May 27 to May 28

Tuesday evening we had dinner at Cracker Barrel, and I spent the last of my gift card, a retirement gift from the KSC Quad Squad. There were showers all around and we did get a deluge while we were in the restaurant. But the RV park, about 4 miles west, stayed dry all day. On Wednesday morning we went back to the Mammoth Cave. We decided we would both take the Frozen Niagara tour, but we had to wait until noon. So we had breakfast there, they have three restaurants to chose from, and napped a little bit in the RV. I walked Toby too. It was cloudy but I really didn't think it would rain, Charlie was sure that it would. We needed to leave at least one window open because it could get too warm in the RV for Toby. So we left the window over the dinette open and removed the cushion from under the window. It was sprinkling when we came out of the cave, but it must have poured while we were underground because we had a pretty big puddle on the wood frame of the dinette seat. It was probably a thunderstorm, but since this is a big RV, Toby would have been able to get far from the open window. Oh well...Charlie was right, as usual. There were a lot of people at mammoth that day and so our tour group was full. Instead of walking to the cave entrance like we did the day before, we were taken by a bus that was fueled by propane. This entrance to the cave was not natural, but had been blasted out by a former owner of the property. Inside were a lot of formations all the way back to the one they call Frozen Niagara, but once past it there are no more formations. The reason is a sandstone and shale layer over the rest of the cave keeps water from seeping in and creating the formations. The tour was easy walking but tight or slippery in some places. I liked having to duck and twist around, it made it more interesting. We didn't see bats, but we saw lots of crickets. Normally I don't mind crickets, but this was kind of creepy. I thought we were walking through an empty space and then the flashlight showed bugs all over the walls and ceiling. Yuck! We may want to come back to Mammoth Park to do some things above ground. We like to hike and bike. They allow dogs on the trails, and Charlie might like to go fishing. No fishing license is required in the park. Also, the Diamond Caverns just to the south of Mammoth are supposed to have nice formations. They are believed to be connected to the Mammoth cave, and if that is ever proven to be true, the national park service would take them over. Charlie says, if anything, the Diamond cavern owner should claim Mammoth! We drove east and north all the rest of the day and stayed at Grandma's RV Park in Shepherdsville, Kentucky Tuesday night. Grandma was (supposedly) napping when we got there, but we got a space anyway. Grandma has lots of rules, especially about keeping dogs out of her shrubbery, which is everywhere. We walked our little dog across the street (or else!) and met up with a couple of llamas. They kept their eye on Toby, and we got pictures of them. On Wednesday we drove about 230 miles to Galloway, Ohio, the furtherest we have driven in one day in quite a while. We drove around Louisville and Cincinnati. We arrived at about 2pm and I did a little shopping at Kohls. My britches are getting way to big for me. I really needed a couple of pairs of pants. From there we went to dinner and then to the campground. We will try to catch up with Diane and whoever else is in town tomorrow.

May 25 to May 26

On Monday morning we left the Cape RV Park in Missouri, and attempted to drive straight on to the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Unfortunately, Charlie had a little trouble with the GPS once we got into Illinois. He programmed the GPS to take us the quickest way, expecting to be on interstates, or at least on major roads. Instead, we were directed to a secondary road that went on and on, and after a turn or two the road became narrow and bumpy. No fun in this old RV with the refrigerator popping open and canned fruit flying everywhere. We use bungee cords to hold the cabinets closed, but the fridge usually is not a problem. It really got interesting when the road deteriorated into a dirt road. Meanwhile we were seeing old farmhouses, trailers, barns, and all sorts of livestock including goats. No businesses and no traffic. The road finally ended at a huge quarry. Even then the GPS was directing us to 'turn left'. There was a little driveway to the left, but we had had enough. We turned around, not an easy maneuver, and headed back the way we came, but then tried another road off to the right. Almost immediately that road went into a very deep ditch. There was no turning around, so we went in, and when we came out the rear end hit bottom pretty hard. Charlie and I have very different responses to this sort of thing. For me, it is an adventure. I am not the least bit worried. I am saying things like “Oh look, a turtle!”. But I admit when we hit bottom I did get a little worried. Luckily the RV appears to be okay, we just lost a cap to something or other. Charlie on the other hand wasn't interested in my turtle sighting. To be fair, he was the one dealing with all this. But it did seem a little over the top when he got into an argument with the GPS: ”Recalculating” Shut Up ”Recalculating” Shut Up ”Recalculating” SHUT UP! ”Recalculating”. Charlie gave up and the GPS got the last word, which I pointed out. Again, Charlie was not amused. Finally, we got to a decent sized road and with the help of the map, we got back on track. It probably would not have been so bad but we had a similar experience the day before trying to get to the lead mine, even to the point of being on a dirt road. We still have the GPS hanging on the visor, and it is still talking, but Charlie is not necessarily obeying anymore. We had a long drive to the area of the Mammoth Cave and it rained quite a bit too. We stopped early at an RV park that was open but didn't have any facilities available yet. It was okay though, it had wifi, and that counts for a lot. It rained throughout the evening so we got on our respective computers, and Charlie was able to relax and recover from a rough day of driving. I watched the final episode of Desperate Housewives on the web. I am finding that I like watching TV on my computer, there are a lot fewer commercials. Toby was as good as gold as usual. I think the hobo life suits him. He gets fed on time, and he is with us, so he seems to be happy. I have not heard him whine since we left home. Tuesday morning we got going early and headed straight to the Mammoth Cave, about a 90 mile drive. Oh wait, we stopped at Wal-Mart first. I have not been mentioning our almost daily stops at Wal-Mart for obvious reasons. But this one was a little bit interesting because there was an Amish community in the area, and an Amish gentlemen came along and parked his horse and buggy near our RV. Ha! Anyway, I was thinking I might pass on this cave since I don't really like them, but we both did take one of the very short introductory tours. Mammoth National Park is different from almost all the other national parks. It is free to get in, drive around, picnic, hike, bicycle, and more. Fees are charged only for camping and cave tours. All of the tours are escorted. Our guide was a young park ranger and I enjoyed listening to him talk with his accent. He said 'steel' when he meant 'still'. It was fun, and the temperature in the cave was 56 degrees. We saw some very tiny bats, about the size of a thumb. Our guide talked about how the cave was used over the centuries. A doctor thought the cold damp air might help cure TB so he set up some patients down there. It didn't work out. Someone else tried to grow mushrooms, but they didn't grow any faster down there so it wasn't worth it. The only successful enterprise was during the War of 1812 when they used the bat poop in the dirt to make salt peter. They sent the salt peter to Dupont where it was made into gun powder. After the war they didn't need it anymore so they abandoned the things they were using (pipes made of poplar, crates, and tools), and those items are still there today. They say that without the bat poop in the Mammoth Cave we would have lost the war, and we would be driving on the other side of the road today. That is what they say. There were only six of us on the tour. During the past weekend every tour had 40 to 120 people. So we were lucky. Most of the cave does not have formations like other caves we have seen. Mammoth is known for being the most extensive cave system on earth at 365 miles. Geologists think there may be as many as 600 miles of undiscovered passageways. There are seven separate introductory and general tours and a bunch of specialty tours. If you are really into caves you could spend a lot of time there. We may go back tomorrow and take another introductory tour that is called 'Frozen Niagara'. As you probably guessed, that one has formations. I might take that tour by myself while Charlie takes a four and one-half hour tour that is considered to be physically demanding. He is still thinking about it. Tonight we are at Singing Hills RV Park just outside of Mammoth, and it is very nice. There are loads of tourist traps near here, including miniature golf, a wax museum, a wildlife museum, a frontier town, a dinosaur park (exceedingly tacky giant fake dinosaurs), gold mining, go karts, and bumper boats. There is an antique mall, rock shops, and shops for knives, guns, and gifts. I bet it is a lot of fun around here in the summertime.

