Colorado

Saturday, May 15th.

This morning, we left Utah driving south on Hwy 491 and arrived in Mancos, CO around noon. After lunch we checked into the Mesa Verde RV Resort and headed to the Mesa Verde National Park. This is the only national park dedicated to the preservation of manmade, as opposed to natural, creations.
This was once the home of the Aasazi Indians now known as the Ancestral Puebloans.  At first they lived in pithouses and later became clift dwellers.

More hikes allowed us to tour the clift dwellings.  We sure are getting our exercise.

We checked out the underground Kiva, which was a gathering place for ceremonies or sometimes a place used for weaving.

Rob exited the Kiva first and just as I was about to climb out, I heard him say to the others standing around, "Watch out, here comes a bear!"  They all had a surprised look on their faces, and I thought about pushing Rob off the clift.  Then I remembered that I would have to drive the RV back home. 

Utah

Thursday, May 13th

We started the day by visiting Bryce Canyon, UT. 

 

East of Bryce Canyon, we travel scenic Hwy 12 across the northern border of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  This area has many tiny Morman settlements which were almost completely cut off from the outside world until the middle of the 20th century.   After driving up to the 9,600 foot summit of Boulder Mountain, we joined Hwy 24 which seperates the Waterpocket Fold and Capitol Reef National Park, then across the San Rafael Desert, just west of Green River.

There was a new beautiful sight around every corner. 

We arrived in Moab, UT about 6 PM and stayed at the Canyonlands Campground.  It had been a long day and so much to see that our necks were sore from turning one way and then another.  The weather had been wonderful for most of the trip.  We went from cold snow to warm sunshine.  We will spend two nights here.

Friday, May 14th.

We woke up refreshed and ready to go again.  First we visited the Arches National Park.  It was beautiful and we took a couple hikes along some trails. 

We had to hike up and down a mountain to get to this spot.  We were quite proud of ourselves.

Rob got to drive the Jeep on one of the 4-wheel drive trails.  He thought that was fun.  I wasn't too sure about it.

In the afternoon, we visited the Canyonlands National Park: Island in the Sky.    I have run out of words to use to describe all these places.  They are just so spectacular.

As it begin to get late, the rain clouds moved in and we headed for our campground.  It started to rain just before we went to bed.  That sure made for a good nights sleep.

Nevada, Arizona, Utah

Saturday, May 8th.

Leaving California, we headed south to connect with Route 66 in Victorville the home of Roy Rogers and Dale Edvans where the old Route 66 begins to seem real.  We visited a small California Route 66 Museum where they were having a Car Show.  Of course, Rob enjoyed seeing all the cars.  There was also a group of students from a California school, who were playing Bluegrass Music, which they had learned in their school.  What a surprise, Blue Grass in California.  They were good.

Continuing on along Route 66, we drove on some very rough roads.  Very soon, we decided to get back on I-40.  Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Boulder, Nevada at the Canyon Trail RV Park.  Saturday night we took a sceinic drive drown Las Vegas Boulavard.  I have never seen such bright neon lights and so many people.

Sunday, May 9th.

After church on Sunday we visited Hoover Dam.  This was a very impressive sight.  It marks the border between Nevada and Arizona.

Monday, May10th.

Leaving Nevada, we drove south to Kingman, Arizona and took Route 66 again.  First we visited a much larger Route 66 museum.  This section of the road was in much better condition and there were many of the original buildings along the way.

At Seligman, we turned north toward the Grand Canyon.  The wind was picking up again and it was difficult driving.  It turned very cold quickly.

Tuesday, May 11th.  We toured through the Grand Canyon.  Such a wonderous sight.  It's not possible to describe what we saw.

It was snowing while we were there. 

Wednesday, May 12th.

We moved from the area by driving along the east side of the Grand Canyon and arrived in Utah about noon.  The sights are wonderful and the land is changing around every corner.

We drove the scenic route Hwy 89 to Bryce Canyon, UT where we spent the night.  The temperature fell to below freezing.

