around the RV park when we got back.  The park is really pretty full— mostly out of town RV’s— very few from NM.  We had to wear windbreaker jackets, and it was rather chilly!  Does not feel like May at all. Tomorrow, we’ll spend some time with Brian after he sleeps off his call, then head North on Friday.