May 20 to May 24

It was a nice stay at the KOA in Goodland Kansas on Tuesday night. It was our first KOA of this trip. They offered an all-you-can eat pancake breakfast. The owners are Polish from Chicago, and they were very friendly. We also talked with a couple from Arizona who were parked next to us and were eating breakfast at the same time. After breakfast I got Toby out of the RV, and as he walked ahead of me I saw that my hairbrush was stuck in his fur on his right side. Guess who had been sleeping in my bed? Right after we left the KOA we saw a huge easel on the side of the road with a Van Gogh 'Sunflowers' painting on it. It could be seen for miles. It was an exhibit by the Rotary Club and there was a visitor notebook to sign, which we did. We drove most of the day through flat and rolling prairie. We saw an underground house, and a road runner ran across the road in front of us. We stopped at the Prairie Dog State Park, but it was early in the day and there was not much to see, so we didn't stay. There was a prairie dog village, but only one was out, and he really told us off. I had never heard one talk before. There was also an adobe house that was a landmark, and a lake for boating, fishing, and swimming. Charlie wrote to David about the park...”There were a lot of people that live in the RV section. There were swings, gliders, toys and other outdoor stuff around alot of the RV type trailers. I wouldn't want to stay in them in the winter. Most RVs are very uncomfortable and can have all kinds of problems when the weather gets below freezing for very long. Imagine, you come home from work and all the doors and windows are iced shut. There has to be other inexpensive ways to live this far north”....Charlie wrote about the RV Park we stayed in Wednesday night...”This is one of the funkier RV parks we have stayed in, but its okay. The bathrooms, showers, laundry, pay phone, sitting area, and a big old chest freezer full of the owners old looking odd food, are all crammed into an old mobile home. It has been rebuilt inside to fit in the 3 bathrooms and a large laundry room in the back. When we got here an old guy was sitting on the front porch of the office/house. He was sitting in an old glider supported by springs and a metal frame and covered with bedding. It looked like he sleeps out there all day waiting for RVers. I told him I had a Passport America membership, and he just said that will be 12 dollars. I gave him the money, and he gave me a postcard with rules, camp layout, and cable channels on it. At every other RV park I have had to fill out a motel registry type form or wait for someone to type a bunch of info into a computer. Maybe he forgot. He is pretty much deaf too. I hope he remembers I paid. I know, I'm gonna get old too.”.... Thursday morning we drove on to Abilene Kansas and visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Center. A Visitor's Center, the Presidential Library, a museum, the Eisenhower homestead, and his burial site are there. The Eisenhower homestead was especially interesting because it remains as it was when his Mother passed away in the 40s. All of the furniture and even the books in the bookcases are the same. We watched a short film about DDE in the Visitors Center, which told about his entire life. Also, Eisenhower was a big baseball fan. There were letters on display in the library that had been sent to him from baseball personalities. A letter from Jackie Robinson dated May 13, 1958 was very impressive. He challenged Eisenhower on his statement in a speech in which he said that they need to be patient. He suggested to Eisenhower that “...you unwittingly crush the spirit of freedom in Negroes by constantly urging forbearance...”. It is a powerful letter. I went to the web and found it, and learned that Jackie Robinson wrote to every President between 1956 and 1972 stating they did not go far enough to advance the cause of civil rights. I was glad we went to the library, though other than the baseball display we didn't see anything else there. On Friday morning we arrived at our friend Steve Weiland's home in Leavenworth, KS. It was good see him again, he looked the same as he did two years ago when we were on our last trip. Steve fed us well at lunch, and then fired up the bar-b-que and fixed corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, and chicken for dinner. Steve is a great cook and added lots of good seasoning to everything. Charlie's shaggy beard was driving Steve crazy, and so he gave him a trim. Charlie couldn't see what was being done to him, but I assured him he was looking good! Charlie decided to trust both of us. Toby made himself at home. Steve has a dachshund that is 16 years old and deaf. Toto was upset at our arrival but she learned to ignore Toby, and she was very sweet. Steve has a nice deck and a big pretty backyard, so Toby and Toto were in and out constantly, just like at our house. After dinner we watched a blue ray movie on a gigantic TV with surround sound. Not what we are used to...Steve had to go to work Saturday so we left in the morning when he left. We drove on into Missouri and Charlie got tired so he took a nap at a rest stop. Then we kept going and stopped early at an RV Park in Missouri just ahead of a big thunderstorm. It was the first rain we have had on this trip, and it really came down for an hour or so. We didn't have wifi or cable so we watched the Blues Brothers DVD. Charlie slept during most of the movie though. On Sunday we went to the Bonne Terre Mine and took the walking and boat tour. This lead mine is a place Charlie has wanted to visit for many years because you can dive there. There are five levels, and the three lower levels are flooded. There is also water in part of the second level which is open for tours and scuba divers. The diving could be a lot of fun, but it would be a long walk up and back with all the gear. They do have tanks and weights at the entry point, but you would still need to have a full wetsuit or drysuit, all the other gear, plus a camera. There are 58 steps, plus a long path on an incline. Pretty daunting after a dive. The cost per diver is $65 with a guide. There couldn't be much to see underwater except rocks, tunnels, and various old mining equipment. Someone did try putting a bunch of bass in there about 8 years ago, but only one survived. They named it Bonnie for Bonne. The fish were brought in from a fairly warm and well lit pond, so it is amazing the one survived. Bonnie hangs out right at the diving entry area where she gets fed regularly. The walking tour began at the mule entrance. Before the mule entrance was created, they took the mules down in an elevator and they stayed down there until they retired. They were well treated because they were valuable, but were usually blind when they came out of the mine. At the end of the walking tour we took a 14 passenger pontoon boat powered by an electric motor. It was a short ride from the diver's entry/exit point and the boat toured around the flooded open areas. We got dripped on a lot. To get it down there, the boat had been lowered down a large shaft. At the end of the boat trip we met up with a couple of divers at the end of their dive. Besides lead and water, there are calcium build ups and there are a few other minerals that add color to the mine. Cobalt was there but it was pink. Mining tools were left behind and they are rusting and adding to the colors in the mine. We were allowed to touch everything, unlike tours in natural caverns. The mine is huge and supported by large pillars left by the miners when they dug it out. I bought a magnet at the shop and a couple of other things. Then we drove for a few more hours and had dinner at The Branding Iron, a place we had been 2 years ago. Then we went to the Cape Camping & RV Park in Cape Girardeau. We also stayed here 2 years ago. We are parked next to an RV very similar to ours. See pics....

