A very full day of travel for me today. Woke up to cloudy and rainy skies in Boise, so there wasn't much incentive to actually get moving this morning. However, it was time to get on the road again, so I was up and about by 7:30. Took enough time to take a good shower and wash the dishes, as well as get some breakfast of course. It still took some time to get all packed up and ready to go though, so it was near 10:00 when I finally got back on the highway.
   The cloudy day actually made it nice to drive under and it even broke into some sunny portions by midday. Out through the great potato fields of western Idaho and eastern Oregon, by the time I hit the Blue Mountains near La Grange Oregon the sun was shining through the broken clouds and turned the light into this beautiful warm yellow. In the distance I could see rain and snow storms up on the peaks of the surrounding mountains. The dark blue and greys contrasted wonderfully with the sunny white clouds. I'm not sure why the lighting at this time of year is so different, it may be because the rays have a longer way to pass through the earths atmosphere or some such phenomenon, but I don't really care, I just like it no matter what the reason.
    There were only a couple of hours spent in Oregon before the highway turned north and took me into Washington state. It was fun to cross the mighty Columbia River again at the town of Umatilla and head north towards Yakima. Along the way were tens of thousands of acres of vineyards and apple orchards along the hillsides and in the valleys. Their dark green color made for a real contrast against the brown backdrop of the surrounding hills.  
   Right now I'm sitting in a Taco Bell somewhere around Pasco. The truck and trailer are parked right next door in a small little rest area at the edge of town. I'm pretty sure I'm home for the rest of the night. I'll sleep here for a few hours and then be on my way in the early morning. Still a little less than 300 miles left to go till Seattle. I'm not sure yet if it will be one more or two more days to get in to the RV park I plan to land in. Will figure it all out sometime tomorrow. Right now though it's time to go get some rest.


brk*

   It rained, off and on, for most of last night and then on into the morning. It sounds good here in the trailer. Much like listening to the rain while safely tucked into a tent when I was much smaller. It has been cloudy and grey all day, with short bursts of rain at times. It has made it difficult to plan any outdoor activities of any length. It's okay though.... I was feeling a need for some alone time for a change. The last couple of months have been a lot of fun hanging out with my friends and family, but it hasn't been conducive for just quiet contemplation. So today I did some of that.
    There were a few errands that had to be done however. First on the list was to take the other 30 lb. propane tank over and get it filled. I ran it over to this local RV place just down the road a mile or so. The advertised propane for $0.99 per gal., so at 7.4 gallons it cost me all of $7.33 to fill it up. It's a far cry from the $23+ I paid the other day to fill the other one up. But it was needed at the time so no big deal.
    I also spent a couple hours tracking down the problem with my electrical lift at the front of the trailer. This is the thing that raises the trailer tongue up and down so you can hook and unhook it from the truck. It felt like an electrical short from the start so that is where I began looking for the problem. In the end it turned out to be a problem in one of the wires running from the battery to the motor. That wire has a fusible link, essentially just a fuse, on it and somehow some moisture managed to make it's way into the housing and rusted out some of the contacts.  I used an old used emery board to sand it all bright and smooth again and when it all went back together it worked just right.
   By that time it was already late and lunch was sounding pretty good. I had seen a biscuit recipe on facebook a couple weeks ago and decided to try it out since I had picked up all the ingredients the other day. There are actually only four items in the biscuits so it didn't seem like it could be to difficult. I mixed together the 'Bisquick', sour cream and 7-up that the recipe called for and then spread the melted butter on the bottom of the pan I used to bake them in. Couldn't quite knead it as well as I would of liked too, but it seemed like I had done enough so I just pressed the dough into the bottom of the pan and then popped it into a 450 degree oven for about 12 minutes. They came out just about perfect. I think further kneading might of made them rise a little more, but really they came out pretty fluffy, but still dense enough to put jam or honey on them without them crumbling away. I ate way to many of them.
    Once I finished up eating, it was time to get out and about. I ended up over at the movie theatre watching the movie 'The Box Trolls', so actually not outside that much. But it was raining again so what the heck. The movie was very fun if you are a fan of stop action Claymation style animation. A fun little script and good production values, I would put this movie up along side 'Chicken Run' as an equally good movie.
   Just hanging out at the trailer this evening. I finally got most of my loose stuff packed away where it all belongs. It is going to be a little tight in here for a couple of months as I have some of my tools stashed away in the bedroom. Better than the back seat of the truck at least.
   Will be heading off to Seattle in the morning. It has been wonderful being here in the area even if I didn't see my family as much as I should of.... Next time. Looking forward to being in the NW again after so many years. Lots of old places to see and reconnect with. Plus I just looked on line and found that there ought to be a local contra dance or two that I can go dance to while there. Right now though I better go get the dishes washed and then read a little bit in my book.


