Black Canyon of the Gunnison

A visit to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a must if you're ever in this part of Colorado. For years, we have hoped to see the magnificent scenery, and today we had our opportunity to visit the South Rim.

We had breakfast and coffee on the patio table outside the motorhome, looking across the pastures to the mountains beyond before we left for the Park.

The required photo at the park entrance:

I wish I could post all 166 photos from the day, but we'll start with the first stop at the Visitors Center:

Volcanic origins and the steep slope of the walls make the canyon black. Shadows conceal craggy abutments and narrow channels.

Canyon walls are interrupted by narrow rock ridges that were formed from a harder material that was infused into cracks and crevices millions of years ago. The surrounding softer rock eroded, leaving these "dikes" protruding into the canyon.

The dike just below the Visitor's Center is a wonderful example of this activity.

The view at The Chasm viewpoint:

And at Painted Rock, where different types of liquid rock filled cracks and crevices, and the Gunnison River is approximately 2,770 feet straight down!

Dams upstream collect water and provide electrical power, but when untamed, the Gunnison rushed through the gorge at 12,000 cubic feet per second, with a 2.75 million horsepower force, dramatically scouring the riverbed and eroding canyon walls. This view is looking straight down at the river.

The Gunnison River exits the 48 mile long canyon and meanders through the valley beyond, providing irrigation and drinking water for many agricultural towns.

This is the view from the picnic table where we ate our lunch and Sasha played on the rocks.














Fortunately for us, after lunch we spotted a group (passel? gob? nest?) of small worms merrily crawling around in a wispy web hidden in a bush.

This solitary tree guards Pulpit Rock:

Having completed our tour of the South Rim early in the afternoon, we headed east for a bit on Hwy 50 to take a look at the Crystal Reservoir. I only wish that California Lakes were this full!

When we returned to the motorhome this evening, Sasha and I went for a walk. On the way we were invited to visit our friends from West Monroe, LA, Duck Dynasty Country and their Boston Terrier. You may remember that he weighed 40 pounds when we saw him last night. Well, I failed to get his name then, so I called him Big Boy.  His name? Lil' Bit! LOL! Sasha made a shambles of their motorhome, but they were very gracious and we all left with a few more Boston stories to tell!
After dinner, Mike and Becky brought dessert and Lil' Bit and visited with us for awhile. They are a super couple, very nice, and we're sad that they are leaving tomorrow. Hopefully our paths will cross again one day!

And, of course, Sasha was being her normal 90 mph self!

Till later.

Into the Rockies

Two Hundred Thirty Five miles from Price, Utah, we are enjoying the crisp temperature and star filled sky of northwestern Colorado. The area around Montrose, Co, is primarily cattle ranching country, with hayfields scattered about, and the occasional field of row crops. We dropped south on our old friend US 50 out of Grand Junction this afternoon, and arrived at the Centennial RV Park about 2:30 pm. The managers are friendly, and the park is a Passport America park as well. It's also a Good Sam park, so we were given the PA rate for one night, and the GS discount for the rest of the time we'll be here. Cool! The park is a stone's throw from Hwy 550, but is so quiet and peaceful, you would think you're a thousand miles away.

The road south out of Price was a bit lonely,

But as we approached Moab and the Canyonlands, the scenery improved.

In Colorado, the landscape changed and the sky became twice as big as it had any right to be.

We stopped at a roadside rest for lunch, and marveled at the beauty of our country.

As soon as we settled into our site, we decided to go into Montrose for a bit of semi-emergency health care. Donna wasn't feeling her best, so a "quick" five hour visit to the local Doc in a Box got her a prescription and a promise of better things to come. We returned to poor Sasha about 9:00 pm, and shook out the cobwebs with a nice walk around the park. About 1/2 way around, we met another Boston Terrier, out for his constitutional, and the two BT's got along famously, even though he weighed 40 pounds and Sasha "only" weighs 19! Big Boys owner lives in West Monroe, Louisana, about four miles from the Duck Dynasty compound, and we made plans to meet again to talk about the dogs and maybe walk together.

Tonite is a full moon night, and it's beautiful with the snow-capped Rockies just to the East, and the bright moon lighting up the peaks like a string of diamonds. Colorado is a spectacular state!

Games, Part (French for "three"?)