May 17 to May 19

On Sunday we left the Riverview RV Campground and drove through the town of Estes Park to Rocky Mountain National Park. We followed the Big Thompson River most of the way and saw many more fly fisherman. There were a lot of homes and summer cottages on the other side of the river with driveway bridges. We went through the Roosevelt National Forest and the Big Thompson River Canyon. The canyon was spectacular. All we could see was rock wall on both sides of the road (and river). Most of the time we couldn't see the sky because of the overhang on the RV cab. We went to the park's Visitor Center and learned that the roads to the higher elevations are still closed due to snow, and that only one RV campground is open. So, we went to the campground and got our space for the night. We walked all around the campground to find the best spot and got a great view and privacy. We didn't know it then, but it was also a good place to see elk down in the meadow behind our site. We went to Bear Lake where we hiked a short snow covered trail from the parking lot. There were lots of people trying to stay out of one another's way, and one person fell. I wished I had my walking stick, but we managed not to fall down. Bear Lake was surrounded with snow, rocky mountains, and pine trees. The lake is at 9,475 feet, and was mostly covered with ice. It was so big it was impossible to get all of the lake and the mountains in one picture. From there we drove back toward our campground even though it was still early. We were looking forward to spending time relaxing and it was such a pretty spot we wanted to enjoy it. There were a few cars stopped in the road ahead of us and so I got our camera ready. We kept moving through there and I was looking frantically to see what there was to see. At the last second we saw a bear on the side of a hill far back from the road. I did manage to get a picture, and Charlie worked a little magic to make it bigger and closer...see the pics. We decided to stop at the Moraine Visitor's Center next to our campground. We looked at some exhibits and I got a magnet. We told the rangers there we had seen a bear, and showed off our picture. While we were still there, they got a message that there was a bear jam and they needed to send rangers to clear the traffic. Ha! Looky Loos are Charlie's greatest aggravation in National Parks. He won't stop for wildlife unless there is a turnout. So I have to grab the camera and snap away while we are moving down the road. This time we got lucky! When we got back to camp Charlie pulled out the popcorn popper that Lisa gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago. Lisa also gave us a couple of blankets, one of which has come in handy on this trip. The popper worked great and we gobbled that popcorn all up. We spotted some elk below our campsite so Charlie climbed down the hill to get a better look. He immediately came back and got Toby and me. We saw some elk in the meadow but looking further out we could see what could be a couple of hundred elk. Charlie enjoyed climbing around on the hill and taking lots of pictures. The campground was not crowded and at least one of the 'loops' was closed. But it seemed like everyone was on the move and it was not fun walking our little spinning dog. Toby wanted to chase all the cars. Dogs are not allowed on the trails in National Parks, so we took him on the loop road that was closed. That was a lot more pleasant, and we had a good long walk. We went to bed when it got dark because, for the first time this trip, we were dry camping and had no electricity. Our battery was running low even though we weren't burning lights or anything extra. Charlie thinks he should replace the battery before we try dry camping again. Monday morning the elk paid us a visit in the campground. They just strolled on down the road in front of our RV. Toby was inside and didn't see them. I wonder if he would have caused a stampede? We broke camp early and headed back to Estes Park for shopping. They have a lot of neat little shops, and we had noticed that there was a special parking lot set aside for RVs. Charlie wanted to get there early to make sure he got a parking space. So we did, and got a spot backed up to green grass, a picnic table with a shade tree, a pretty little stream, and a big rock wall beyond the stream. If I hadn't been shopping I would have sat by the stream with Toby all morning. Instead, Charlie sat inside the RV and talked to Becky and to Ruthann all the time I was gone. Oh well, he was comfortable. Before I went shopping we walked a little way into town and had a nice breakfast. I shopped for a few hours, and I bought a throw pillow which was something I had been looking for. Also I got some T-shirts for Charlie, and of course another magnet. An elk this time! Charlie asked me to look for shirts for $5 or less. I was surprised to find them. Afterward we headed back through the Big Thompson Canyon and back to the Riverview RV Park. We liked staying there because we could park right next to the river. There is also a large dog yard where Toby and I could hang out. This time we all took a long walk after dinner, and Toby got all muddy, so we had to wash his feet. He is a good dog. He just stood there while we ran cold water on him and scrubbed his little toes and legs. On Tuesday morning we left early and drove 250 miles to a KOA in Goodland Kansas. On the way we were in Nebraska for about a half hour. It was a tough drive for Charlie as it was windy most of the way. I slept some, as the landscape was the same most of the way. It was very green with rolling hills as far as we could see. We passed a number of cattle ranches, with cattle penned up almost as far as we could see. Charlie didn't like that. We crossed the Republican River. Charlie liked that, he said 'Wow'. We saw tumblin tumbleweed, something I like to see. When we stopped for lunch Charlie discovered that the pipe had disconnected from the black water tank. This morning he had filled it all the way with fresh water to flush it real good, and there was a slight drip where he had caulked it. But at lunchtime he discovered that it all had spilled on the pavement. There were chemicals, no odor, and it was rapidly drying, so we didn't really leave a mess in front of Subway! Now we are back to the porta potty. Here in Kansas, it was 92 degrees at 5pm and the humidity is 19 percent. The winds have been gusting up to about 40 mph so the breeze through the RV windows feels good. More later....