Lake Isabella, California and the Giant Sequoias

Thursday, May 6th

Today, we drove what seemed like many miles east to the Sequoia National Forest.  We drove up and down and around the mountains,  Our GPS nearly exploded.  There were so many hairpin curves, that it kept recalculating because it thought we had made a wrong turn.  It got so confused, it would tell us to turn right where there was no road, just a clift.  Then it would tell us to turn left, where there was only a mountain side.  Finally we just turned it off.  We checked in at the Lake Isabella KOA campground and will spend two nights here.

Friday, May 5th.

We left our campsite this morning for an adventure in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The landscape here looks just like you would see in an old western movie.  John Wayne, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Humphrey Bogard and Robert Mitchum stared in movies made in this area.  Driving higher in the mountains, we arrived in the land of snow. 

Before long we came to the "Trail of 100 Giants".  That is giant Sequoias.  They are the largest living thing on earth.

Below is a picture of what people around here like to do.  If you look closely, you will see a man in a one person canoe going down the river.  He looked like he was having fun just like the surfer guys we saw a few days ago.  I still think I will enjoy that fun from the sidelines

Tonight, back at the campground, the staff served us ice cream.  In the morning we will head for the Mother Road, Route 66.

Restful Day at the Bay

Tuesday, May 4th

After sleeping in this morning, we decided that we were tired from all the fun we had been having and all the miles we have driven, and what we really wanted to do was just relax with no special place to go.  In the afternoon, we decided to drive a couple or three blocks down to the beach. 

There was a good wind and several people were surfing.  We sat on the shore and watched them quite a while.  It looked like they were having fun, but it looked so dangereous to me.  I think I'll stay on the beach.  The information about the rock behind Rob says it was made by volcanic activity.  It's name is Morro Rock and stands 576 feet high.

Wednesday, May 5th

This morning we got up all rested and ready to do some more exploring.  We drove north to San Simeon, CA, the location of the William R. Hearst Castle.

  

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The castle is so big I couldn't take a picture of all of it.  It has 144 rooms, including 36 bedrooms.

This is just the entrance to the swimming pool. 

This is a picture of the pool.  Hearst spent 25 years building his castle. 

Before returning to our campground, we stopped to look at the Elephant Seals laying in the sun on the beach along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Mostly they were just laying in the sun, but occasionally one would flop over on another one and they would get into a scuffle.  It was fun to watch them.

Tomorrow, we plan to leave the coast and  turn our journey eastward.

Morro Bay, California

Monday, May 3rd

Today we left Los Angeles, driving north along the Pacific Coast.  It took a long time to get out of LA.  That sure is a big place.  Around noon, we arrived in Simi Valley, CA and visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

We saw an exact replica of the Oval Office as it existed during Ronald Reagam's administration.

We walked through the airplane, Air Force One, that served seven presidents.  We really enjoyed this stop. 

Continuing on, we drove north several more hours through some of the prettiest country we have seen,  green mountains and canyons.  We arrived at the Cypress Morro Bay campground in Morro Bay, CA.  This place is completely different from LA.  It is a quite little fishing village.  Tomorrow we will do some exploring around here.  Tonight, we should sleep good.  The weather is wonderful.  We plan to stay here two nights.

Los Angeles, California

Friday, April 30th

This morning we headed north to Los Angeles.  We drove up the Pacific Coast highway and was able to see the ocean at various location.  It was such a pretty view.  About 2 pm, we decided we better head inland so we could get to our campground before night.  It wasn't long before we got into such bad traffic.  Mike had warned us that the traffic was really bad around Los Angeles, but we could have never imagined it as bad as it is.  At some places there were 11 lanes of traffic on our side of the road and 11 lanes on the other side.  By the time we arrived at the Fairplex KOA in Pomano, CA we had decided that we would try to find a sighseeing tour the next day.  Let somebody else do the driving.

Saturday, May 1st.

We found a tour company that would pick us up at our campground and show us everything we wanted to see.   They picked us up at 9:30 AM.   It was a new van and there were 9 of us plus the driver on it. One couple from Canada, one couple from India, one couple from Australia and one other American.  Our driver was very entertaining and knowledgable.  We were so thankful that we didn't have to be driving in all the crazy traffic. 

Our first stop was downtown LA.  We saw the Music Center and Disney Music Hall.  They were also having a demonstration regarding the immagration problems that are currently a hot topic around here.