brk*

   Made it into Boise Idaho yesterday right around noon. I had only a 100 miles or so to go, so it was a pretty easy drive in the morning, and I wasn't in a big hurry to get anywhere anyway. I had called up a local RV park on the way in and found that they had a spot for me if I got there in time. The park is just north of the Boise airport and south of I-84, but even with that, it isn't very noisy right here.
   Got the trailer set up in no time at all. Did have to work a little on my water hook up, having to wrap some new Teflon tape on all the threads in order to get the leaks around the connections to stop. Once all set up, I turned the hot water heater on in preparation to taking a much needed and desired shower. It was very satisfying to hear the heater kick right on this time as it sometimes takes 2-3 tries to get it to start up. Unfortunately, my elation was short lived as I proceeded to run out of propane before even one tank full of water was sufficiently heated up for me to shower.
   I called my nephew up at that point and told him I would be a bit later than expected, as I didn't think anyone wanted to entertain me looking and smelling as I did. It was not too difficult to find some place to get my tanks filled up. One was just down the road from the RV park here, but when I checked in at that place their pump was on the fritz until at least Monday. So I went on down the road to a 'Flying J' that sold propane. Got one of my 30 lb. bottles filled there for just a bit more than $22. Will need to get the other one filled up on Monday so I'll be ready to go for the next several months.
   One interesting thing about my propane bottles. When I got ready to pull one of the bottles off it's cradle to go and fill it, I found a birds nest right at the base between both bottles. I at first thought it might be a mouse nest, but a closer look proved it to be a birds nest complete with 3 little speckled white eggs in it. I assume it was built sometime back in May while it was parked at Rima's place. I feel bad that I took off with out knowing about it. But I would imagine they parent birds were likely to have built another one after I left.
   Once the propane chore was done it was time to go and meet up with my nephew and his family. They live less than 5 miles away from where the trailer is parked so it was an easy drive over to their house. They live in a section of old town Boise that reminds me of the areas in Denver where I grew up. A nice big two story bungalow styled house, it is just big enough for Matt and Alyssa and their 4 young boys.
   Everyone in the family is doing well and the boys are all of an age where they just go non-stop right up to the point where they fall asleep. There were two new additions to the family since the last time I had seen everyone. About a year or so ago Alyssa and Matt went over to Uganda and adopted two of their young sons. Both boys are just a joy to see and be around, and the interaction between them and their other two brothers are wonderful to see. There is certainly a lot of laughter and joy amongst the four of them.
   We all packed ourselves into their SUV and drove out to a farmers field just north and west of town. The farmer had grown, and then harvested potatoes in that field this year, and after picking up all of the crop that he could with his mechanical means, he opened up the field for people to come out and glean all the ones the machines didn't get.
    Most all of the remaining spuds where pretty small, but aren't those the ones they charge extra for in the supermarket these days. Between all of us we likely picked up a 100 pounds or so. More than just being a way to gather some cheap food it was nice that the boys had a chance to see and understand where food actually comes from. Of course I'm not sure that really sunk in that well as they seemed to spend as much time throwing potatoes at each other as they did putting them into the buckets.
    We went over to friends of Matt and Alyssa after picking up all the potatoes that they wanted. Matt had spent some time as the medical person in a Native village in Alaska a few years back, and this couple had been there at the same time as part of the school system. Very nice people and they had a few of their other friends over at the same time. They had a pot luck barbeque for us all and we sat around and listened to stories from Alaska and other places they had been. All in all it was a very pleasant evening.
    I slept in late this morning, which seemed natural since it was raining pretty hard earlier on. It was nice to finally catch up on some of the sleep I had missed on my drive out here. Right now though I need to get out and about. There are things to see and do, just haven't figured out what yet.