May 14 to May 16

It was a nice quiet night at Snowy Peaks and we got a fairly early start Thursday morning. It wasn't long before we were well on our way on Route 24 towards Colorado Springs. Charlie figured we were going more down than up, and we didn't feel any wind, so it was easy driving at 65 mph or more. We got to a pass that didn't seem very high, and we stopped at a U.S. Forest Service Visitors Center there, but it wasn't open for the season yet. We could see the snow covered mountains way off to the west and north, and the wind was steady and hard, pushing from the west. It was also pretty cold, but there was no snow. Charlie got back in the RV to check the GPS, and found that we had gone up to 9,500 feet. We could see Pikes Peak way off to the east, and it was covered with snow. We drove on and visited the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. It has some petrified redwood tree stumps that are huge. We could see Pikes Peak very clearly from there. Charlie talked to a park ranger in the visitors center who had moved his family from Chicago. He said it took them 3 months to get used to the 8,000 foot altitude here. He also said that his mother couldn't take the altitude so they either visit back in Chicago or she only comes as close as Denver. At times Charlie said he could really feel the lack of oxygen, it mainly happened right after he ate. I felt momentary dizziness when I exerted myself, which was not too often! On Friday, we took the cog rail to the top of Pikes Peak. The total trip was three and a quarter hours. It would have been cheaper to rent a car for the day and we could have taken Toby, but if both of us had been bothered by the altitude (which we were) it could mean trouble. I think the cog rail was more fun anyway. Charlie called the rail company ahead of time and they said they have Security checking the parking lot set aside for RVs. Altogether it cost $63. There is not much I can say about the trip except that it was a thrill. We were both dizzy, but it didn't stop us from taking advantage of the hour we had at the summit. It just slowed us down a little, walking slow made us less dizzy. I was too excited to realize that at first... We had a great time and took loads of pictures. On the way down from the summit we saw a marmot. It is different from the marmots in Yellowstone. Much bigger and has a tail like a beaver. He moved too fast for a picture though. We were on the first trip of the day, so we were back to the RV a little after noon. It seemed to be over with so quick. But the high altitude did wear us out, so we went back to the same campground we had stayed in the night before; the Diamond Campgrounds and RV Park in Woodland Park. It was a big place and wooded, so Toby and I walked all over and had a good time. Today, Saturday, we drove through the Pike National Forest and on for most of the day. Tonight we are staying at the Riverview RV Park and Campground just west of Loveland Colorado and the Rocky Mountain National Park. We got a little side tracked on the way here and drove along Route 67 for about 10 miles until it turned into a dirt road. I loved it because the road followed the South Platte River the whole way and we saw many fly fisherman in the river. There were signs posted indicating that this was where the Wigwam and Scraggy Clubs fish and the rules were posted. They included the limitation of 2 trout with a 16 inch minimum. Many of the fisherman were camping and some had their families and dogs with them. When we got on the correct route (285) we drove through miles of hills with burned pine trees and huge rocks. Then we drove through the outskirts of Denver, a very busy interstate. We encountered one of the few traffic jams of the trip. I thought of my friends at ULA, but we did not go anywhere near Littleton.

