9-25-16 - Heat Escape - Day 45

                                                            Beautiful, chilly morning

We decided to layer up and ride today.  It wasn’t long we were unlayering.  It was such a beautiful day in the 70’s.  Wonderful!

We rode to Bluff, Utah, looked at the pretty scenery surrounding the town and the Fort Bluff historic site.  We continued to Sand Island Campground and took a lookie.  Pretty nice.  We rode on to Mexican Hat and Gooseneck State Park.  We paid $2 for a nice view for our picnic lunch at Gooseneck State Park. We had been here a few years ago riding in the truck because of the weather.   I will type again, it is much better to be on Amber touring around sightseeing than in the truck.

We did the Forest Gump view again today. Last time we were here, I convinced Lauren to get out of the truck in the rain and run like Forest Gump did in the movie while I took his picture. Run Forest Run didn’t happen today.

                                                          Run Forrest Run

                                                    passed by Monument Valley

                                                          Horses along the road

We decided to make the loop through Kayenta, Arizona. Several hours later, we made it back to Devil’s Canyon Campground. The last 9 miles we went up in elevation and the temperature dropped 8 degrees.  Of course, Fernykat was ready to come outside and explore.  She had her a big ole time, roaming, digging, and jumping. 

We had another great campfire, cooked on the grill, and are warm and toasty in the camper tonight, thanks to the generator.


Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/DnZMVqhM5BLDDiwR9

9-24-16 - Heat Escape - Day 44

                                                                      More deer


It was a cold night last night.  We had two blankets on the bed and wished we had our electric blanket to warm up the bed while the generator was running.

We had to crank the truck, to crank the generator, again this morning, (or rather Lauren did).  Needless to say, we went looking for the NAPa store.

We spent the cloudy, cold, 39 degree morning at the visitor center to use their WiFi access.   It was slow.  We got our phone updates done, make some phone calls, (some much needed sister talk time), got a new battery, and headed back to camp.  We were hoping for warm sunshine by the time we got back.  It didn’t happen.

We have been here 3 days and haven’t unloaded Amber because of the weather; we decided to layer up and go.

It was a cold, cloudy, 52 degrees when we took off to Butler Wash Indian Ruins and Natural Bridges National Monument.  The Indian ruin was a hike that our camp host had recommended.  It was a pleasant hike with some more amazing masonry skills of our ancestors.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had gone to Natural Bridges many years ago in the truck because it was raining.  It is a lot more scenic and fun, (even though it was cold), riding Amber instead of in the truck.  It was a little hot hiking in our attire, so we only took a few short hikes.

I put on all the layers I had for the ride back.  I had my sweater turtleneck, my cuddle dudds, my hoodie, my gloves, and my knit headband (thanks Jean).  It was a nice ride until about the last 8 miles, then it was cold.

We cooked some good ole ranch crappie on the grill tonight, while standing by the warm campfire, enjoying the sunset and watching a  momma and baby deer.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/dmcoBip2SBtxSbUK6

9-23-16 - Heat Escape - Day 43

                                                                Black sheep

We slept good until about midnight last night when the thunderstorms hit.

We woke up to a cloudy, cold, 39 degrees this morning. When Lauren went to crank the generator to run the heater, the camper battery was dead.  Lauren hooked up to the truck the camper battery to crank the generator.  I love it when a plan comes together.

Ferny decided it was too cold to get out of bed this morning.  I covered her up in the blanket and she went back to sleep.

We decided we needed to buy a gas can and fuel up the generator.  The closest Walmart was 70 miles away.  We had planned to go sightseeing on Amber today instead we went in the truck.

We had a pretty ride to Hovenweep National Monument.  We hiked the 2 mile trail looking at the towers the Pueblo Indians built. Those guys had pretty good masonry skills.   We thought the trail was easy until we walked down in the canyon and back up the other side. 

We continued on to the Walmart in Cortez, Colorado.  It was a pretty busy town.  Got our goods and went back to camp.

family of jackasses

                                                                 leopard app

When we got back home, we woke up Fernykat.  She had been under the blanket all day.  It wasn’t long until we realized why she stayed under the blanket.  As we were cooking our hamburgers on the Hollywood charcoal grill, I went in and put on my cuddle dudds and my gloves.  It was too cold to sit around a campfire.

