Author: Easin' Along

Eventually, all good things must come to an end, including our trip to the desert southwest and points in between. Reluctantly, we said goodbye to our friends in Colorado and pointed Butch eastward with Lucy in tow to begin a slow trip towards home. Initially, our plans called for a trip to Colorado Springs and visiting some friends there while camping at the Air Force Academy. Time was getting away from us however, and our granddaughters were coming to attend Vacation Bible School at our church. We wanted to arrive in plenty of time to get ready for their visit.

In the time since we began RVing, I have often thought about committing to it full-time.  I’m fairly certain that I would be happy as a full-timer because I love visiting new places and because there is so much to see in our country. Nevertheless, Helen and I both love our home and being near family, our friends, our church, as well as the lakes and mountains around Knoxville. Once home, we have the opportunity to regroup for a while, then begin to plan the next trip.  In this way we always have something to look forward to whereas, a full-time commitment might become routine after a while, but who knows, our thinking may change at some point. For now, homeward it is after an incredible three-month journey.

First Stop – Albuquerque, NM

From Cortez, we drove south along US 491 to Gallup, NM then traveled east on Interstate 40, a direct route to Knoxville, stopping first in Albuquerque, NM.  We hoped to stay for one night at the FamCamp on Kirtland, Air Force Base, but that can be tricky because this campground doesn’t take reservations. We called the camp office on the morning we left Cortez and were told that, for the moment, there were five spaces available. That was a risk worth taking.  We stayed at Kirtland once before in our first trip west in Sherman, a rented RV, and enjoyed our stay there greatly.  Above, is a picture from that trip taken from the top of Sandia Mountain. On this visit, we didn’t even unhook Lucy.  We opened the slide-outs and went to bed.

Amarillo, Texas

As is my usual practice, I try to stay under four hours driving time from one stop to the next, and Amarillo, Texas is almost exactly four hours from Kirtland AFB. We found Oasis RV Park through RV Trip Wizard and made a reservation for one night.  Oasis RV Park is about a half-mile from I-40 and had good ratings so, we jumped on it.  When we arrived, the sky was looking rather ominous which can be a daunting thing for RV owners in flat country, but thankfully this storm moved north and out of harm’s way for us—and for Lucy. For a second night, we slept well.

Lawton, Oklahoma and Ft. Sill

After a couple of one-nighters, it was time to to take a break from the road so we made reservations for two nights at Medicine Creek Campground on the Army base at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. The drive from Amarillo was three hours and we arrived rather early in the day.  I was looking forward to unhooking Lucy and settling in for a full day and a half of no driving.  When we arrived at the entry to Ft. Sill and asked for directions to the campground, the young soldier at the gate instructed us to drive to the Lake Elmer Lewis Campground, 12 miles from post, rather than Medicine Creek.  Not knowing the difference, we made the trip to Lake Elmer Thomas, a delightful campground open to both military and civilian campers. Unfortunately, a young camp hostess turned us away and redirected us back to Ft. Sill and Medicine Creek. Medicine Creek only has six campsites, but very nice.  We were one of only three campers in this very quiet setting.

Roland, Oklahoma

Two very restful nights later, we again returned to I-40 heading toward Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We received an email while at Ft. Sill canceling our reservation at a campground in Ft. Smith due to flooding along nearby Arkansas River. Helen did some research but could not locate another campground near Ft. Smith, but did find a Casino Hotel in Roland, Oklahoma just west of there (picture at top). We decided that we would park Lucy for the night and get a room in the hotel.  When making the reservation, Helen asked if there was ample parking for our RV.  The clerk replied that there was an RV campground adjacent to the hotel with full hookups—free of charge. Once again, luck was with us, but it didn’t carry into the night.  Eventually, the Casino gobbled the equivalent of a full night’s rent. The next morning, we discovered a Kildeer sitting on a nest behind Lucy.

Millington, TN Naval Support Activity

Midway RV Park, Millington, TN

We drove away from Roland, OK to witness thousands of acres of flooded farmland near Ft. Smith. We couldn’t help but feel for the farmers who probably lost a corn crop for this year. For this leg of the trip we pushed the envelope a bit and drove for over five hours to reach the Navy Support Activity at Millington, TN, just north of Memphis. Once again, we would stop for two nights to rest up a bit, and to spend an evening with some old friends from the University of Tennessee and fraternity brothers as well.  Becky, our hostess and a dear person really went all out to make us feel welcome. We had such a wonderful time, I forgot to take pictures.  The campground at Millington is very nice–even the deer love it.