May 11 to May 13

When we left Questa we drove to Hooper in the San Luis Valley. This valley in Southern Colorado is a very interesting place. There are sand dunes, naturally hot water, gators, a speedway, and UFO enthusiasts. We skipped the speedway, UFO watchtower, and gators this trip. But I was curious about the gators. It turns out the facility started as a fish farm of Tilapia and African perch. The location was picked because of the warm geothermal water resources in the valley. They purchased 100 baby alligators to dispose of dead fish and the remains of filleted fish. What do you know, the gators grew! So they opened to the public in 1990 as Colorado Gators. Soon people with unwanted gators and other reptiles such as pythons, tortoises, iguanas, and more, started dropping them off, so they have quite a few reptiles now. We camped at the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool and RV Park. We had great views of the mountains from the RV and from the pool. We were the only RV in the park until another one showed up just as we were leaving. The swimming pool is advertised as a Natural Hot Artesian Oasis. That is just what it is too. Well water enters the pool at 118 degrees. The pool is kept at 98 to 100 degrees. To regulate the temperature, hot and cold water pour into the pool as needed. I loved standing under the hot water as it really pounded into the pool. I was not the only one, sometimes I had to wait my turn. What a great massage. Charlie did not care for it though. There is also a therapy pool kept between 105 to 107 degrees, it has jets, and it is big enough for 25 people. Charlie didn't like that either. I did, but couldn't stay in for long. A baby pool with a creepy looking fountain named Puffenstuff (a dragon with water flowing from it's nose into the pool) is out of the sun. The elevation is about 7,500 feet so it was cool during the day and cold at night. It was windy almost all the time. The pool was warmer than the air so we got in the water and stayed in up to our necks. It was just great. There is no chlorine or any other chemicals, instead the pools are emptied and refilled every Thursday. Also, water appears to be constantly flowing in and out of the pool. The water flowing out of the pool goes into a pipe and then comes out at the top of a slide below the pool. The slide empties into a little pond that is also open for swimming. We stayed two nights and used the pool as often as we could. The hours are 10am to 10pm, but they open early for adults to swim laps, so that is what we did, and then we went back in the late afternoon. During the day bus loads of school children came and took over the facility. They were not the same ones each day and they had reservations. When we weren't swimming, I napped and read and walked Toby. Charlie kept busy working on the RV. He fixed the black water pipe so we are hoping to start using the toilet again. He is getting tired of dealing with the porta potty. The worst part, for me anyway, is we avoid using it so we are always making treks to the restrooms in the parks. Let's hope it works. Other updates on the condition of the RV is that the cruise control started working again, and Charlie is now using a filter on the water hose when we hook up. Plus, the heater works! All good news...It seems like the pool is out in the middle of nowhere, and their sign on the main road is just a painting of pool water. I guess you have to know its there. If you are interested, their website is sanddunespool.com. They have some neat pictures of the steamy pool in the snow. Wednesday morning we left the pool (dang!) and went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These dunes don't compare to White Sands, but it is a striking landscape with the dunes up to 750 feet high. To get to the dunes we had to cross a melt off stream. Charlie wore sandals and I had water shoes. Toby went barefoot and the water was up to his chest at one point. Once we crossed the stream and started toward the dunes we realized that they were over a mile away. We gave up before we were even halfway to the base of the dunes. Walking in the sand was tiring and the sand was blowing into Toby's eyes. You can see him squinting in the pictures. We drove through the campground to see what it was like. The scenery from the higher vantage point was great, and would be even better at sunset and sunrise, but it was too early to stop and there were no hookups. So we drove on north. We were on the road for most of three hours and the scenery got better and better. It was tough driving though, the wind was strong most of the time and there were a lot of long climbs. It is a little over 8,000 feet here and the temperature is dropping. We are all settled in at the Snowy Peaks RV Park in Buena Vista, Colorado, a nice quiet park.

