Going to the Desert

On Saturday morning April 24, I packed up my unhappy cats, and I headed for Utah, to go out in the desert. My first stop was lunch in Glenwood Springs with my friend Charlie, who I have known almost fifty years. I had not seen him in some time, so it was good to catch up. 

My destination for the evening was Island Acres campground, east of Grand Junction.   About the time that I got set up, it started to blow and rain.  I found a roof leak that I will need to ix when I get home.   After that passed, I hiked along the Colorado River.  Later that evening, it resumed raining.   There were winter storm warnings for the mountains in this area, but luckily no snow at this elevation.  I was a bit concerned that the rain could make the dirt roads in Utah impassible. 

On Sunday morning, I woke up to steady rain.   I drove to Grand Junction, went to church, bought a few groceries, and filled up the gas tank.   The sun came out midday.   I took the walk through time in Rabbit Valley near the Utah line, and saw some dinosaur bones.  (Look closely to the lower right of the sign, giant vertebrae.)   But heading out into the middle of nowhere on muddy dirt roads did not seem prudent. 

I instead drove down Utah 128, and stopped at Dewey Bridge, the first campground.   I met some interesting folks there.   Marie and Michel from Aix en Provence France had a rented RV.   She was sketching, and he was taking photos.    They have been to the states several times, and may be interested in a home exchange.   Josh and Heather were driving a 1970s Volvo.   He was wearing a suit, and she had a skirt, so between the car and the clothing, I figured that there had to be a story.  They were Jehova's Witnesses from Minnesota, on their way to Arizona.   Apparently Josh and his father have ten Volvo's between them, mostly for parts.  They are thinking about moving to Prescott Arizona.   Josh and Heather were the only other people camped in the campground. 

View from Dewey Bridge campground

On Monday I drove down Utah 128 towards Moab, admiring the scenery, and stopping to watch some cowboys and cowgirls drive cattle. In Moab, I stopped in the BLM office, where they gave the general option that the roads were not bad. I headed northwest from Moab, looking for the middle of nowhere. I turned on a dirt road that led to a small quarry. There was a wire gate in a barbed wire fence, and no sign, so I walked down the dirt road, where I found a flat rock area, and decided to camp there, having found nowhere, at least to my satisfaction. The views were excellent, including the snow covered Manti-La Salle mountains.

 I slept in on Tuesday morning, and then went for a two hour hike along a dirt road. Most of the dirt road was pretty straightforward, except for a very steep section with big steps. It looked impossible going up, but possible coming down, if you had big tires and were willing to scrape. I saw a few off-road bikers in the distance, and some large jackrabbits. The bikers were apparently on the popular D3 off-road trail.  

On Wednesday morning I hiked to the top of a nearby hill. This involved some scrambling, and was generally harder than I had expected.   After a two and a half hour hike, I took a break, and then decided that it was time to head for home.   I packed up and left.   Not a soul had gone by my campsite in 48 hours.  However, as I was closing the gate behind me, someone drove up, so I just missed them driving by my campsite.

I drove first to Moab, mostly because I was frustrated by my difficulties in finding where I was on the Utah Gazeteer, roughly 200,000:1 scale.   Even the best map that I found in Moab 75,000:1 scale, did not seem very helpful.   When I got home I was able to take the GPS coordinates and figure out where I had been.   ;-)  

I spent Wednesday night in Rabbit Valley in the large camping area (parking lot).  There was one other vehicle there, a truck with a horse trailer.  A little more desert.

On Thursday I drove home.   I did discover a nice Rest Area in Edwards, with a dump station.  I will remember it for future trips.

All in all, a pretty good trip.  I definitely got away from it all.......

Omaha and Kansas

I flew to Omaha on Saturday the 28th. Sandi picked me up at the airport. We went to mass and then to an art event, where I met some of Sandi's friends. I wore my copper baseball hat, so I got to talk to lots of folks.

Sandi, Lexxi, and Jack

Sunday was the big day, an Italian birthday party for Jack, Sandi's one year old grandson. The house filled up with about fifty friends and family. I met Sandi's kids, Nikki and Lexxi, and a sea of other relatives. Sandi and I went for a walk later, and stopped by her sister's house, where we admired a vehicle being built for a high school competition. 

Monday was mostly a technology day, focused on back up for her computer. I installed an internal disk drive and a new monitor, and set up backup software. It was a bit more difficult than I expected, with numerous store visits in search of a SATA cable, but I got it done. 

Tuesday we drove to the Kansas City area, where we had a BBQ dinner with some of Sandi's clients.

Wednesday was a work day for Sandi at the plant, but I got a tour of the injection molding plant. There were  huge machines with clamping forces of around 2,000,000 pounds, making garbage cans. 

Next I went to Lecompton, which is part of bloody Kansas history, and arguably where the civil war started. The constitution written there was part of the battle to determine if Kansas would be a free state,  or a slave state.  The volunteer at Constitution hall was very knowledgeable, and made the stop worthwhile. The local museum was not as interesting. 

I had lunch on Masachusetts St.  in Lawrence, and then went to the Reurig Organ Company for a tour. I learned a lot about organs. I did not realize that a typical pipe organ has 1500 pipes!

I picked up Sandi at the plant at 4, and we drove home. 

Thursday Sandi and I went in different directions, she to Chicago and me for home.