brk*

   Had a pretty good nights sleep in the rest area last night. Often times it is interrupted by all the trucks with their generators running all night. But this particular rest area in western Wyoming had a separate area just for RV people pulling trailers. So it was reasonably quiet for my first night back in the trailer.
   Really a pretty easy day of driving also. Had breakfast in Rock Springs and then continued west past Green River and on towards Fort Bridger. Decided this time to actually get off the interstate and go see Fort Bridger since every time I've passed by it before I've always just gone on by with one excuse or another. So I took the time to drive the mile or so off the road and pull into the State Park there in town.
   I ended up spending several hours wandering around the grounds there. It was interesting to learn that while the area started out as a fur trading post started by the mountain men Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez, it later went on to become the 2nd most important army post in the west after Fort Larimie.
   Sited on the Black Fork of the Green River, it was located such that the Oregon Trail, the Morman Trail, the Pony Express, the Overland Stage and several other freight trails and later, the railroad, either ran right through it, or within a mile or two of it. It was also located on the travel routes of the original Natives in the area, which is why Bridger and Vasquez built it where they did.
   There were only a few of the original fort buildings left to see, and Bridger's Fort was a reconstruction, but it was still fun to wander around and think about what it must of been like to be in that area between 1843 and the early 1900's.
    Once I was done there it was back in the truck for some more driving. Stopped later on in Evanston for lunch and then some grocery shopping. My fridge in the trailer finally decided to start working after I had turned the propane off during storage. There is always a delay in getting it to start working again once the propane is turned back. Probably because it takes a bit to get the gas to refill the line and purge all the air out after sitting empty for all that time. But it always starts up again eventually, if you are patient enough.
    Spent the late part of the afternoon driving out of Wyoming and on into Utah. I always like that section of highway where it changes from I-80 to I-84. At that point it dives into a nice canyon that follows a river to the NW towards Ogden Utah. At that time of the afternoon/evening it is beautiful as the shadows come down off of the mountains on both sides of the highway. Of course it did mean getting into Ogden right in the middle of the Friday afternoon rush hour, but thankfully for me I was heading in the right direction to keep the traffic to a minimum.
   Once out of that town it was just a short hop until I found myself in Idaho. From there the towns became farther apart for a while and fewer and fewer homes and ranches along the way. I spent a couple of hours dodging around huge rain storms that seem to be coming in from somewhere west of here. Not sure if it is the SW, the NW or just West of here, but it does seem to be bringing in a whole lot of rain. Though I am even hearing about the possibility of snow up on the tops of some of the surrounding mountains. Brrrr!
    I'm in Twin Falls Idaho right now and need to get back on the road for a few more miles before I call it a day. There is suppose to be a Rest Area about 6 miles west of here, so I need to pack up and be gone. Hope to be in Boise by late tomorrow morning. Looking forward to a couple days off from driving and the hope of seeing my nephew and his family a little bit.