Next we headed to Hollywood.  That was really fun and interesting.

We walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and saw some familiar faces. 

We saw the Kodak Theater which is home of the Oscars; then we boarded our bus and drove up Mulholland Drive and saw the famous Hollywood Sign.

We drove through Beverly Hills.  We drove out Sunset Blvd.,  Melrose Avenue, and Rodeo Drive.  We saw where the rich and famous live.  We saw where Dr. Phil lives.  We saw where Michael Jackson was living at the time of his death.  We drove past the Playboy Mansion.  So much to see.

We ate lunch at the Farmers Market.  Established  in 1934, when farmers parked their trucks on an open field to sell fresh produce.  It's still the best grocery store in LA, as well as resturants from around the world, and shops of all kinds.  It was really a neat place.

In the afternoon, we drove to Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach, and Marina del Rey.

We arrived back at our campground at  7:30 PM.  What a fun day!

 

Sunday, May 2nd

Today we went to church in Chino.  In the afternoon, we visited the National Hot Rod Association's Motorsports Museum.  Rob enjoyed looking at all the old hot rods.  We will stay here one more night.

San Diego, California

Wednesday, April 28th

Today we drove south to San Diego Metro KOA in Chula Vista, CA which we later discovered is about 8 miles north of the Mexican border.  It is a beautiful campground  filled with roses, green grass and trees.   We attended Bible Study at the church in Chula Vista.  One of the highlights of our trip has been the meeting of other Christians in the different areas and studying with them.

Thursday, April 29th

This morning we explored the San Diego Zoo, one of the largest in the world. 

Another cold, windy day and even the animals were hesitant to venture out in the open areas.  However, when it came time to eat, they were ready to venture out in the open. 

It had been a long time since we had visited a zoo and had fun seeing all the animals.  We walked up and down hills until we just couldn't walk any more.  We especially enjoyed seeing the bird show.

After leaving the zoo, we visited Old Town San Diego, Little Italy, Seaport Village, the Gaslamp Quarter, and Coronado.

Finally, at the end of the day we got to see the Pacific Ocean.  Because of the winds, there was not much activity in the area.  All activites had been cancelled due to the wind.  Still the sight of the ocean is always impressive.  We will spend one more night here.

Tucson Sights

Monday, April 26th
Today we spent the day in the desert.

Our first stop was in the Saguaro National Park.  This type cactus can reach heights of 40 feet and live as long as 200 years.

 

Our next stop was at Mission San Xavier Del Bac.  It is know as the "White Dove of the Desert" and was built by Franciscan missionaries beginning in 1778.  It was so impressive.

In the afternoonm, we moved from the period in time of the 1700's to the Cold War 1960's by stopping at the Titan Missile Museum, the only Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile silo anywhere in the world preserved intact and open to the public.  It was in active use from 1963 until 1982.  The tour included descending downstairs into the control room of the hardened silo, which still contains a 110-foot-tall Titan missile (de-activated, of course).  Rob volunteered Carolyn to be the Captain and demonstrate how you would launch the missile.

We had experienced enough fun for one day, so we decided to follow our GPS and return to our campground.  Suddenly we were told to turn left.  We couldn't understand the reason, but did as we were told.  The GPS said that we were turning unto an unpaved road.  We ended up out in the middle of nowhere on what was not much more than a  one lane dirt road.  We wondered if we would every see our family and friends again.  After three miles, we came to a iron gate which seperated us from a paved road.  A note was on the other side of the gate.  Rob got out, opened the gate, and read the sign, "Please Close Gate".  After a deep sigh of relief, we continued our journey and happily found that we were only a short distance from our campground.  What a day!  We later discoved that our GPS was set on shortest route and not the quickest route.  No more dirt trails for us, maybe!

Tuesday, April 27th.

Today we  left Arizona determined to get to California.  The temperature is in the 90's.  The wind picked up again in the afternoon.  We arrive in Palm Springs, CA around 4:30 PM, which is a very pretty upscale acrea. 

We continued on a few  more miles to our destination at the Banning Stagecoach KOA in Banning, CA.  Time for a restful night.