May 9 to May 10

We stayed around the campground in Sante Fe on Saturday morning and Toby enjoyed being outside up until we left to go downtown. He was very comfortable in the RV for the 4 or 5 hours that we left him. Toby is not so lucky as the cat across from us. He has a kitty door on the side of his trailer with a screened in porch. It was a cool day and we enjoyed being out in the sun. We caught the bus in front of the RV park and took it all the way into town. You can ride the bus all day for $2 so Charlie was happy with that deal. He was not as happy about the return trip at the end of the day though. We were tired and it seemed like it took forever. Also a man asked Charlie for money. That happens to Charlie all the time, I wonder what it is about him. When we first got downtown we went into a couple of galleries and stores and then we had lunch. It was difficult, for us anyway, to spot the restaurants because signs are not usually visible from the street, but we did see a big Subway sign. I was afraid we were going to have settle for that, but we didn't. We like Subway, we eat there often especially on this trip, but we wanted Mexican food. Finally we found the Blue Corn Cafe, and my lunch was pretty good. Charlie did not get what he expected so he was disappointed. Then we went to the Loretto Chapel. It is a very pretty chapel famous for its 'miraculous' spiral stairway. The stairway is 22 feet high with no center support, and it was assembled with wooden pegs instead of nails. It has 33 steps and makes two complete 360 degree turns. The stairway was built in 1876 by an unknown carpenter. The story goes that the chapel was originally built without stairs to the high choir loft. A carpenter came along and built the stairs and then left without anyone knowing his name. Check out Wikipedia for more information on that, it is interesting. The banister was installed later, in 1887, by Philip August Hesch at the Sisters' request. Though I am sure it is much safer now, the look of the stairway without the banister was truly elegant. I posted a picture of a simulation of how it looked. Next we visited the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, considered to be the heart of Santa Fe. There was some refurbishment going on and there were people praying while the tourists were looking around. Charlie didn't feel comfortable taking pictures while people were worshiping, so he didn't. We noticed that this cathedral, the chapel, and the catholic church we visited in Texas are very similar inside, particularly the ceiling. Maybe it is the southwest style or the time they were built(?) Charlie did take lots of pictures outside of the cathedral and of the statues on the grounds. He stayed there while I went across the street to the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum. It was all modern art, interesting, but not my favorite. One artist I liked at one of the galleries was Ethelinda. Her work was realistic so Charlie liked it too. Her subjects are mostly horses but she also depicts American Indians in native dress. Those paintings and lots of others were stunning. I would love to just have pictures of them. Oh well. After visiting the cathedral, Charlie took a break and I did some shopping. Charlie hung out in the Plaza and listened to some street musicians, and watched a cowboy with two blue heelers pose for pictures. One of the dogs was content to hang on the saddle in a bag. Charlie also struck up a conversation with a retired Air Force officer; so he did okay while I was off spending money. I walked up behind Charlie just as he was calling me on the phone to see if I was ready to go. We were both ready to head back to the bus stop since I had walked myself out, and Charlie had run out of things to do in the Plaza. Sunday morning we got an early start and headed for the Bandelier National Monument. I suppose it is a monument, but it is also a forest with camping. We were too early for camping, but we hiked up to the ruins of cliff dwellings that were occupied by Indians four hundred years ago. The ruins were first occupied about 1250 A.D. The houses might have held between 1,500 and 2,000 people. It is not known why they abandoned the cliffs. It was a fairly long climb with lots of steps to get up to the dwellings. There were some beautiful rock formations near the cliffs too. I took my walking stick along, and Charlie took lots of pictures. Because he takes so many pictures, it is hard for me to pick only one or two to represent the places we have visited. So, instead I pick 15 or 20 pictures! I have started a second slideshow album because the first one has gotten so big. I hope you are enjoying reading our notes and looking at the pictures as much as I am enjoying putting them on the blog. I know it is a lot of stuff but I can't seem to help myself. We kept driving north and went through Los Alamos. We actually drove onto the main facility after being stopped and searched at the gate. The guard said they conduct random searches but that they target RVs! The road we were on took us right through, we did not intend to go there. We then drove on to the town and stopped at the science museum. I watched a couple of short films about the stewardship of America's nuclear weapons and the history of Los Alamos. Charlie slept through one and he didn't show up for the other. There were lots of interactive exhibits, and I think he enjoyed those. We drove and drove through more mountains and went through Taos to a campground in Questa New Mexico. On the way the cruise control quit working. What in the world will happen next? Actually, what happened next was Charlie topped off our water tank at the Questa campground and then saw that there are clumps of dirt in the campground's water. So now we can't drink the water in our tank. We didn't drink it anyway, but now we really can't. About the only good thing we can say about the RV now is that it is comfortable to sleep in. That is important though. The Questa campground is kind of like camping in someone's backyard. In fact that is what we are doing. There are a few other campers here, a couple of them are permanent. We are at 7,461 feet here and we have some nice mountain views. There is some snow on the mountaintops, and it is cold here too. At first we didn't have wifi but they fixed it so now we are both sitting here on the Internet waiting for it to warm up outside.

May 7 to May 8

Okay so now we have seen a film about the Salinas Pueblo Missions at the Park Service Station, and we have a better understanding of what they are about. In the 1500s the Pueblo Indians were living here and were thriving. They had a rich spiritual life and knew and worked within that which was provided to them in their environment. Then the Spanish conquered New Mexico, and in 1598, Juan de Onate came to New Mexico to start a permanent colony. Salt was considered one of the riches of New Mexico but other riches (mines) failed to materialize, and agriculture was difficult in the harsh climate. Relations with the Pueblo Indians soured when they tried to collect tributes to the Spanish Crown. Since it was not profitable, the Spaniards left, but the Pope charged Spain with Christianizing the natives of the new world. So Spain decided to maintain the colony as a missionary effort. The Pueblo Indians built the missions and paid tribute to the Franciscans. In the end cultural conflict and natural disaster devastated the Salinas Pueblos. Drought, wide spread famine, and recurring epidemics decimated the population. The Salinas Pueblos were abandoned during the 1670s, and the surviving Indians went to live elsewhere. On Thursday we visited the Gran Quivira ruins, took lots of pictures, and then drove back through Mountainair and stopped in the grocery store (no Wal-Marts in sight). We went into an art gallery and saw some beautiful pieces but most would be too fragile to travel with us, so I was not too sorely tempted. I did buy a metal ornament though. Mountainair may be a tiny town with no good restaurant, but it does have a mural on a building similar to the murals in Lake Placid Florida. There were cars parked in front of it so Charlie only got a picture of part it. I posted it here. We left there and went up into the Manzanos Mountains to camp in the state park. There are trees! It was a nice quiet campground and much cooler up there. We hoped Charlie would catch up on some sleep. No Internet, that may have helped. The camp is at 7,307 feet. We took Toby for a short walk but he kept wanting to turn around. I don't know if he was tired from the afternoon in the heat at the Pueblo ruins, or if the altitude was bothering him. Whatever, he ain't a puppy no more. We listened to the wind blow hard all night long. The RV was rocking and we could hear it even with the windows closed. On Friday morning we went to the Abo ruins, the third and last of the Salinas Pueblo monuments. The Abo ruins are red like the first ones we saw (Quarai). It was nice and cool and it was a fairly level walk around a lot of ruins with some nice far away views. We took lots of pictures again. We met up with the same park ranger who was at Quarai. Charlie talked with her a little bit. She was born and raised close to Quarai. At Quarai she was hoeing the dirt to get the weeds and grass cleared out of the area inside the ruins. Charlie said she needed to use Round Up, but she said it is not allowed! The breeze was making the barbed wire sing in a nearby field. I thought it was a pretty sound, Charlie thought it was spooky! Then we went about 30 miles west where there was an RV park on the Passport America list. But since it was so early, and they didn't have trail rides for people without horses, we drove on up to Santa Fe. We drove all over downtown on tiny streets with lots of pedestrians walking in the streets taking pictures or talking on their phones. It was making Charlie crazy! He finally found a place to pull over and tried to find an RV park on the GPS but couldn't. So we drove on and I finally spotted the Trailer Ranch RV Resort, so he pulled in there. This RV park is five miles from the heart of historic downtown Santa Fe, and we can catch a bus that will take us downtown. The bus stop is just a short walk from our RV. It took over an hour to get settled in, then we caught the bus to downtown. We visited two museums that are free on Friday evenings. I enjoy the art, and Charlie does think some of it is very good and interesting. We looked for a restaurant, but they were either too expensive with stuff on the menu we couldn't pronounce, or the wait was for over a hour. So we took the bus back and met another couple heading back to the RV park. They are from Carlsbad California, not Florida! Mostly Charlie talked to him, Jim Wood, about investing and about his financial guru, Clark Howard. Saturday we will head back downtown for most of the day, and then stay here another night. Toby seems to have done fine while we were gone Friday evening. He will probably not miss more traveling on Saturday, even though he will be alone in the RV most of the day. The temperature here is fairly mild so he will be comfortable in the RV with the windows and vents open. The latest on the RV is that the speaker above my bed nearly fell during our ride to Santa Fe. It was hanging on by one screw, and there was crud all over my bed. Charlie has a speaker hanging over his bed too. I hope it does not fall on his head. This RV is an adventure unto itself!