brk*

   Yea, I'm finally back on the road again. Took off from Denver about mid morning today, after packing up and saying good by to my friends one last time. They sure were great to put up with me for such a long period of time and I sure appreciate everything they did for me over the past two months.
    Stopped at the storage unit first and picked up some stuff it'll be needing later on in the trip. Then a quick trip to the bank and a stop to fill the tank before finally getting over to the storage area where the trailer was parked. Had to put a bunch of stuff away and then hook up the batteries and turn the propane on so it took a little time to get Esmerelda all hooked up and ready to go. The only real bummer is that the electric lift at the front wasn't working so I had to do all of the lifting of the tongue, and then dropping it back on the ball, with a socket wrench I always keep handy. My guess is that there is just a problem with the wiring, a short or something like that. I'll get it working again as soon as I can find some time to look at it.
    Headed over to Discount Tires after that and had them put a couple new tires on the trailer. No problem with any of that and after getting them installed and all the tire pressures checked I finally felt like I was on my way.
    Only one other errand to do before hitting the highway however, that was a quick stop at the office where they deal with my trailer storage spot. I decided to cancel it out this year instead of just paying the monthly charge the year around. It was certainly convenient to just pull in and drop the trailer off, but at $35 per month it was costing me at least $350 per year to 'not' be there. So I turned in my electronic key and will have to decide next year what I need to do.
    Headed north out of Colorado hitting Cheyenne around 3:00. Am now more than 200 miles along my way and am holed up in Rawlins for a bit so I can get some food. Will need to go another 60 miles or so before the next rest area comes up. Hope there will be a space waiting for me when I arrive, so I better get on my way.
   It feels great to be on the road again.


brk*

   Spent most of the day just sorting stuff out and getting ready to get back on the road again. Worked on some more pictures this afternoon and the last of this set are posted below. For the first set you will need to go back to yesterdays post. This evening my friends George and Marge came over to Tom and Donna's for dinner, and then hung around and watched a 51 minute presentation Tom put together of photo's and video taken during the Green River canoe trip a couple of weeks ago. It was my second time seeing it and he really did a nice job of putting it all together this year.
    Tomorrow looks to be busier for me as my dentist called this afternoon to say that my new crown had come in. They have me scheduled to meet them at 2:30 in the afternoon to have them put it on. I certainly hope it all fits this time. It's the first official day of fall today and the trees are either turning or already starting to drop their leaves. Either way it is way past  time for me to be here.
   Also on tap tomorrow is lunch with Tom, we always try to get together if we are in town at the same time and go out to lunch or dinner to celebrate our birthdays.
   And then later on in the afternoon it looks like a final boy's night out at the movies for us all. Still don't know what it is we will be seeing, but it really doesn't matter all that much. In the mean time; enjoy the pictures.

Dale Chihuly Glass at Denver Botanical Gardens - Aug 2014

More of those long thin 'grass' like sculptures he seems to like.

It is amazing to me how he blends all the elements of water and plants and glass all together into one single piece.

They have a pretty extensive Japanese garden area including several structures and this beautiful gate.This is my girlfriend Rima.

I was intrigued by the little white flashes of color on these and other sculptures that made it look like they were lit up from the inside.

Inside the tropical building it was already dark enough to turn a few of the lights on. It gave a whole different feel to some of the structures. 

These reminded me of some kind of alien fungus for some reason.

A whole different look. Where as all the others we had seen were shiny and brightly colored, this one was muted in color and almost looked coarsely textured. I thought this one looked like melting ice cubes.

Medusa and her hair?

A closer look at the last one and it still reminds me of a big ball of red and yellow snakes.

Finally... least we totally forget what the botanical gardens are all about.... here is one look at a real life piece of art. It too has a stunning shape and gorgeous colors.

p.s. My Blog passed the 20,000 hit's mark a couple of days ago. While I know that isn't a lot in an age where some people get more than that in a few minutes.... I'm pretty surprised, and happy about it. Still not getting many comments on it however... other than the usual spam ones anyway.