Home

I broke with precedent once more and drove over seven hours to reach home.  Helen was anxious to unwind a bit and prepare for our granddaughters and I was eager to get Lucy unloaded and cleaned up. Our pace of life picked up immediately.  In addition to some time with our precious granddaughters, we had medical and dental visits that we postponed while we were gone. A leak in the water line to our refrigerator needed repair as did a faulty air conditioner. Our yard (as small as it is) awaited our attention. Mail needed sorting.

I suppose that an increase in activity is not unexpected after three months and over 8400 miles away from home. I admit that, more than once, the laid-back lifestyle of RV living came to mind. Maybe I’ll re-think that commitment to full-time RVing. Retirement does have its advantages.

I love our life…and just Easin’ Along.

From Moab, Utah we drove about 2 ½ hours to Cortez, Colorado in the Four Corners area.  Helen and I were very excited because we would visit Mesa Verde National Park, but we would also meet up with Paul and Dayna, longtime and dear friends from our Army days in Germany in the early 1970s who live in the area. Another couple, Rod and Sally, also from those days, was flying in to join us. We couldn’t get there fast enough.

Cortez, a city of about 8,000 residents sits at an elevation of 6,100 feet above sea level. As we drove in, clouds formed and rain, possibly show showers as well, were in the weather forecast. We managed to avoid all of that and pulled into Paul and Dayna’s driveway where Paul and Rod came out to greet us.  Paul, now a rancher, directed us to pull Lucy (trailer) over to one side of the driveway where, amazingly, he had full RV hookups, including 50 amp power and a sewer connection.  Perfect!

After getting Lucy situated, we joined Dayna and Sally in Paul and Dayna’s lovely home. Readers may remember that we introduced everyone to Rod and Sally several years ago, when we visited them at their summer home in Minnesota (link here), but we had not been with Paul and Dayna since the late 1970s. Although we managed to stay in touch over the years, the six of us had a lot of catching up to do over the next two days and our conversation lasted long into the evening.

The plan for the next day was for Helen and me to join Rod and Sally on a tour of Mesa Verde National Park. Snow fell as we drove to the Park Visitor Center to buy tour tickets and continued as we rode the bus along the face of Point Lookout to begin the tour. We passed a small herd of deer beside the road—the snow didn’t seem to bother them very much. Our tour began on a cliff overlooking the elaborate cliff dwellings on the opposite side of the canyon.

The Ancestral Pueblo people moved into this region around 600 AD and lived there for the next 700 years before scattering to New Mexico and other regions of the Four Corners around 1300 AD. The early inhabitants lived on the mesa tops in pit homes covered by a wood roof structure for around 200 years. Next, they began building above-ground homes composed of wooden poles covered in mud and plaster. By around 1150 AD, the Ancestral Puebloans began constructing elaborate stone homes in alcoves within the cliffs.  It is those homes that we came to see, and they are fascinating.

From our stops across the canyon, we had great views of several cliff dwellings that we would visit later. These structures resembled stone palaces and some extended three stories high. Some structures have one room only, and some have up to several hundred rooms and probably served as an early form of a community center. For perspective, our tour guide reminded us that the Ancestral Pueblo built the cliff dwellings around the same time as Europeans built the Cathedral at Notre Dame, and long before Europeans came to America.

The tour guide, a Park Ranger and a descendant of the Pueblo, led us down the cliff steps to the Cliff Palace, the largest and most elaborate of the Cliff Dwellings. Once there, he gave us an enlightening lecture about the life and work of the inhabitants.  Much is unknown about the people who lived there except that they farmed the mesa tops and were excellent basket weavers and potters. Most of the homes contained several families and some of the rooms were used to store grain and other food after drying.

By 1300 AD, the Ancestral Puebloans left Mesa Verde.  No one knows why, although most feel that a severe drought precipitated the move. Some believe that the Puebloans departed suddenly because of the tools, pottery, baskets, and other relics of the civilization left behind in the cliff dwellings.  Those relics and the dwellings remained largely untouched until the late 1800s when discovered by livestock farmers allowed to graze their herds on the Native American lands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually the area became the Mesa Verde National Park to preserve the Ancestral Puebloan history and culture. There are some 600 cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde and 4500 archeological sites. I recommend this visit to anyone looking to increase their knowledge of prehistoric America. Our tour lasted about three hours, but time flew by and before we knew it, the time came to climb back up the cliff and return to the bus.

The rest of our trip was spent enjoying the company of our friends and visiting the charming community of Cortez.  The sky cleared and we enjoyed the lush farms and the scenery below the San Juan mountains. Paul was kind enough to take us to the Antique Corral to do some browsing.  It is so hard for Helen and me to pass up an antique store or flea market.

