April 13, 2015 – Hares, Herds and Heights
Our travels out of Ely continued on today on Highway 50, “the Loneliest Highway in America”, until we turned off onto an “Even Lonelier highway in America”. I am thinking that the ad writers for the first phrase had missed the turn-off onto Highway 487 toward Baker, NV and the teeny burgh of Garrison, UT (where the Utah highway is renumbered as Hwy 21). This route travels through desolate, but vast ranching country. Once again, like highway 50, it occasionally rises to reach heights over a pass and then drops back down into wide basins with the road running as straight as an arrow for miles until another mountain range must be crossed through a pass. Roadkill is always problematic, but after seeing the long ears of a few bunnies (“they are just sleeping, Sandy) on the pavement, we realized that these must be very stupid hares indeed! Given the scarcity of any vehicles, they would have to either be suicidal… or fall sleep on the road, or run back and forth across the road – FOR HOURS – in order to be unlucky enough to become roadkill. (Don’t bother collecting those rabbit feet! They didn’t do the owner any good – unless, of course, it was a suicidal hare!)
About halfway down Highway 21 towards Cedar City, as we began another climb to a pass, we encountered quite a number of sheep on the road. We slowly negotiated our way through them, but as we rounded a corner, the road was completely blocked by the larger main herd. As we stopped to let them pass, behind this herd we could see a cowboy (sheepboy? lambboy? muttonman? Okay…a herder!) on a horse steadily herding the flock past us with the assistance of 4 or 5 sheepdogs. It was great fun to watch. No other vehicles were present for the spectacle!
We fuelled up in Cedar City, and then continued on toward Springdale, and then Zion National Park arriving about 2:30. Plenty of time to locate a campsite? Wrongo! The time changed in Utah to Mountain Time, and the campgrounds were all full – an hour ago. The helpful ranger pointed us to an RV Campground in Springdale, and we found a beautiful site there – right on the Virgin River.
The mountains surrounding the Virgin River are truly spectacular, and Zion Park is one of those “must see” geological formations that seem to be so plentiful in the US Southwest! Some peaks are jagged and red, while others seem to be covered with frosting and have much gentler rounded edges. However, sheer rock faces rise extremely abruptly out of the valley below – a mountain climber’s paradise, methinks!
Today, Monday April 13, we paid our fees for exiting the Park to the east in a few days. (We must pass through a tunnel, and because of our width, traffic control blocks traffic both ways until a bunch of wide RVs are through. We have to pay $15 for this pass which is good for 7 days. We also acquired an annual Park pass for $80, as we will probably be in quite a few of National Parks on this journey.
Since there is no vehicular parking within the park area, you must visit the park vistas via a shuttle bus (free). So, we caught the shuttle bus to the end of the route, and walked up the river canyon trail with many others. Some rented dry suit pants and water shoes and continued walking up river past the end of the trail. You can continue up through several bends in the river canyon by wading in the river. Its temperature at this time of year is about 40 F. (Today’s air temperature was 82 F.)
This morning, while cruising through the campgrounds checking out the recently vacated sites, suddenly a woman in one of the most desirable river-side sites came out and stopped us to say that they would be leaving within the hour and, if we left chairs, we could have their site. (The folks at the next site wanted to interview me for suitability!) We jumped on the opportunity. Strange coincidence: it is exactly the same site that we had here about 7 years ago – the only other time we have visited Zion! We have booked our very special campsite for 4 nights. Tonight we met our neighbours from San Diego. Jack and Cici have travelled extensively in this area, and may be visiting Vancouver Island and BC in the near future.
All is well. High winds are forecast for tomorrow afternoon and evening. We’ll rock and roll, and I’ll probably think a lot about sailing!
Love and best wishes to all!
Sandy (the Quilter) and Tony (the “Quill”)
April 11, 2015 – From Woodburn to Ely, Nevada
Our trip south from Woodburn on Thursday was basically uneventful, but pleasant. We are very fond of Oregon, but the view of Mount Shasta from the top of the Siskiyou Pass always signals that we are finally heading into the “southwest”. We spent Thursday night at “Friendly RV” in Weed. We have stayed here before, and were ready for the near freezing temperatures at night.
On Friday, we headed a few miles south of Weed, and then took Hwy 89 and then 44 to Susanville. This trip is through high pine forests with snow still at the sides of the roads, and is very beautiful until you reach the fire-devastated area of Hat Creek in the Lassen Forest. Apparently about 60,000 acres of forest burned in two separate fires in the Lassen Forest last summer (early August). Crews were still on clean up operations as we passed through. At Susanville we turned onto 395 to Reno, where we made a rest stop at a Walmart.
