Budget Host Nights Inn Richfield

... and the snow on the mountains brought them into good relief. I hope my pictures turn out as good as the reality was. Where it was snowing the visibility was about a quarter to half mile, so the wide open spaces were pretty invisible through the morning. But a lovely drive anyway. As I drove through Baker on Hwy 487 by the GB Parks I spotted an old car just sitting up on stilts by a display. Someone had put a head on a stick in the cab of the car ...

... Bob and Mike braved the cold one day to go fishing. I opted to keep the home fires burning in the RV (I like to fish, but not enough to do it in weather that requires longjohns. . . .). They came back with no fish--hmmm. . . But they did have some good stories about the ones that got away! It was great to see Mike again, and we had a great time even without the fish!

Today deciding that we'd had enough laziness (not really) we went for a hike. Nice enough until I made the decision to go up this huge steep hill. We walked along while I wondered how I'd get back down that huge hill. After another series of small hills we figuered we'd hit the other side of the mountain and we'd be able to come back around on flat terrain...No. The ...

... pump gas station before the estimated 70 mile rest stop that the GPS informed us was the nearest. 86 Octane for $4.07, fantastic. I bought 3 gallons and had Evan speed away as quickly as possible..a toothless woman in pick-up truck was chatting us up a little too much. As we got closer to Arches we noticed large plumes of smoke rising in the distance. As we got closer, we clearly viewed what appeared to be an extremely large fire burning out of control in the ...

A few more bus jobs for Neil, more laundry and blogging for Mel. Another nice dip in the pool for Mel, first one of the trip for Neil, then just chilling out really! Distance travelled: 0 miles Total distance travelled: 3103 miles Days on road: 32 States visited: 6 National Parks visited: 6

Not a lot to report today. Beautiful weather. Nice clean camp site. Mel's been doing laundry and blogging and Neil's been doing all kinds of things to the bus like replacing the paper-masking tape joins in the electrics with proper electrical connectors! Nice dip in the pool for Mel, nice dinner, chilling out, beer and "24"! Distance travelled: 0 miles Total distance travelled: 3103 miles Days on road: 31 States visited: 6 National Parks visited: 6

... had a special mid-week offer on and we got three nights for the price of two. After settling Mel in with the laptop and wi-fi, Neil went back into town to get all the bits he needed for the next few days bus maintenance. After a few hours of chilling out, we chilled out some more with a nice barbecued dinner and a few beers, and then some more "24"! Distance travelled: 55 miles Total distance travelled: 3103 miles Days on road: 30 States visited: 6 National Parks visited: 6

... chance we'd found the track that cut between two highway roads and leads to Clear Lake - one of the marshes round here. It went on and on dead straight with desert scrub either side and not one car did we see. MJ got out at one point and experienced the complete wilderness somewhat like visiting the moon I should think - it was about 95F and amazingly quiet. Quite by chance we came across the Lake and then a little further on spotted this long Union ...

... and he had to call it quits in Grand Junction. He is going to meet us in San Francisco.....he is none too pleased, especially since he made it all the way to CO....this is a great excuse to do this trip all over again. Once we get somewhere with a good connection, I will get the pics uploaded and a few videos.... See you in Nevada!

... famous Monument Valley mesas and Navajo reservation country. Again, check the map and you will see that we are only a few hours from Durango, Colorado (hello to Michelle: how is the day care center working out?) A few weeks ago Marshall decided she was tired of the usual cooking fare, which is always good for me. In the past week, we have had a chicken dish with leeks, a curry lamb dish-you get the idea. Just as we left Arkansas we ...