brk*

    Pretty busy day for me, both yesterday and today. Yesterday I took off around 1:00 in the afternoon and drove south from Denver to the city of Pueblo. Usually only a 2 hour drive from here, yesterday it took nearly 3 because of traffic.
    I still arrived at my destination in plenty of time however, my destination being one of my brothers home. He and his wife and two of their grand kids and I were all on our way over to the 60th wedding celebration of one of my aunts on my mothers side. My aunt Marilyn and uncle Chuck had invited nearly 100 people to help them celebrate, and I wanted to go not only to see them, but possibly some other family members that I hadn't seen any many years.
    Turns out that I really only knew my 3 first cousins, their 3 sons, but I did get to meet some of their spouses and kids and even grand kids. They had a very nice dinner and a slide show one of my cousins put together, as well as a nice cake to take the place of the wedding cake that they never had. All in all it was a fun time seeing every one, and I am happy that I got to take part in their celebration.
    Of course it did mean driving home pretty late in the dark and in the rain, but that really wasn't much of a problem for me. The good news is that my friends, Tom and Donna, had made it home safe and sound from their mini vacation down in Santa Fe. I think all of the critters, but especially the dog, were happy to see them get home.
    I had a nice brunch with my friends Marge and George today. Meeting over at one of our favorite restaurants, Lucile's. I had their Cajun breakfast of poached eggs in hollandaise sauce over red beans and rice. With a helping of grits and home fries as well as a monster biscuit with strawberry-rhubarb jam, it filled me up and then some.
    Spent most of the rest of the day just running errands. Had to pick up a box so I could Fed-ex  some stuff to a sister in Nebraska. Also had to find some new shoes that would fit me. I threw 3 pairs of well worn tennis shoes out today after realizing that there would be no more river trips to wear them on this year.
    After getting the package wrapped and then mailed off, I stopped by a local store that sells new and used books, cd's and dvd's to see if they had any other used Lee Child novels that I hadn't read yet. No luck in that quest, but I did finally find an old Joan Baez cd I had been looking for. Really what I wanted was just the song 'Diamonds and Rust', but I was happy to get a bunch of her other greatest hits on it as well. So really it was a pretty successful find.
   Finished the evening by getting a couple photo's worked up so they could be posted.  The subject of most of the pictures are of blown glass sculptures made by Dale Chihuly which have been on display in Denver. These were actually taken at the Denver Botanical Gardens in late August, even before my canoe trip in Utah. But there was no hurry for me to get them out prior to dealing with all of the ones from that trip. It should also be noted that my girlfriend Rima joined me on this visit to the gardens, and we both had a fun time checking out all of the beautiful displays. I hope you all enjoy them too. Here are the first set, the ones I got done tonight. There will be more tomorrow hopefully.

Dale Chihuly Glass at Denver Botanical Gardens - Aug 2014

The first sculpture you see as you enter the gardens.

Okay... so who out there didn't immediately think about bee butt's?

 

 Just amazing.

 

 

My girlfriend Rima.

An amazing number of different styles, colors and sizes scattered throughout the gardens.

 

 

I love the color of the glass in this arrangement. More to come tomorrow.

brk*

    Had a busy day yesterday so there wasn't a lot of time, nor desire, to get anything down on paper. It might of been having to get up at 6:00 a.m. in the morning after only 5 hrs of sleep, but that was my own fault of course. There was no real need to stay up reading so late the night before, nor was it necessary to schedule breakfast with one of my niece's, Christy, along with her 3 young daughters, at Racine's, right as they opened at 8:00. On the other hand, who could resist spending some time with those 4. The girls are aged from about 4 to 8 and they are the cutest, most well behaved and mature kids I have ever been around.
    I had never had breakfast at Racine's, seldom being up that early in the morning, but breakfast there is nearly worth the effort of getting up. I had this wonderful California omelet with black olives, avocado, cheese and all the rest, as well as a huge pile of hash brown potato's and a biscuit. A fun time catching up with Christy and the girls. All have crazy-busy lives with school and sports for the girls, and a new job in the family business for Christy. It was very enjoyable and the good food just made it even better.
   Once done there I headed north to Longmont. Needed to go up and drop off some stuff at the trailer as well as pick up a few things I had left there. Also needed to go over to the bank for a few moments and make sure everything there was all taken care of. Knowing that I probably won't be back in town for at least 10 months can make you nervous if you aren't sure everything is taken care of before you leave.
    Back to the house after that, and after a quick walk for the dog, it was time to settle in and finish up some projects I needed to do before leaving. Strange as it sounds dealing with all the magazines I have gathered over the last few months was high on the list. Nearly 40 lbs. of paper needed to be dealt with. Some of the magazines simply had to be sorted out and consigned to the recycle pile, but some of them, such as my model railroading and chicken magazines had articles in them that I wanted to keep for references later on. But I would just as soon not carry around the 20 lbs. of ads and other articles that didn't interest me. So I went through all of them one by one and cut out everything I wanted to keep. Sorted them all out into broad categories and then put them into three ring binders that will keep everything all neat and available for use. Not quite done with it all yet, but I'm down to the last dozen magazines or so.
   Also spent some time and loaded up some of the native flute Cd's my friend has acquired over time. It should be nice to spin some of them on the iPod while heading down the highway.
   Last on the list last night was doing the laundry one last time. I'm going to miss having a nice washer and dryer at my disposal anytime I want. Guess it will be back to using the coin operated ones along the way once again.
    This morning was spent finishing up some additional things around the house that needed to be done. There were cat boxes to be cleaned, as well as picking up the back yard. Cleaning up a little bit around the house just so it doesn't look too dirty when Tom and Donna get back this evening.
    I'm headed to Pueblo in just a little while. My aunt and uncle Thurston are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today with over 100 guests. I'm looking forward to seeing them and all of my cousins, as well as a few others that I know the names of but don't really know at all. So I better finish up here and get a move on.


