Montrose - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Our last day in Grand Junction was pretty low key. We went to the Dianosaur Museum, which was almost across the road from our RV park. I guess we are still kids at heart.

Craig was also facinated by the sight of the Colorado River almost overflowing its banks. It too was very nearby the Monument RV Park in Fruita.

Then, on Wednesday, it was time to drive south to our next stop, a Jellystone Park in Montrose, CO. Because it was only an 80 mile drive, I had plenty of time to prepare one of my favorite comfort foods, stuffed red and yellow peppers when we got there. The first night it is good, and there is always more than enough for a second dinner.



When I was making our plans for this summer, I wanted to go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I had a litle trouble finding a place to camp. The campgrounds in the park did not seem to have available spaces for motorhomes, and the few closer RV parks that were listed online, had mostly long term renters. They are not always the most desirable places.

We ended up at Jellystone RV park, eight miles South of Montrose. It is about 26 miles from the South Entrance to the National Park. 

 On Thursday, I packed our lunch and we went off to see what we could see.  I was feeling better, but Craig started coughing, so we took it easy. Just driving, only short hikes to the overlooks.

We drove the Rim Drive and stopped at almost all of the 12 view points. Most required only a short walk to the overlook. The ones we skipped required more walking and it was hard for me to breathe at altitude.

The Black Canyon was carved by the violent waters of the Gunnison River over millions and millions of years.

At every view point we were awed by the dramatic rock walls. The power of water, wind and time is amazing.

This rock cliff, called the Painted Wall, is the tallest cliff in Colorado. If the Empire State Building was stood at its base, it would only be half as tall.

Signage at one of the overlooks explained why the two sides of the canyon were so different.  The erossion of the rock faces carved out by the river are effected by the different amount of sunshine each receives. 

It is called the Black Canyon because of the dominant color of the rock walls, but in places you can see lighter striations caused when another type of rock oozed up through the cracks while in the molten form and cooled there. This took place when they were both far below the surface of the earth.

We also drove down the East Portal Road which goes all the way down to the river.

Although the road was paved, it was still quite curvy and descended at a 16% grade.  We were glad there was not much traffic and we drive a Jeep.

I think it was a very nice day. Our travels are starting well and we are both very happy that we are still living the full time RV life after six years.  We have no time to be sick, so we have to recover quickly.  

Life is good.

Not really better, but ...

Briefly : I will live.

My doctor (actually a physician's assistant) said I do not have pneumonia. This is good.

I do have bronchitis, which in my thinking is just a very bad cold.

The "doctor" prescribed several meds and said I should be better in a few weeks at the most. I did a breathing treatment in the office, and will be using an inhaler for awhile.

I now am the owner of a Nedipot.  

I hope I get the hang of using it.

Enough about being sick!   

I will be resting for 2 days before we get on with our travels. 

Craig has succeeded in installing our new Xantrex charger/inverter.

Stay tuned to this channel!

Colorado National Monument

Today we went for a 23 mile drive through the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.

The scenery was fantastic. Unfortunately I am getting quite sick. I started with a cold several days ago, and inspite of taking cold medications and spending the entire day in bed yesterday, I am getting worse, not better.

I plan on going to an Urgent Care first thing tomorrow. I don't think it is the flu, since we had our flu shots last fall. It might be pneumonia, like I had a few years ago, but I haven't had some of the usual symptoms. No chills for example.

Craig and I took lots of pictures. He will provide the words below.   The images are in order on the road from Fruita to Grand Junction. 

Lots of bicylists on the main road.  Catching this one in this image was accidental.

Independence Rock is the CNM's best-known feature. The founder of the NM climbed it on July 4 after Pres. Taft declared the place an NM.  

Each July 4 a bunch of people climb it, plant a flag and (presumably) have a party. Limiting one's alcohol consumption when one had to climb down this 450 foot rock would be easier than at most parties. Perhaps no one brings any alcohol.

These formations look like things we've seen in Utah

Early settlers called these bulging cones "the coke ovens"

The arched shallow caves make this my favorite image of the day

The Visitor Center movie said each valley was carved by a tributary of the Colorado.
That looks questionable from here!

But the movie is right about this one.