 Needless to say, as soon as the burgers were ready, we went in.  We have the furnace heater and the electric heater running and will be getting an extra blanket for the bed tonight.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/f8KE3XFxMpG5xL8G9

9-22-16 - Heat Escape - Day 42

                                            Opened the blinds to this view

We got up today and opened the blinds, we watched 3 deer walking around at our campsite.  We put our riding boots on, and then realized the weather forecast for 25 to 35 mile an hour winds was correct.  There was supposed to be gust of 65 mile an hour winds.  We decided to stay at camp.

                                                                  wind got worse

We took a couple mile hike in the campground this morning.  The camp host and hostess stopped by as we were walking and gave us a map and good info for the area.  After we got back to camp, they came by and gave us firewood.

We hiked through Manti-La Sal National Forest and didn’t see any wildlife, not even a chipmunk.  I guess they were hunkered down in the brush being the wind was howling.  We hiked over 6 miles total today.

We didn’t realize we were going to be dry camping for a few days when we left Jensen, Utah.  Our water supply was getting a little low. There are water spigots throughout the park, but you are not allowed to connect to fill your camper.  So we used 1 gallon jugs, and poured it in the tank. This kept us busy for a while.

The wind was so bad that we let down the gate in the toy hauler and sat in the garage to stay out of the wind. It wasn’t long before we had to close the gate because it was getting cold.  The wind seemed to be blowing harder and harder.  We were glad we didn’t ride Amber today.  

Hiding from the wind 

It has been a windy, cool, first day of fall here.  We won’t be burning firewood tonight in this howling wind.  We cooked chili cheese burgers inside, took a stroll through the campground, and we are calling it another early night. It is not even dark and we are going to bed.

We have been pretty sorry today!!

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/nyy6Bf2hRWVes29v7

9-21-16 -Heat Escape - Day 41

                                                     Good Morning from the Conoco

It was a long night last night.   We slept in the Conoco parking lot with a few more people.  I kind of felt sorry for the baby sleeping in the suburban as we were sleeping in our queen size bed.

We ate our subway breakfast sandwiches, then went to the Monticello Visitor Center and looked at the big old tractor that was before World War One.

We got to Devil’s Canyon Campground near Blanding, Utah and set up camp. Not much to setting up camp when there are no hookups.  Fernykat was busting a gut to get outside.  She loves it here.

We hiked about 6 miles.  We ended up going down a dirt road that led us to a pretty canyon.

It was cloudy most of the day but no rain.  The sun came out this afternoon while grilling pork chops.  As we were sitting by the campfire, the bottom fell out.  We are typing by the Etekcity LED Lantern again tonight. 

                                                    Life is sooooo good!

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/QFntrbX4VBZtxdG27

9-20-16 - Heat Escape - Day 40

We left Outlaw Trail RV Park this morning a little later than we expected because we were enjoying shooting the bull with the campground owner. 

Our destination today was Moab.  We went the long way around on Highway 191 to avoid Douglas Pass.  Everyone, including Fernykat, was happy that it was a much easier ride across this 9114 foot summit.  We finally ate lunch around 3 pm at a nice roadside park.

                                                      some color on the mountain

Lauren and I hate to plan too far ahead of time.  About an hour before Moab, I started calling campgrounds and found that the private ones were full.  We decided to try the BLM campsites with no hook ups for $15 a night.  After going through the 2 campgrounds at Ken’s Lake, finding all the sites taken, having a really hard time turning around our big rig in the “big rig friendly campground,” and seeing all the traffic and people in downtown Moab, we headed south to get away from all the congestion.

We found a couple of campgrounds about 60 miles around Monticello that were not to our liking.  We stopped at the Conoco station.  Lauren inquired and found out we were welcome to camp in their parking lot.  We shut her down.

I consider this boondocking, Lauren said it is parking lot camping..  There was a subway in the Conoco store, so there you have it, supper.  As we were eating our delicious subway sandwiches, we watched 7 deer at 7:30 pm go back and forth across the road, as the cars were dodging them.  The deer and the cars all made it safely. 

                                                          deer look like ghost in the pic

I am conserving our battery power tonight. So I am typing using my Etekcity LED Lantern. Thanks again to my St D family.

We sat inside for a while people watching.  After traveling 300 miles in 7 hours, we will be calling it an early night tonight.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/DjoYPnNskmfy6dwv9