Highway 50 took us west of Reno to Fallon where we stopped for the evening at Fallon RV Park – about 4 hours of afternoon travel. When I filled out the registration card, “Tony” who signed us in, commented on how special any “Tony” is. I agreed. Shorts and Tees lasted only about an hour before the wind picked up and chilled us down.
Today, Saturday, we continued on through Austin and “Eureka – the Friendliest Town on the Loneliest Highway in America” to Ely. This highway 50 is truly shunned by most traffic, however it is noted historically as the main route for the Pony Express! We would travel for miles without seeing another vehicle. For miles, the road is level (or slightly elevated or declining) and then suddenly it climbs and twists through mountain passes – possibly 4 – 6 of them before Ely. (Pronounced ee’ -lee.) The Toiyabe and Shoshone Mountains just west of Austin are a spectacular sight! We stopped for about an hour in Austin to walk the main street and view the array of antique cars on display.
The Toiyabe Mtns 
The speed limit is pretty consistent at 70 mph, and this steady travel has enabled my truck to get its best fuel consumption rating ever! I think I will rename this route the “Tony Express” – after my new friend in Fallon, of course. (The average consumption over two days is 14.0 L per 100 km. This translates to about 17 mpg for those who are stuck in pre-System Internationale mode.) Just as an aside…it turns out that 15.3 L/100 km is also 15.3 mpg!
We have found our way to a KOA just south of Ely. It is too chilly to sit outside, so we are making use of our WiFi while we await supper – my turn to cook. I am blogging, Sandy is learning Spanish – I wonder if she is getting ready for New Mexican quilt shops!
Much love and best wishes to all!
Quill and Quilter
April 8, 2015 – How’s the Money Supply?
As usual, it was a bit of a wrench to leave our Lindsay clan in Walnut Grove, and this year, the melancholy was a bit deeper perhaps, because they have sold the beautiful house. The good news is that they are moving into one of my favourite urban areas in BC – Fort Langley. (See also Atlin, and Kaslo!) So, although we were able to assist with a bit of ‘getting ready to move’, there is much to be done, and the move will still be in play when we return in mid-May.
Rather than plow through all the traffic circles down to Linden, we opted for the Pacific Border Crossing south of Cloverdale. Nice run from WG, and although we still don’t have our Nexus Passes, it was only a 20 minute wait at the border. The Border Guard was typically unreadable, and somewhat curt, but he asked “Where are you off to?” (I decided not to tell him that he shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition!)
“Santa Fe”.
“How long will you be gone?”
“About 5 or 6 weeks.”
“How much US cash are you carrying?”
“About $50.”
“That won’t get you very far.” (No smile, but WE thought it was hilarious!)
He followed up with a bunch of questions on our finances. What is it with this information requirement? (The Nexus Pass interrogation was another unsettling experience at the Vancouver Airport in mid-March.)
In any case, we are now on our way. We cleverly dodged Portland rush-hour traffic by hiding out at Fabric Depot. (We could have also hid out at Rockler Woodworking, but apparently it isn’t as safe.)
We arrived too late at Woodburn to do a check-in, so we chose a spot and asked a fellow traveller for the numerical key to the washrooms. Since I also found the password to the WiFi, all is well. We will now head for northern California before cutting east…unless we change our minds – a 50:50 chance!
Much love and best wishes to all!
Tony, (the Quill) and Sandy (the Quilter)
Closing the Journal from September 2014
Well, it has been some months since my last entry – mostly because we don’t “road trip” in wintertime. However, I must apologize for leaving readers hanging in my last entry last Fall. For reasons of mostly laziness, I just never finished our journey – on paper. We really did enjoy the remainder of our trip to Yellowstone and return through Idaho, and out to the Oregon coast. Five highlights now stand out in my mind as I look back on our return trip from Yellowstone National Park:
1. Craters of the Moon in Idaho is truly spectacular bleakness of black pumice! We climbed a cinder cone and drove through the park on a brilliantly sunny day. The surprise was that this extensive devastation was volcanic activity that was barely 2000 years old!
2. Our road selection from looking at maps has become easy. I call it the “Accountant System of Travel”…Don’t go on the red – take only black! These roads, for the most part are 2-laned, travelling through beautiful countryside where you can get up close and personal with the scenery and locals. The pace is a little slower, but there is little traffic.
3. We fell in love with the downtown and Snake River frontage developments of Bend, Oregon! The City Fathers (and probably a few City Mothers!) have done a beautiful job of planning this and bringing the trail system to fruition. Nanaimo City should send a team there to research the potential!