Closer to Grand Junction, there were lots of other photogenic scenes, but not many turnouts at which to stop and take pictures.

Why? An " RV only" Blog Post

Well, we are on the road again.  The following short post does NOT include anything about our winter trip.  I have a few more posts to do about it, but this is about what we are up to now!

We drove from Jojoba Hills to Fruita (Grand Junction CO area) in three days. It feels great to be out again, and the scenery has been beautiful. We've had a few problems, but overall, everything will work out!

So, WHY does Craig have a fly swatter suspended from the pull string of the large shade on the driver's side window?

Because while we were traveling down the road a fly kept bothering him. 

He successfully swatted it, but in doing so the swatter got tangled up in the pull string on the shade. 

An amusing situation, but not permanent. We untangled it when we next stopped. And scraped the fly off the window.




Here's another one.  Why are the bedroom windows of the Alfa draped with a bedsheet? 

Because ... We took down all of the mini blinds so we could have them professionally cleaned and restrung using an Ultrasonic process.

After many years of having no more than a light dusting now and then, the blinds were getting quite gross. I had heard about this "Ultrasound" process, and had tried to get it done over the winter when we were at Jojoba. I called several companies, and either they did not service our area, or they did not return my calls. So I found one in Grand Junction CO and made an appointment for now.  I will let you know how it worked out in another post. We took them all down ourselves and took them into the company that will clean them. It will take two days, and although we don't mind if other campers can see into our kitchen at night, we really don't want them to be able to look into the bedroom. 

We started our summer 2019 travels four days ago. The first days of driving can often be extra hard as we get used to the travel routine and deal with mechanical failures or problems that so often happen after a long parked period.  

This time one occurred when Craig was leveling the coach on our second night of travel. We don't know if it was the leveling jacks that caused the problem, or just a timing coincidence, but as he was leveling we heard a horrible noise and smelled electrical burning from under the entry steps. Craig shut the leveling down and quickly opened the access door and saw black smoke coming from the Xantrex inverter/charger.  

Thankfully there was no fire, we did get leveled for the night, and were able to continue on the next day.  It was clear the Xantrex was dead and must be replaced. Craig tried to find someone in Colorado who could order a new unit for us, and install it in a reasonable time. No luck. Most RV repair places are booked out weeks in advance.  

Craig was able to find one on Amazon, and it will be here at our park on Monday. He has evaluated it as a simple installation, since the new one is exactly the same model as the old one. Meanwhile he bought a small charger to keep the batteries charged. 

One view from the tower at the Museum of the West

The scenery driving across the Eastern part of Utah and into Colorado was beautiful, and we look forward to exploring some of it by Jeep. 

Today we started our Colorado experience with a visit to the Museum of the West in Grand Junction. We have been to other Museums with similar objects, but it is good to refresh our feel for the history of where we are.

Check back for more news. 

Wonderful Whole Grain Bread! and #13 Back to Yangon, and the First Day in Vietnam

Sunday June 2:

We both spent the day taking care of any last minute departure details we could think of. I cooked a dinner (Chinese Fried Rice) that we could have more than enough leftovers for Monday. 

I also boiled the eggs for, and mixed up, a batch of egg salad so I could quickly put together sandwiches in the morning. We have found a wonderful whole wheat bread, at Walmart of all places. 

I have been using it to make avocado toast in the mornings, and am looking forward to trying it for our road-lunch sandwiches. 

Next Asian post: #13 Back to Yangon, and the first day in Vietnam. 

The drive from Inle Lake to Yangon was long, but it was on good roads. We stopped about half way to meet one of Joko's fellow instructors for a nice lunch, which gave us an enjoyable break. 

We stayed at an airport hotel so it would be easier to catch our flight out to Hanoi the next morning.

Including the afternoon of the day when we aarived, but not the day we all departed, we had five and a half days to do and see as much as we could in Vietnam. Joko had never been to Vietnam, so we relied on a guide book and the internet to decide which of many things we wanted to see. 

Our hotel was within walking distance to the heart of the Old Quarter of the city. After checking in we walked over to get tickets for the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre for that evening. It was highly recommended.  It is often sold out, but since January is not the busiest tourist time in Hanoi, we had no problem. It's one of those things you have to see to appreciate, and I find it hard to describe it accurately. It was charming and had an "old Asian culture" feel. 