That afternoon, Paul gave me a tour of his ranch that included a trip down to his fish pond to feed the trout that he raises there. His dog Piper ran ahead of us and had a ball watching the fish as they chase the food tossed into the pond. Numerous photo opportunities existed all around.  Some of them are shared here.

Reluctantly, the time came to Ease Along down the road. Rod and Sally left early. Helen and I lingered for a while, the morning was so beautiful and the snow-capped mountains had us entranced. By now, we have driven over 7,000 miles on our RV trip, and this visit is the highlight so far. We send our sincere thanks to Paul and Dayna for hosting us and the huge effort they made to make us feel welcome.  Thanks also to Rod and Sally for taking the time to join us and make the experience even better.

Retirement is the best gig going — time to be Easin’ Along.

Beautiful yet fascinating is the way I would describe Arches National Park. I’ll let the pictures attempt to portray some of the beauty in this gem of a National Park located just a few miles from downtown Moab, Utah. It is the 2,000 arches and the incredible forces that created them make the rest of this story so fascinating.

As we told readers last week, we were advised to visit Arches National Park early in the day because the park is very popular and long lines of cars can form at the entrance later in the day. An early departure caused us to forgo our usual morning routine of lingering long over coffee and breakfast and drive Butch (truck) five miles to the entrance shortly after the gates opened. The lines had already formed but they were relatively short.

We waved our National Park Senior Pass at the Park Ranger and received a welcoming smile in return along with maps of the Park and the hiking trails. The Visitor Center was the first stop.  After a short wait, the doors to the theater opened and we watched a very informative documentary on the creation of the rock formations and the history of Arches National Park.

After viewing the film, Helen read through the trail maps and peppered the Rangers inside the Visitor Center with questions about what to see and where to hike. The day was cloudy and very light rain fell around us which factored into our agenda.  We decided to begin our hike at the Devil’s Garden Trailhead and hike to Landscape Arch, stopping to visit two other arches along the trail.

Despite the early start, visitors filled the trail. Approximately one-third of the way to Landscape Arch, we left the main trail and walked to two arches shown on our map.  Tunnel Arch, the first of the two, stood prominently on a hillside above the trail.  Tunnel Arch is actually two arches, one smaller than the other, sitting side-by-side. I joined other visitors and took a few pictures.

Pine Tree Arch (top of page), the other arch on this trail, is a massive rock structure and serves as a frame for some lovely scenery and the mountains beyond. Surprisingly, few people gathered around this arch and picture taking was somewhat easier. We waited for one couple to walk along and asked them to take a picture for us.

Fortunately, our visit to Arches coincided with the blooming of desert wildflowers and cactus.  Helen took quite a few pictures of the blooming plants and a few are shared here.  The purple grasses also added greatly to the incredible scenery we enjoyed.

Landscape Arch is the widest arch in the National Park at over three hundred feet wide. In 1991, a huge slab of the arch fell from the underside that measured 60 feet long, 11 feet wide, and four feet thick.  This incident adds to the history of these formations that began as sandstone deposited over three hundred million years ago and shaped by wind, water, ice and other forms of erosion over the millions of years since. All arches in the park will succumb to the forces of nature eventually and crumble to the ground while new ones begin to form. Landscape Arch is a genuine natural wonder.

Our hike continued beyond Landscape Arch to several viewing points within the park.  The signature formation in Arches is Delicate Arch, a trip that required 2 to 3 hours of hiking along a difficult trial and includes a climb up a steep rock slope. Although tempted, common sense prevailed and we decided to pass on this hike and walk to another viewpoint instead and use a telephoto lens to capture Delicate Arch. A picture below shows the rock climb at the beginning of the trail.

The hike to the Delicate Arch viewpoint allowed us to focus on the valleys and the unique terrain that makes this park so special.  The mesas, buttes, spires and balanced rocks within our view are very dramatic and seemingly endless in number. The colors found in the valley floors give details about the history and geology of each one. Iron (or a lack of it) is usually the element that determines the colors found here. Iron and iron oxide brings out the deep reds and a lack of oxygen is responsible for the greens and indicate an oxygen-poor environment such as an ancient sea bed.

The Delicate Arch viewpoint, located near the parking lot, had filled with visitors by the time we made it there, but there were plenty of vantage points available for picture-taking. Looking through the camera lens, I could see many hikers that had reached the arch and strolled through the opening in its base. I’m certain they all agreed that the reward at the end of the journey was more than worth the effort.

Both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are exceptional and serve to reinforce my belief that our National Parks are the greatest gifts Americans ever gave to ourselves. We love every visit we’ve made to one and, when we leave here, we’re Easing Along to another one of those gifts…Mesa Verde National Park.  We hope you’ll join us there.