4. As we headed west out of Bend, we (me, obviously) selected a “new” route to travel to Eugene – via a route that was marked “No RVs over 30 feet”. Since we measure only 22 feet with bikes hanging off the back – we were okay…I thought. It turns out that in addition to very tight turns, the road, though paved, was extremely narrow, and although most of the traffic that we passed consisted of motor bikes, the odd car, or worse…motor home, had us hugging a non-existent shoulder edge of a steep drop-off. Near the top, we were, once again, travelling through a very large lava bed of a long dead volcano, and, in trying to avoid a collision with another motor home on a banked curve to my right, I suddenly noticed that I had almost opened the side of the camper on a sharp protruding lava flow rock.
5. The rest of our trip continued in beautiful weather, and when we reached the Pacific, we located several beach campgrounds on the Oregon coast. At one of them, in the late afternoon, the beach in the sun was too hot to sit (95 F) so we stayed in the shade of our campsite.
The travel up through Aberdeen was fabulous, and traffic very light. We were able to squeeze onto a last minute arrival at Pt. Angeles ferry for the trip to Victoria. It was good to get home.
And that entry leads us to our newest travels. We are heading for Santa Fe, and the next 6 weeks will have entries covering our journey and thoughts!
Love and best wishes to all!
Tony (the Quill)
Routes and Revelations – Is Truckhouse an ‘Arvey, or not?
Our chosen campground on Sunday evening was a short distance out of Bozeman. “Martin”, the Manager, lead us in a furious downpour to our site. We had watched the ominous approach of those dark clouds for several hours after we left the Lewis and Clark Caverns. (Who would name their kid “Merryweather”, and then let him go out roaming the countryside? Somebody could have beaten him up!) By the way, those caverns were pretty spectacular, though the tour was quite long, and…well, chilling! – with bats, and temperatures down to 6 C. And also ‘by the way’… L & C NEVER saw those caverns. Perhaps Montana ran out of famous people to name places after.
Back to Bozeman…and our quiet RV park after the rain…the Sunrise RV Park sits right between the freeway, and the intercontinental train tracks. Trains are frequent, and very regular, and let us know they are passing (just in case we didn’t hear the rumble) with 4 boasts of their whistles. Nice night!
It rained off and on, but was finished by morning when we headed for the west entrance of Yellowstone, once again at the uniquely named place of West Yellowstone! We wandered through town and into another QUILTING shop. It turned out to be mostly beads and trinkets, so my partner declares that this doesn’t count. However, I need a show of hands…how many think that a shop that has the word “Quilt” in its name should be considered a quilting shop? (The I’s have it!)
On into the National Park. The sun shone, and we immediately grabbed a camping spot at Madison. This is a large camping area, and since the afternoon was ours, and the road east of Old Faithful would be closed after Labour Day, we decided to spend our afternoon there. It was truly a stunning experience for folks who had never visited Yellowstone! We arrived at the Old Faithful geyser just moments before it erupted, so were able to get that experience behind us.
For the next few hours we wandered the trails around that area as well as many of the off-highway “roads” between there and Madison Camp. Most of those roads were marked “No buses; no RVs”. So, the question arose…”Is Truckhouse an RV, or not?” We seem to be accepted as both, since we can happily park in RV sections at rest stops, but we can also fit into car parking spaces. Needless to say, we ignored the signs – with a bit of trepidation, and carried on down those one-way paths, seeing some glorious, yet sulfurously stinking pits, ponds, and bubbling holes. The fresh air at Madison was a welcome end to our day, as we listened to a rather lengthy, yet informative, talk on Yellowstone’s history at the amphitheatre’s “fireside” presentation. Final note: nights are getting very chilly – approaching 0C!
On Tuesday the amount of traffic on the highways indicated that, while the young folks were back in school here, the seniors were certainly out and about, so we headed north towards Mammoth Hot Springs, with a stop at Norris Geyser Basin where we embarked on a lengthy looping trail through the maze of sulfurous geysers and holes reminding us that we were treading on the crust of a dormant volcano. With this spectacle behind us, we headed on to Mammoth, where crowds jammed the parking lots and trails around the rather spectacular scenery. We added our bulk to the jam, and joined the throngs, until we were footsore, and ready to head to the next campground at Tower Fall. We stopped briefly to take a pic of a distant antelope, and another of a couple of sheep/goats/whatever, and then arrived at the turn-off to the campground, where a sign informed us – “FULL CAMPGROUND”. Oops!
With no other option, we began the long climb over the pass to our next possible campsite at Canyon. The climb had some spectacular vistas, but “You watch the road”! from my partner, as well as concern for space at the next site kept me hustling down (up, actually) the road. I passed thousands of slower RVs hoping to make it into the campground before the “FULL CAMPGROUND” sign went up at Canyon Campground but alas, even that exaggeration wouldn’t have helped. It, too, was FULL! So, with Yellowstone gradually shrinking ahead of us, and no intention of retracing our steps, we finally headed to Fishing Bridge RV Park – for ‘Arvys ONLY! That’s Truckhouse! And…there was room! (No soft-sided units because of bears, apparently.) And…it is the most expensive ‘Arvey Park we have ever stayed at.
