Mon, Oct 15th - Home at Last

We drove from Crossville, TN, about 90 miles west of Knoxville, to Stafford, VA today and got home about 6:30 p.m. We are glad to be home--at least for a little while. We head to FL the middle of Dec!

I would have loved to have had time to add more pictures and information about all of the things that we have seen and done, BUT I've just run out of time! So until the next trip--so long and hope you have enjoyed our "Westward Ho" trip as much as we have!

Sun, Oct 14th - Bean Pot Campground, Crossville, TN

We checked into the campground early today--around 11:30 and then headed out to see what Crossville, TN was like. We had been looking into "The Gardens" community there. See http://www.gardensrvvillage.com/ . It's a unique retirement community with duplexes that have RV garages attached to the houses. Wish they had a community like it in Virginia!

This is just the right side of the duplex.

Here's another one that was for sale. The size is deceiving because the house is so deep vice being long. This one had a walkout room in the basement and had about 2200 square feet of space.

http://www.beanpotcampground.net/ Bean Pot Campground

Sat, Oct 13th - Sam's Club Parking Lot, Jackson, TN

Tonight we camped in Jackson, TN-near Nashville. We had dinner across the parking lot from our "camp site" at the Lone Star Steakhouse! Yum. Oh, of course we did a little shopping at the nearby Wal-Mart too. And again, we had free Wi-Fi thanks to the Day's Inn near by! There were about 5 other motorhomes camped with us.

Fri, Oct 12th - East to Arkadelphia, AR

We spent the night in the Arkadelphia Campground & RV Park just off I30 in Arkadelphia.

http://www.arkadelphiacampground.com/

Thur, Oct 11th - Vernon, TX

Today we drove from Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX on I40. Then we headed southeast some on Rt 287 to Vernon, TX where we spent the night in yet another Wal-Mart! How lucky we were to be parked in the lot next to where a campground was. We had free Wi-Fi from the campground!

Flat, tree less TX. Can't you just see how you could see a tornado coming for miles!

There was a train track all along this route, mostly filled with coal.

And did you know that they grow cotton in TX? I didn't. I saw a sign in Memphis, TX that said that they are the cotton capital of the panhandle of TX.

Wed, Oct 10th - Hugs and Kisses and Everyone Heads for Home

The Discovery Rally is officially OVER! We had our last coffee together this morning and then we packed up and started our trek back to VA! We drove south from Moab, over into the southwest corner of Colorado and then down into New Mexico. We drove thru the UTE and the Navajo Reservations. We got as far as Albuquerque, NM today. We camped out at the Wal-Mart on the east side of town. We had lots of company in the parking lot and the Wagners were there too! We had dinner together at the Boston Market and after did a little shopping at Wal-Mart! We got a little turned around in the city of Albuquerque and found where the Balloon Festival is held! Now we'll know where to go when we come back for that event.

Tue, Oct 9th - Jeeping the Shafer Trail up to Dead Horse Park

Shafer Trail

Another day of jeeping up another trail. We just love it and are so glad that the Mertz' have included us in all the fun!

These petroglyphs were different than we had seen before. They kind of look like centipedes!

Remember the movie "Thelma and Louise"? Well it wasn't Arizona where they drove off the cliff. It was here in Moab and they catapulted the "stripped down to nothing car: over this cliff and into the Colorado River.

Dead Horse Point--This made a perfect, natural corral for horses as there is a narrow piece of land behind it (that you can't see in this picture) that they could gate off to keep the horses out on the point.

Here's a picture of the "Z" trail that we climbed up in the Mertz' jeep. Boy it was steep!

Here we are almost to the top of the Shafer trail having lunch with a view that looks down on the trail that we just drove up--see that light colored line almost in the middle of the picture--that was the easy part of the trail.

This is the view looking down from Dead Horse Point. Can you make out the white rock formation that is in the shape of a horse? It's legs are pointing toward the bottom right corner of the picture. The river is the Colorado River.

Pucker Pass--yes, we had to drive under this rock to get down the trail!

And Betty Mertz made it thru just fine alone with the rest of the group.

Dinner at the Moab Brewery

Linda & Bill Johnson

Neil & Marlene Elkins, Rally Masters

LaVerne & Bob Foerster

John & Judy Wittenberg

Sue & Bobbie Bryan

Junior & Betty Mertz checking out some pictures Junior took.

Lollie & Denny Kendrick

Violet & Bob Radd

Karen and John Didich

Gayelene & Jack Muckenthaler

Jim & Margie Madole

Some how we missed getting a picture of the Wagners, but they are in alot of our other photos as we did alot of sightseeing with them!

Tomorrow Oct 10th, we say goodbye to all of our friends, old and new and head for a Wal Mart in New Mexico! We will be heading back east via route 40 and then up I81 in VA.

Mon, Oct 8th - Arches National Park and Colorado Jetboat Tour

Morning, Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch, 45 ft high and 33 ft wide

Balanced Rock

Afternoon, Canyonlands by Day Boat Tour

Here's the jet boat we took down the Colorado River. It was a 4-hr trip down and back. Where are we? Taking a potty break part way down the river in an outhouse!

And here's our guide, Rory.

