On The Road Again!

The first few days of our 2018 summer travels have been ever so nice!

When we sold our house and took off in an RV, I secretly wondered how long it would last.  Well, we are now over the five year mark, and we have not had a single regret. Oh, we have had some pretty rough moments, and there have been times when we wished we could have separate rigs. But those kinds of difficult times would probably happen in a house as well. We are human, and we have been married 52 years!  At the same time, good times seem better, and travel keeps us mentally and physically challenged and alert.  

Every time we have headed north from Southern California in the past, we have taken the fastest and easiest route, straight up the central valley on I-5.

This time I routed us on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. New roads, new sights.

Before heading north, we decided to go to Las Vegas to visit our good friends Joe and Betty. We met them several years ago at an RV park west of Yellowstone. We have kept in touch and meet up for dinner from time to time. They also have an Alfa, but have recently put it up for sale. They feel it is time to "hang up the keys." I only hope we have as many wonderful years as they have had. 

Our destination out of Las Vegas was Mono Lake, back in California. I remember driving past it once as we were returning from a ski trip to Mammoth Lake, and wishing we had time to stop to see the area.  Now we will have a few days to take in the sights, and the weather is more suitable.

One of the joys of RVing as retired people is we can take our time. Mono Lake is about 400 miles from Las Vegas, so I decided to make it a two day drive. Our first stop was at Tonopah Station, just an overnight in a parking lot behind a casino.

We really enjoyed the desert and mountain scenery going north. 

Below are two images taken through the windshield. There were more interesting views, but there were no good turn-outs to stop at with a large motorhome towing a Jeep. 

Alkali Silver Peak was in Mineral County (but this is not it)

This mountain had numerous road tracks. We think there was mining involved. 

We arrived at our RV park at Mono Lake just after noon giving us time to go over to the Visitors Center to see the exhibits, talk to a ranger, and watch the movie.

We also took a short walk along an educational nature walk that overlooked the lake.

There was just a bit of haze in the air, but the water was silken smooth. I have never seen so many shades of blue.

There were other things to see beside the lake, including baby swallows in their nests under the eaves,

and the pretty pink blossoms of Pink Peach bushes.

The ranger gave us some good suggestions for some easy hikes. 

Time to get these old bodies of ours moving again!

One last picture for the day: 


I really don't like to have a camera strap around the back of my neck. That is why I bought my COTTON 3G Camera Harness System, but I didn't have it along for this short walk.

Craig caught me taking a rest.

I also see I need a hair cut!



Tomorrow: ranger guided walk on the shore at 1:00 PM.

First Trip into Yellowstone

As "sensible" people, we chose not to go into Yellowstone over the 4th of July weekend, but I really didn't want to wait any longer, so we planned on taking our first exploratory drive into the park on Monday. As luck would have it, our Alfa neighbors, Betty and Joe asked us if we wanted to go with them to the park to see their favorite geyser go off. We learned that the park posts probable eruption time windows. Of course we were delighted to have experienced guides to take us in for the first time. And since the eruption time window was four hours long, we had good company to chat with as we sat on the benches waiting.

Grand geyser

Somehow, none of the pictures we took of the Grand Geyser really captures the power of the event, nor the height to which the water and steam shot from the ground. It is now one of my Yellowstone goals to get the best geyser picture we can.  Much like our friend Judy set out to capture the best hummingbird shot!


















We also saw numerous still, or almost still hot pools. Some were springs, and some were "resting" geysers. I'm not sure which these two were.

The colors and clarity of the water was amazing. 

Not far into the park, our first Yellowstone bison came ambling down the road. He sure was big, and very fat and healthy looking.  We were afraid he might fall asleep while walking down the road.

He just ignored our car. Except for a quick glimpse of a herd some distance away on our drive out, this was the only one we saw. Betty told us they are mostly in another part of the park at this time of the year. I'm sure we'll see many more.

The only other wildlife we spotted were two marmots on the hillside behind Grand Geyser. We just have to keep our eyes open. We do plan on taking some hikes into areas where there aren't quite as many people, and expect more sightings there.

Speaking of people, it wasn't as crowded as I expected. Some parking lots were jammed full, but others had spaces open. The other people waiting for the geyser eruption were pleasant and also there to enjoy the park.

A very nice day indeed.