May 5 to May 7

When we went to Carlsbad Caverns a few days ago we had to kennel Toby while we were there. We had to do the same last time and I really hated it. But if you leave your pet in your vehicle unattended you can get a ticket. So we did it. Toby is usually cooperative about such things, but not this time. While I was putting him in the crate he escaped and just ran. He couldn't get out of the room but he had high hopes. Once I got him in there the second time, he kept pushing against the door as I was trying to latch it. We did not leave him as long this time and he didn't seem to hold a grudge. But I don't want to do that again! Meanwhile out in the parking lot, another RV had its generator and air conditioner running with barking dogs inside. Oh well, at least they were kept cool. We took the elevator down into the cavern instead of walking down. It saved a lot of time, and besides we had done the spiral descent last time. The cavern floor is 750 feet below the ground, and the elevator brings you down to a shopping and restaurant area. Also there are restrooms there. Charlie was fascinated by the mens room because the cave walls pop through the normal walls of the room. This time he took pictures and I posted one here. Returning to the cavern was okay, but I was not fascinated like I was the first time. Carlsbad Caverns are spectacular, it is so big, and the formations are huge and colorful. But I must admit that caves are not really my thing. Charlie liked it though. Charlie has begun checking the elevation of everywhere we go. His Garmin indicated that Carlsbad is at 4,388 feet. We were surprised it is that high. We left the caverns and headed to an RV campground where we stayed before. It has an indoor pool and a couple of dog yards, a petting zoo, turtles on display, and playgrounds and a playroom for kids. There were lots of kids. But, just our luck the pool was closed due to a broken pump. So, we got on the Internet instead, I read, and Toby and I did a lot of walking around the camp. I wanted to see Roswell the next day, and even though he was not interested, Charlie was a good sport and took me there. I am not into all that jazz, but what would such a town be like? We found out that Roswell is a town with a theme, and that is the little alien face. The alien face was represented in every store no matter what they were selling. A furniture store had alien dummies sitting on chairs in the front window. Even Wal-Mart had the alien face and a flying saucer painted on either side of the Wal-Mart sign! We visited the UFO Museum and Research Center in the middle of town. We picked up a little green man, a little blue man, and a magnet, and we were on our way. From there we went to the Bottomless Lakes State Park outside of Roswell. There are seven small lakes bordered by high red bluffs. The park offers hiking, swimming, fishing, and scuba diving. The lakes' greenish-blue color creates the illusion that the lakes are bottomless, but they range in depth from 17 feet to 90 feet. In 1933 the bottomless lakes area was set aside as New Mexico's first state park. Lea Lake is the deepest lake and is the only one where swimming is allowed. It appeared that a couple of the lakes were dry, but we were hoping to swim at Lea Lake. Charlie tried, but it was way to cold for me. There was a nice beach though. Charlie spotted a camper that was similar to one he had seen for sale on Craig's List. This one is a Mercedes truck that was converted into a camper. The owners brought it over from Germany and they are touring the U.S. It does not have air conditioning. See the picture I posted. Charlie was awakened at 3am when a guy came into the campground and set up his tent near us. He had an old caprice running with the headlights on so he could pound in a whole bunch of stakes to setup this big cabin tent. He was up by 7am and dropped the tent so the wind wouldn't tear it up, and then he left. I slept through it all. Charlie may have been wakeful because he was worried about the security of the park. When we arrived, a park ranger was racing from the park office to the campground. When we drove by he and another ranger were checking out a real big fifth wheel. It looked like someone had broken into it because there were 3 windows missing. An older couple are the camp hosts staying near the entrance to the campground and the beach. We don't think they were taking much notice of who comes and goes. Charlie wrote... “The camp host said they got more RVers this year already than they did all season last year. It's funny how people will buy these big rigs that depreciate thousands each year, and yet they won't take them out and spend a few thousand more for fuel when the prices get high. It makes me wonder how tight their budget is and that maybe they are paying $500 a month for an RV, and they don't have anything left for higher priced fuel. It would kill me to see that expensive thing just sitting there. I guess most of them have a 10 year or more loan on the RV and are so upside down they think they are stuck. Maybe my kind of thinking will keep me from getting robbed. I will only have an RV or trailer so old that it looks like I'm just one of the poor folks living in the park; no flat screens or anything else of big value to pilfer. The crooks are right. I think Toby's dog treats are worth almost as much as anything else in this RV. Have you seen the fancy containers they come in?”.....Ha Ha Charlie! We left the park and headed further north. We went through lots of mostly open plains. It was all fenced along the road and we saw some cattle and once a few antelope. We went through the town of Vaughn and got gas, but there was nothing else there, so once we were out of town we pulled off the road and ate lunch. Charlie aimed for another Passport America campground called Turner Inn and RV Park in Mountainair, New Mexico. Charlie said when we get there he might have to turn me in. Turner Inn --- Turn Her In. Ha Ha again Charlie! We got to Mountainair early so we paid for the night and then drove on to one of three Salinas Pueblo Missions. We visited Quarai which was a thriving pueblo when Onate approached it in 1598 to accept its oath of allegiance to Spain. Three of Quarai's Spanish priests were head of the New Mexico inquisition during the 1600's, including Fray Estevan de Perea, Custodian of the Franciscan order in the Salinas Jurisdiction and called by one historian the “Father of the New Mexican Church”. Quarai was abandoned 50 years after it was built. We toured the ruins with Toby and got lots of great pictures, I only posted a few here. Salinas is a tiny old town and we could not spot any restaurants so when we stopped at the Post Office I asked if they could recommend a good restaurant. The ladies just laughed, so I said well how about any restaurant. They mentioned the hotel, but it was not exactly a recommendation, so we headed for our campsite. We are at about 5,900 feet and just about exactly in the middle of the state. Our camp is next to a highway, though it is not well traveled, and beyond that is a train track. Lots of freight trains came through all day and all night. We both stayed up late but then I didn't hear a thing after I went to sleep. Charlie was kept up most of the night I think. So this morning we are taking it easy and planning our next move.