Today, Sunday was a long travel day for the likes of us. We left Elko, Nevada, early, knowing that we needed to drive 350 miles. We're on our way to Colorado, so as we entered Utah, we were greeted with a sign that we don't see in CA:

Those legs at the top are not a giant frog leaping over the motorhome, but part of a handmade flamingo given to us by a dear friend that we keep hanging from the center of the windshield! Wait, we don't keep the friend hanging there….. You'll notice there's not a great deal of excitement on I80 between Elko and Salt Lake City, as evidenced by this pic:

Boredom is a huge factor, and the state of Utah has signage along the road warning against falling asleep. Once south of Salt Lake City, on Hwy 6 toward Price, UT, the terrain changes dramatically.

We're approaching the dramatic vistas of Moab here, and the terrain is preparing itself to blossom with all the colors of the rainbow.

Tonight we're once again in a Super Walmart parking lot. A bit busy, but perfectly level and perfectly acceptable for an overnight stop. The temp is a toasty 85, and is expected to only go down to 57 tonight. Oh boy! The breeze is brisk, though, and that will cool things off a bit after sundown.

So now we're all caught up!  Tomorrow its Colorado and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This will be another tribute to my father who visited here years ago and raved about the scenery (and the fishing!).

One last thing: Our lovely niece in the midwest is preparing to undergo surgery this next week. While we all are keeping a stiff upper lip, please send a good thought to Jill. She, incredibly, has the ability to keep our spirits up in spite of her own issues. She is a lovely and special lady, and needs our support.  Thank you.

Games, Part Deux

On May 27, our youngest granddaughter graduated from 8th grade. It hardly seems possible that the four grand kids are growing up! Emily is an accomplished young lady, having earned Best Student awards in two of her classes. She is at the same time a lovely, intelligent person, and a teenage pain in the neck. How does that happen? I will tell you that we love her dearly, and know that she will do great and wonderful things After her promotion ceremony, we enjoyed ice cream and home-made CranApple pie with a home-made crust! Delicious way to celebrate!

The next day, Donna and I couldn't contain ourselves any longer and fired up the motorhome and hit the road. Our first day got us 190 miles east to just outside Carson City, Nevada, to visit old friends and enjoy the warm, pleasant weather. Larry has a genuine knack for woodworking, and without a great deal of formal training, is able to craft wonderful pieces of furniture. Having recently moved out of California to Nevada, Larry and Kathy have found themselves smack in the middle of turning a brand new house into a home, and I must say, they've done a wonderful job. One of the first things Larry built was a large smoker, so guess what greeted us for dinner?

Two of these bad boys! With potato salad and a special recipe for BBQ beans, we left vowing never to eat again. Larry has also just completed building an outside bar for the patio out of used wine barrels. It is magnificent, and with strategically placed LED lights and a flat screen TV, it is a comfortable place to hang out!

We stayed in the Dayton RV Park, a compact but comfortable park with wonderful hosts and plenty of room for big rigs.

We joined our friends the next morning for a $1.99 breakfast at one of the local casino's. What a deal! Eggs, bacon, potato's and toast! After that we cruised up Six Mile Canyon Rd to Virginia City to spend the day walking through an old gold and silver mining town. In the day, Virginia City was one of the richest in the country, and boasted the states' first newspaper. In fact, Mark Twain worked as a reporter at the Territorial Enterprise prior to going to California.

It is said (with some liberty with the calendar) that Mark Twain visited the Delta Saloon from time to time, and may even have visited the Suicide Table.

Virginia City is a quintessential late 1800's mining town that has reinvented itself as a tourist destination. The narrow streets and old buildings take a visitor back 150 years in the blink of an eye.

Of course, the church played an important part in daily town life.

After a dinner of ice cream and cookies (because we can), D and I retreated to the motorhome for a good night's sleep.

The next morning as we left town, our friends waved from the side of the road near their new house! What a send-off, and what a great time! 292 miles later, we found ourselves firmly planted in the parking lot of the Super Walmart in Elko, NV.

A three mile walk through a nearby residential district yielded this picture of a rose bush (in the high desert, no less!)

Let The Games Begin!

Whew! It's been a whirlwind of activity recently, and Donna and I are looking forward to a change of routine. After my Mom's 95th birthday celebration, we enjoyed some time at "home", fixing and puttering, eating and talking. We enjoyed much good time with family and friends for about three weeks, and then the fun began!