Here's the group (minus Neil and Bob Foerster) up the trail where we saw some petrified wood.

Here's one of the pieces of petrified wood that we saw imbedded in some of the rock.

One of the views going down the Colorado River.

We saw several rock climbers today.

Recognize this tall rock? Check out the commercial where a man walks out of his front door and parasails down to his car to go to work. Now do you remember what he drives to work! I don't either. They used a helicopter to get the fake house and picketed fence up to the top. Tourism is Moab's No. income maker, but films and ads are No. 2!

Sun, Oct 7th - Jeeping in Moab, UT

This morning the group got together for breakfast in a bag. This is where you put your name on a freezer bag, fill it with all kinds of things like onions, peppers, cheese, green chilies and then you had 2 eggs. Close it up getting all of the air out and then squishing the bag to mix it all together. Then it is boiled in a pot for about 12 minutes! Waa laa, an omelet with no messy pans.

About 12 of us (Linda & Bill Johnson, Neil Elkins & Bob Foerster, John & Judy Wittenberg, Bill & Judy Wagner, Junior Betty Mertz and Chuck and I) got lunches packed and headed out for a day on a 4-wheel drive dirt road up in the mountains. What fun we had!

Okay, who do we look at with so many of the guys taking pictures!

Okay, now which jeep trail do I take--the high road, the low road or the middle one!!

Here's our view from Hurrah Pass, just under 5,000 feet altitude. We met several men on mountain bikes here and they took some pictures of the group on a couple camera--I haven't gotten a copy of those pictures yet.

We also met several folks on ATVs and some on dirt bikes:

Kelly and Terry, just your kind of terrain!

Sean, you would have fun here!

On our way back to the campground from our day of 4-wheeling, we saw this older, jacked up GMC Suburban on it's side on one of the 4-1/2 rated trails (5 being the toughest). We couldn't believe that people drove up there, especially in a top heavy vehicle. Down on the other side of the paved road where this vehicle would have landed if he had come over the side, there was a memorial for someone who died there!

This evening Neil and Marlene prepared a Fish Boil for dinner.

Sat, Oct 6th - Monument Valley to Moab, UT & Canyonlands by Night Tour

We traveled from Monument Valley to Moab, UT today. We left all that red blowing sand behind--except for what got on our vehicles and coaches! It was a gray, overcast day and we even ran into a little rain and snow.

This picture is of the La Sal mountain range, and Yes, that is snow on the top of the mountain on the left.

This is an interesting business as it was built in a "Hole in the Wall!"

But as we got closer to Moab, the sun came out and warmed things up some for our arrival in the Riverside Oasis campground. We are camped next to the Colorado River.

At about 5:45 we had a wonderful BBQ dinner with all the fixings and then went on a tour boat up the Colorado River for a Canyon Lands Night Sound & Light Show after dark. We weren't allowed to take any pictures as flash pictures would have spoiled the light show! But you can go to the website below to see what it was all about. I don't think I've ever seen so many stars and the Milky Way was so bright. I even saw one shooting star!


http://www.canyonlandsbynight.com/ Canyon Lands Night Sound & Light Show
http://www.riversideoasis.com/ Riverside Oasis Campground
http://www.moab-utah.com/photo/canyonlands/ Pictures

Fri, Oct 5th - Goosenecks State Reserve & Valley of the Gods

The Mertz, Tolsons, Wittenbergs and Wagners headed out today to Goosenecks State Reserve and then to Valley of the Gods hoping that it wouldn't be windy and blowing red sand around there as it was in the campground. To get there, we drove back out thru Monument Valley and Mexican Hat where we got the picture below.

Mexican Hat stone in the town of Medicine Hat.

Here's a picture of Goosenecks State Reserve looking down at the San Juan River

"Great Goosenecks of the San Juan River—Geologists consider this part of the river to be one of the finest examples of 'entrenched Meanders' anywhere in the world. The meandering pattern originated several million years ago when the river was flowing on a relatively flat plain, much as the present day Mississippi River. The San Juan became entrenched when the entire Colorado Plateau was slowly uplifted. Cutting downward, the river followed its initial pattern and thus created the canyon you now view. The process continues to this day as the San Juan River cuts ever deeper into prehistoric geological formations."

Below are some of the formations that we saw at Valley of the Gods. We couldn't figure out how some of the stone where still on top and hadn't fallen down. Maybe God was holding them there!

Beautiful blue sky again!

Valle's Pizza and Beer--where we met up with Bob and LaVerne Foerster and Neil and Marlene Elkins and we all sat outside and had our lunch of pizza and frozen lemonade. Off the porch, we saw this lizard scurrying around.

In the afternoon, the girls (Judy Wittenberg, Judy Wagner, Betty Mertz and I) went jewelry shopping "again" down at the Navajo Market--just a row of small buildings where the Native Americans sold their jewelry or pottery that they make. We bought several pieces of jewelry and enjoyed dickering for them. When I got back from shopping with the ladies, Chuck and I went up to the Goulding Trading Post where he bought a beautiful silver watch with turquoise stones on it very similar to the one below.

We had planned to have a chili supper, as several of the ladies had made some in their crock pots, BUT the wind and blowing red dirt and no indoor facility made us decide to postpone it until we get to Moab.