With little left to see in Yellowstone, and even less desire to contend with the horde of sightseers who were fighting for camping spaces after at least one 400 site campground had closed after Labor Day, we gladly carried on south into Grand Teton National Park with the spectacular Teton Mountains rising straight out of the plains (no foothills) to the west. (I bet Kodak made a ton of money on that vista over the years!)
And so, we spent Wednesday evening at Colter Bay Campground on Jackson Lake. We got there just about noon, so we rode our bikes, lazed, read, and explored. We also went to a presentation on the Shoshoni people who inhabited this area in the summertime during past centuries. We learned the next day, at a second presentation, that the Shoshone were decimated in a slaughter at Bear River in Idaho in the 1870’s.
GT Park has done right by cyclists! Parallel to the road through the park – starting at Jenny Lake, there is a multi-use path, though both of us agreed that there sure weren’t enough camping spots available. On Thursday, after many stops to photograph the Tetons from different perspectives, we finally landed at Gros Ventres Campground just out of Moose. Just before arriving at the campground, we stopped at the Craig Thomas Visitor Centre near Moose Junction. There, we watched a very good National Geographic presentation video on Grand Teton Park. It was entertaining!
Again, after landing at Gros Ventres Campground, because it was early afternoon, we rode our bikes a couple of miles down a gravel road called Mormons Row – named after a historic settlement that managed to successfully farm the infertile soil. I planned on taking a great pic of one of the standing buildings, but alas…my battery was dead, and besides, it was a barn, for goodness sake! We then watched a coyote bound away through the grain fields – stopping to check on us every few bounces!
Today, we stopped to go through the National Museum of Wildlife Art, but after parking, and admiring the awesome building, we entered and were met by an officious lady who asked if we were “with the Rhodes Scholar group”. (“Glad you asked, but no…we are with the Senior Quilters and Woodworkers of Nanaimo”. ) We discovered that even seniors were being charged $10 each! We passed on the artistry, and found an exit!
Jackson Hole – a cute, but very touristy town. Apparently, “Hole” doesn’t describe the living conditions – it refers to being in a Valley. Thank goodness I paid attention to one of the information sessions! It provided groceries and a scare for us! After shopping at Albertsons, Sandy packed the groceries into Truckhouse. I went to warm up the truck, and found it unlocked. Another oops! But not the worst! When I checked my pockets, my keys were missing. Check pockets up to 5 times, and then admit loss to Sandy. Okay, that sends the daytime temperatures up a lot!
We race back into Albertsons, but Lost and Found doesn’t have them. Neither were they turned in at the Starbucks counter where I bought the coffee. Back outside, and a thorough retrace of my movements! Then, back inside the store, where the plan is to search all the aisles where I had wandered. Sandy starts at Starbucks, and immediately finds them under a rack where I had grabbed a bag of coffee! Okay, we can both breathe again, so we headed west again into Idaho, and maybe, I won’t count that West Yellowknife Quilt Shop after all!
Once again in beautiful weather, we wound our way over the passes into Idaho. It is harvest time, the leaves are beginning to turn, and farmers were busily combining the rolling hills creating quilting patterns with symmetrical cuts. (Sandy suggests “breadboard patterns”! I think we are in synch!) The scenery was beautiful. We finally landed at Idaho Falls at the Snake River RV Park…all services, and even a train track next door. Good news…the rail traffic is less than the Island Rail!
Forecast: chance of quilt shops, less possibility of tool/toy shops!
I am delighted that so many friends and family members are still linked to this blog. Best wishes, love, and good weather to you all!!
Tony, the Quill
And now…Sandy would like to add a word about her quilting intentions:
I know you are all feeling sorry for the poor Quill, loitering outside all those quilt shops, looking lost…….. Reality: I am looking for a specific piece of fabric to border a completed quilt top…not wandering, admiring, drooling, buying. First stop, he was outside enjoying Whitefish, laughing and joking with Bob (5 minutes max). Second stop, Bob suggested a shop in Kalispell that had thousands of bolts of fabric. I quickly ascertained that the needed fabric was not available, and then joined the boys in a Cabela-type store where they were admiring outdoor toys. The third stop DID have “Quilt” in the name, but it should not be classified that way since it only had a few bolts of wild-life fabric.
(Sandy’s comments have been edited, and by the way there is that synchronicity again – “bolts” in a quilting shop; “bolts” in a toy shop!)
roadquill1 