The show was colorful and the music was pleasing. If you let your imagination rule, you might feel like you were being entertained 100 years ago. No photography was allowed, but I was able to get these two pictures from "images" on Google.

We got up early the next morning and really enjoyed our hotel breakfast. In fact we enjoyed all of our meals in Vietnam, in part because of the strong French Cuisine influence.

Craig had somehow lost his reading glasses on the plane, so our first errand was to find a new pair. 

The Old Quarter is a warren of narrow, streets and alley ways lined with small shops and eateries. We didn't see any eyeglasses at first, so we started to ask some of the vendors.  We were directed to a particular street and realized that every one of the dozen or so shops on the street was an eyeglass store. Apparently different streets specialize in different things. We had started on the streets that sold sundries and souvenirs.

Craig was delighted to find a shop that could put the right strength of reading lenses (+1.5) into a pair of (Italian) frames he liked. For $8.00 US he got a pair of reading glasses, better than any he could find on a US drugstore rack.

Next up was a walk to Hoan Kiem Lake, in the center of the historic area,  and the Temple there. 

We walked across this bridge to a historic shrine.

Here are a few pictures from the Shrine Grounds:

The inside was much different from what we had seen in Buddhist Pagodas. 

By noon we were getting hungry.

Photo by Sharon Chen on Unsplash from web

One of my favorite lunches when we are "out and about" back home, is a nice bowl of Pho. So it was natural for me to want to try "real" Pho in Hanoi.

Joko checked his phone for a recommendation and we found a nice, clean  restaurant. The Pho was just as good as it is in San Diego!

I liked the restaurant because it had actual tables and chairs. 

Many of the eateries only had little plastic stools outside for the customers to sit on. 

Note: We didnot eat here.





That afternoon we went to Hỏa Lò Prison. We know it as the "Hanoi Hilton" where John McCain and other American POWs were held. It is now a museum, and one section is devoted to the American prisoners. It was interesting to read the story from the Vietnamese view. 

This detail of the wall above is a jarring representation of the torture endured by the prisoners.  

The prison was built by the French in the late 1880's to incarcerate Vietnamese political prisoners. 


Most of the prison is gone, but in one of the remaining cell blocks, life-size statues are positioned to show what it must have been like.

But nothing can really show the pain, suffering or smell that pervailed.



Our visit there was a sombering experience. 

On the other hand, this more modern sculpture speaks of a strong and healthy young people. One thing I don't understand is what is the man in the center carrying? The young lady has a knife, the young man has a rifle, but what is that cone thing?  

Saturday and # 12 - A boat trip on Inle Lake from Nyaungshewe

Saturday at Jojoba:  
We did enjoy the movie Rocketman yesterday afternoon. One of the perks of being retired is going to afternoon matinee shows.  Less expensive and we can drive home before dark.

Coach improvements for the day = installing new windshield wipers, and checking tire air pressures.  Life is tough!

Next segment of the South East Asia:  # 12 - A boat trip on Inle Lake from Nyaungshewe. Warning, this is a long one!

Our son, Gil MacKenna, AKA Joko

When we arrived in Nyaungshewe, we celebrated our safe arrival, by having drinks at the rooftop bar of our hotel. 

From there we had a wonderful view of the lake and surrounding area in the fading sunset light.

Every day of this trip brought new experiences. Our boat trip, the next day, was no exception.

Joko had arranged for a Inle Lake boat tour through the front desk of our hotel. The boat driver met us, after our breakfast, at the hotel, and walked with us to the dock just a few blocks away.

There were many long boats lined up. Ours was the one on the lower right, with only three seats that each had a chair cushion, lap blanket, and umbrella. Some of the other boats had more seats, for larger groups. 

This type of boat is used for many purposes in addition to lake tours. The people in the boat above were locals, either men going to work or boys going to school. We also saw some transporting cargo.

From the dock at Nyaungshewe, we went up the river, past a residential area, and into Inle lake.  

Our boat was propelled but a puttering motor that sounded like it might die at any moment, and was steered by our driver perched precariously on the back. 