A quick 1500 mile trip to Seattle to visit a friend also gave us an opportunity to spend an afternoon with some California neighbors who have just had the good sense to move to Washington state!

We spent a lovely afternoon with Bob and Gabi in the little town of Enumclaw, WA. The name is pronounced exactly as it is spelled, but the waitress in The Kitchen restaurant told us the locals call it "Enumscratch"!

Back home, it was a series of Dr visits, errands, and honey-do's nonstop for a week. Service the car, wash the motorhome, attend our grandson's performance at the Sacramento Music Festival (formerly the Jazz Festival). He was great, by the way!

The highlight of the week home had to be a special day my family created to celebrate my upcoming birthday. I was told only to be up, dressed, and ready to travel at 4:30 am. My son-in-law, Monte, and I jumped into his car and off we went, picking up my son a bit later, and heading west toward San Francisco. Feeling somewhat like I was standing on the edge of a cliff getting ready to jump, I waited for the next "something" to happen. And it did in a big way! After driving for about an hour and a half in rush hour California traffic, we turned toward a small local airfield.

Now, I gotta tell you that my father was in WWII, in the Army Air Corps. He was part of a maintenance squadron tasked with keeping the planes flying, and, as such, spent many hours in a B-17 doing shakedown flights, both in the US and the South Pacific. His only comment about his job in the AAC was that he was always concerned when the sparks began to fly! He never again set foot in an airplane. In honor of his service, I have developed an attachment to the old bombers, and particularly to the B-17. So guess what my eyes saw when we got to the air field:

The most beautiful 80 year old B-17 you can imagine!

The Collins Foundation keeps a variety of B-17, B-24 and 25, P-51 fighters, and such alive and well and flying. The Foundation does an annual tour with the planes, and they were making a stop in the Bay Area, and the family had arranged for "the Boys" to take a flight!

Monte and Jeff were well prepared with water, cameras, and cell phones! After a short orientation session that primarily told us to not touch anything, we climbed aboard. The crew chief positioned us in what had been the radio room on three seats. Two of the seats were cushions on the floor and one was a fixed chair at a small desk. All had wide, heavy, original equipment seat belts. The overhead, or ceiling, had two large holes open to the outside. Originally access hatches, the panels had been removed, so we took the opportunity to stick a head and a camera out and look back at the rear of the aircraft.

Those lines are the cables going back to control the "stuff" at the tail of the plane, and they were the first things the crew chief told us "don't touch!"

We nosed about the plane, looking forward toward the pilots cabin:

At about this time, my cell phone camera decided to quit, and I couldn't take anymore pics or videos. I haven't imported pics from the Boys yet, but will do so asap.

The noise as the engines started, the vibration as we taxied to the runway, and the trembling of this great racehorse of a plane as the "Nine-o-Nine" was held in check waiting to be released to leap into the sky was indescribable! As we looked out the small plexiglass window toward the wing, we could almost feel the anticipation that this thoroughbred felt.

My Father, and the boys grandfather, spent many unhappy hours in this tail gun turret while testing and refurbishing the planes. Early on, the support for the plane when landing was a metal skid, resulting in a shower of sparks completely enveloping the tail section. This was later changed to a wheel arrangement.

As Monte checked his phone, and Jeff began to take pictures, the pilot released the beast, and soon we were airborne. On the one hand, the flight seemed to take hours because there was so much noise and activity, and on the other hand, it took only seconds! These planes required a knowledge of when to use brute force and awkwardness, and when to use a gentle touch. Forgive me, but there is a reason most of the aircraft were named after beautiful women. Jeff was fortunate to stand in the machine gun turret just behind the pilot during the landing and reported that the pilot was pushing and pulling, straining and grunting during the descent. No fancy electronic controls here!

The entire experience is going to be one of the most memorable of my life. I remain in awe of the men who flew these planes, and the sacrifices they made. We will remain ever grateful.

A Burger Bar dinner with all of the family completed the day.The burgers were delicious, the beans were superb, and the macaroni salad was to die for! As we ate the most delicious four-layer chocolate cake made by Jamie, Jeff's wife, I was presented with birthday cards. On each very nice card, family members had written sentiments that brought a tear to an old man's eye. Thank you Teresa for preparing the meal, Thank you Jamie for the wonderful cake, and Thank you to my lovely wife for promoting the whole deal!