brk*

    Up and running early this morning. Had to be over to the dentist office by 9:00 in order to get two of my 50+ year old fillings replaced, as well as have a new crown placed on one of my back molars. But sometimes life just doesn't go the way you might want it to. They wanted to do the crown first before doing anything else, so I hopped up in the chair and got tipped nearly upside down in it. When they went to fit the new piece in there though it seemed that one corner of it just wouldn't fit down on the old tooth the way it was suppose to. The dentist and her assistant both took it out multiple times and worked on it with some abrasive tools, but it just wasn't going to go on the way everybody, including me, wanted it to.
   So on to stage two. They took an additional impression of the remaining tooth and contacted the lab that they use to make them. They said they could be out to pick it up in less than an hour and have it done  by next Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. So on that piece of the plan they will just wait and call me when it comes in, and then do it as soon as I can get there.
   They did manage to redo the two fillings however. They first numbed up both sides of my mouth and then went in and ground out all of the old filling. I guess they use to undercut the tooth enamel a bit when doing metal fillings in order to give it some additional mechanical leverage to hold it in. It must of worked as all of mine were done back when I was 6-8 years old, and these are the first two to fail in any way. Once done with the grinding the assistant went ahead and started laying in the new filling material. Not exactly sure what it is, but it comes out of a tube gun similar to caulk, but smaller, and then is hardened by exposure to visible light from this little dental flashlight thingy. A few layers of that stuff and then some final sanding and filing on them to even it all out.  No real problems over all because of the numbing shots they gave me prior to the work. It was quite humorous however when they asked me to go into the bathroom and use a cup to really rinse my mouth out and found out that my mouth no longer worked.
     So another couple of days here that I didn't plan on, but I am sure there will be things I can find to do to fill up my time. In the meantime I came home and took a nice long nap because the Novocaine, or what ever they use, was starting to wear off and it was making me sleepy. I was also discovering that all that noise and burning smell coming from my teeth while they ground away at them meant that they were actually doing something.... and now it was starting to hurt. A few aspirin and a couple hours of sleep, and I'm now up feeling much better.
    Finished up the rest of the river trip pictures this afternoon and evening and they are posted below. It really was a marvelous trip and if you haven't seen the rest of the pictures please feel free to go back to the previous 3 posts and check them out.

Green River Canoe Trip - Aug/Sept 2014 - Part 4

Early morning on the Green. It is already hot enough out that we all seek out the shady side of the river when there is one. The early morning light is rather magical.

The river was very high this year, more than 10 times what it has been on other trips. As a result of heavy rains upriver it was even more full of silt than usual, as well as been quite cold when you first get in. But with temps in the high 90's everyone went in on a regular basis. Playing in the mud was just an added benefit.