May 1 to May 4

On Friday we visited the U.S.S. Lexington in Corpus Christi. We entered the ship on the hanger deck, a huge open area where they worked on the planes. There were many exhibits throughout the ship, but on the hanger deck there was a ship's store, a cafe, and a large theater where we watched one of two movies included in the admission price. We explored the flight deck and below decks too. We were told it would take four hours to really see it all, but we did not feel we had that much time since Toby was in the RV under the same bridge where we parked when we went to the aquarium. Charlie was a little disappointed because the whole ship was converted to a museum and there were very few areas that were as they had been when it was an active ship. But the shear size of it was impressive, and we learned some of the history of the Lexington and her crew, about other ships, and about Pearl Harbor. So it was a great experience. We were thinking of visiting San Antonio but the big city was rather daunting when it came to the RV and keeping Toby comfortable. So we went on to Fort Stockton on Saturday. Charlie sent another e-mail to David after we arrived in Fort Stockton, TX, so I am copying from him again.... “The air sure feels and breathes great here. Its warm but it will cool down a lot after dark. Its 9pm now in Florida, but its almost sunny enough to get a tan here. I have to get a gas cap tomorrow, I left it on the pump. I hope I didn't loose too much gas. Now it's up to $2.05. This is mostly a mobile home park with way more space than usual between the homes. A 2 acre corner of the park is for the RVers. Its a good spot for 14 bucks. It was humid all the way past San Antonio for maybe 100 miles and was even drizzling. Then slowly the clouds thinned and the land looked dryer. Our neighbor that pulled in after us is traveling circle ways around the country, they started in Wisconsin back a few months ago, must have been to California already, and are now heading to Florida and then home. They are older and have been doing this for years and have had a bunch of different trailers and SUV's. Now they have a suburban and are pulling a thirty foot Dutchmen trailer that the guy says has given him nothing but trouble since it was new. He says he is almost ready to junk it. He is getting better than 9 mpg with a lot more room than we have though; plus he has something smaller to drive to sightsee. That's the way I may be going but I'm going to do a lot of research and thorough inspections of any trailer. This RV is comfortable to stay in but the seats are very tiring to sit in longer than 4 hours, and its real hard to see from a left side angle when I have to yield.” ...... Then today Charlie wrote.... “We went in the Carlsbad Caverns for almost 2 hours and did the big room loop. That's the best part of the caverns. I got our parks pass there for 80 bucks and that covered the 12 buck entrance fee. Now I have to take advantage of it and I don't have any national park visits planned other than Mammoth Caverns in Kentucky. Our neighbors last night are from Sebastian, Florida. Ron is a retired Florida Highway Patrolman and Cindy works part time. They have a 13 year old male dog named Cisco who is one third wolf and half white shepherd. He has hip displasia and they have a ramp for him to get in the nice sized fifth wheel. They also get around 9 mpg and have a GM truck which I think is a 2 ton four door. Now we are at the Carlsbad RV Park where stayed 2 years ago. Its hot and I hope the amps are high enough for the air conditioner thats running now. It seems slow. This morning I defrosted the fridge because it wasn't chilling in the lower part enough and there was a lot of frost. It defrosted pretty fast, under 3 hours, and now its working good but I smelled something funny after we got hooked up. It smelled like ammonia and I had heard a faint bubbling sound as the fridge was defrosting. Hopefully its nothing. Tomorrow I think we will go to another state park near Roswell called Bottomless Lake State Park. Leigh got the brochure on it, it looks interesting, and we haven't been to Roswell before. We won't have Internet there”...... The fridge and Air conditioner are working okay so far tonight. We are meeting a lot of people from Florida!