The air was cool, but the sky was clear and it promised to be a glorious day.

Once out on the lake, we watched fishermen balancing on the tip of their boats with large fish traps. We decided the two in the lower picture were visiting during their morning break.

From the lake we went up another river. There seemed to be many people living along it. I hope this was only a foot bridge across, but from some of the things we have seen it could have been used for vehicles as well!

I felt a bit voyeuristic as we passed these local women doing their laundry and washing in the river at the same time. Again I noticed their carry-all buckets and baskets contained personal products.


We docked at a pier below the Phaugn Daw Oo pagoda. 

This boatload of women, passing the dock area, were from a local clan that wear a distinctive head covering. They were among the vendors selling mostly woven goods at the complex.

When we got off our little boat, I asked Joko when we would have to be back for our return trip. He explained we had the boat for the day, and our boat man would watch for us and pick us up when we were ready.

Unlike the large urban pagodas of Yangon and Mandalay, with their fancy retaining walls and enclosed elevators, the hill below this pagoda was a rough area filled with hundreds of ancient vine covered stupas.

As we wanderd among them, we met this herd of Brahman cattle being moved by a single boy.  They are said to be very gentle, calm animals.

Some of the stupas were in very good condition. Some even seemed relatively new, or at least restored.

And some, like this one with an old dead tree on its top, were very old.

Coming back down, we went through a long covered walkway. 

It was very well maintained and provided welcome shade since the day was getting a lot warmer.

As we got closer to the dock area, the sides of the walkway were occupied by vendors selling many interesting locally made crafts.

This man had no arms and only one foot. and yet he painted intricate designs on a variety of bowls, cups and boxes.

These cups were made from the cut off bottoms of water bottles. If nothing else, Kudos for recycling!

The only things I usually bring home from a trip are pictures. Even before we moved into an RV, I was never fond of knick-knacks or souvenirs. But I did buy the two little cups in the image above. If you look closely you can see they were marked 5000 Kyat. That's a little more than $3. Joko wanted to bargain, but I wanted to pay full price, just because of the skill and determination that must have been needed to overcome such a disability. 

We had a nice little lunch at the cafe by the dock and then flagged down our boat.  One of the places we motored through on our way back were "floating gardens".  

In this area of the lake, farmers have created extensive artificial islands that are planted with  tomatoes, cucumbers and other crops. The islands are created by anchoring large bunches of water hyacinth from deeper areas of the lake with long bamboo poles. I guess it is sort of like reverse irrigation. Instead of bring water to the crops, they bring the crops to the water.

An entire community lives out on the lake in homes built on stilts. One thing I noticed about many of the structures in Myanmar was that they do not have glass windows. Instead they have shutters that close either side to side or from the top down.  

We also stopped at a little dock to visit a shop displaying weaving done by Kayan Lahwi women. It almost seemed like a human diorama for the sake of tourists, but this is how these women make a living, and I'm sure they help support their families by being looked at. In part their culture is part of their product.

The women of the Kayan Lahwi clan wear brass neck rings from the time they are about five years old. The rings do not really stretch their necks, rather they put pressure on the collar bone and rib cage to make their necks look longer. 

In this picture you can also see a whitish makeup on their cheeks. This is called thanaka, and is a paste made by grinding a special bark on a slate slab. It has been used for over 2000 years and is said to protect the skin from sunburn and keep it smooth and acne free. We saw its use throughout Myanmar.

I think we had a total Stupa overload. We motored back passing the Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung Monastery without any desire to stop. 

As darkness fell, the sunset was reflected in the water below

At the end of another fine day, we relaxed again at the very plesant roof top salon. The roof and overhang were designed to give ample shade and protection from rain, and the walls were only waist-high.

On the wall ledges there were pieces of fresh ginger root about every three or four feet. I asked the bartender why they were there, expecting to hear they were an insect repellent. No, in fact, they were for good luck and keeping evil spirits away! 



Maybe I should keep a piece on the Alfa dashboard. 

We need all the good luck we can get.

One last picture:

We saw this contraption on the street when we went out for dinner. 

We guessed it was a "Honey Wagon".  I have to admire the creative constructions one can see around the world.