A new style of braid for Rima.

Already enough sun on the trip to give her hair natural highlights.

Once the sun dropped behind the cliffs and it cooled off a bit there was always time for reading, playing cards or what ever. We are after all on vacation.

Evening on the river.

Our last day of paddling on the river, we would actually be staying in the same campsite tomorrow, but this is it for canoeing. We have already passed the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers about 3 miles up stream. We are headed for an area known as Spanish Bottoms. The last spot on the Colorado you can boat in open canoes before you hit Cataract Canyon. The formations on the top of the cliffs are part of what is known as the Doll House. It's a nice hike up to them from down here on the river, but no one did it this year, choosing instead to hike up another trail on the east side of the river where we camped.

Tom playing one of his flutes. He really is quite good at it these days, sounding, to my ear at least, as good as some of the professional players I've heard CD's of.

This is the morning view out of the tent. Can it get any better than this?

Looking down river from our last camp spot at Spanish Bottoms. At the next corner is the first real rapid of Cataract Canyon. You could hear it day and night from our camping spot.

 

While sitting on the bank the night before the wind started to blow. It only lasted a little while but it managed to blow sand into everything, including my camera. I have cleaned it up as well as I can now and it does still seem to work, but I don't think my one telephoto lens will ever work like it use to. Anyway; this is the pile I emptied out of the boat when we took everything out in preparation for being picked up by the jet boat.

 

All of our gear and canoes cleaned, consolidated and stacked in preparation for Tex's Waterways jet boat to pick us up. We do seem to have a lot of gear, but we always have it neatly stowed and ready to go.

While waiting for the boat 'Mud Puppy' Marge had to take one last float.

All cleaned up and no where to go.



On the boat with a bunch of other boaters Tex's picked up on the same day. We're doing about 35 mph at the moment.

We have about 48 miles of the Colorado River to boat back up. With their new engines in the boat that trip now takes less than two hours to do. The scenery is still pretty nice along the way.

Looking forward you can see that the canoes and other boats are all stowed on top of the boat while all of the gear is up in front of us all.

One stop along the way for people to get out and go potty. I always like this rock because it always has a new piece of driftwood up on it somewhere. Can you imagine how much additional water would be flowing in order to flood over the top of that rock.

Looking at some of the boats tied on at the back of the boat.

We take out at a place called Potash, about 18 miles from Moab. All the people get off here but the gear and boats stay on the jet boat until we get back into town. The whole thing is loaded onto this huge trailer and carted into town. The boat actually climbs up onto the trailer using it's engines and then it stays in gear and pushing until the truck actually pulls it up out of the water. I guess there was one time when the truck started to slide backwards into the river, so now they just make sure.

A look at the boat on the trailer.

My geekiness made me take a picture of the new engines they put in the boat last year. They made it faster, easier to turn and also they burn less fuel. Pretty cool stuff.

Back at the outfitters they have brought all of our vehicles out to the front and parked them for us. When the boat finally pulls in we all help unload it in the parking lot and start to load up our own cars. I really admire their system, it just works so well.

Packing up the truck so we can head out of there. Once packed we headed over to a local hotel for the night and for a much needed shower. At least 4 layers of my sun tan rinsed right down the drain with that first shower. But there was still plenty left there. After cleaning up we all headed to a local restaurant for food and cold beverages. Ice cold beer sure does taste good after nearly two weeks of merely cool drinks. The next day we headed back to Colorado and the end of a wonderful trip.

brk*

    Just a real slow and relaxing day today. Spent the morning reading the paper, taking the dog for a walk and then grabbing some late breakfast. Once done with that I headed over to the movie theater to meet up with my friend George. We were going to do an early boys night out movie this afternoon so that we would both have a little more daylight this evening to be out and about.
    The only problem with our plan was that there weren't any great boys night out movies out there. We had pretty much seen everything we all thought was worth seeing, so it was with some trepidation that we settled on the new 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' movie to watch. A totally unrealistic plot of course, but then what part of mutant ninja turtles isn't? And yet it was actually pretty entertaining overall with even a few pretty good visual and audio jokes thrown in. That being said.... I doubt this will ever be a movie I'll purchase for future viewing.
    Had a nice late lunch with George after the movie. We went over to a place he knew of, Lansdowne Inn, or some such thing. It's suppose to be some kind of Irish bar, but the only thing Irish about it might of been some of the scotch they had on hand. Otherwise it was pretty much your everyday sports bar with sports bar kind of food. They do put together a pretty good Reuben sandwich though, and that, along with some fries and ice tea was a very nice meal.
    Headed on home after dinner with only a short stop at Home Depot for some gorilla glue. The stuff I used the other day to glue my truck mirror back together with didn't really do much, so now it's time to pull out the big guns and see if this stuff will work.
    Another walk for Rhodie this evening and then some time spent on the back deck reading my book while I watched the local flock of white pelicans returning from some other lake or pond for the night.
    Still need to finish up about 50 more pictures from the river trip so I'm going to get on those right now. Here are a few more I got done yesterday.

Green River Canoe Trip - Aug/Sept 2014 - Part 4

Passing by some more cliffs that come right down to the water.



Another view.

The experience of paddling like this is great. It gets even better if you can share it with a great blue heron fishing on the shore.

The large formation in the distance is called the 'Butte of the Cross', because early explorers thought it looked like one I guess. It is actually made up of two separate formations that are several miles apart. I liked this picture because of the reflection in the water though.

Isn't that just so cool!

I have always thought of this rock in the river as 'George's Rock', named after a good friend of ours who painted a beautiful watercolor painting of it a few years ago.

So who can spot the Native American granary? When you get closer you can see where there were once hand and foot holds chipped into the rock face. Today you would need a ladder of some kind to reach it.

Here is another one... who can pick out the granary in this photo? Look near the center of the picture just above the dark red rock band at the bottom. These small shelters were used by the natives to store their corn and other crops, if any, in. They were usually placed high up on a cliff where it would take someone with a ladder to reach it. That way they could protect their winter food supply from marauding bands out to capture or destroy it.

There is one place on the trip where you can pull in and walk to an area that was evidently used as a food plot for growing corn and perhaps beans and squash. In the ledges above the farm land they built several small rock enclosed shelters to perhaps live in during the period spent growing their crops, or as a place to store some of them when they had harvested them. It is always one place on the river trip that I want to visit. Can you pick out some of the structures yet?

A close up of one of the shelters. Made out of native rock and mud, none of them were very big. I always thought the one rock in the lower right hand side of this one looked like it might be a dinosaur bone, but never checked it out that close to see.

This one uses a rock piece as a lintel above the doorway. Others used cedar wood for things like that.

Here you get a good perspective of how small they were. Rima is about 5'-10" so she would have a hard time stretching out inside most of them. I think people were a good deal smaller back then.

This is just a picture of some of the really cool rock formations in the area. I always got the feeling that this little community must of been a pretty happy one. I can well imagine kids playing chase and hide and seek amongst the rocks. It just feels like one day they just didn't show up any more, but it has never felt like there was a lot of death here or that this was the last place all of them ever lived. Can't explain why that feels like that to me... but it does.

A Datura, or moon flower, blossom. I have read that most parts of this plant are poisonous, but I know that many Native Americans used it as a hallucinogenic in some of their rituals.

Another small structure tucked up under an overhang. The formation in the back is known as the 'Turks Head'. It and this whole complex are located on a neck of land in between the river as it loops back on itself. 

Rima is holding up a little bitty corn cob in this photo. It's only about 3 inches long and I'm pretty sure it is one I found in this structure several years ago. It is wild to think of holding something that some ancient being once chewed on. I hope it stays here a few hundred more years.

Hiking around the area. This is Donna.

Caroline.

Rima and I.

Looking down the river from our campsite that night. It doesn't get much better than this.

brk*