PAMPERED PENGUIN: April 14-24 2010 Maiden Voyage

I started a journal on my computer, I will copy it and paste it on these pages. I was pretty wordy at that time.
041410

We packed up the bus. John drove it to the house and parked it in front of the garage. Took us a day and half to load up. I loaded the kitchen dishes and food, bathroom and bedroom. Made the bed. John loaded up the gear in the car and bus. He put two bikes, two kayaks, my inflatable inside with his golf clubs and his kayak on top. He loaded the rest of the sports gear (hiking, skiing and misc. biking and kayaking gear) under the bus. And normal bus gear. Exhausting labor. John’s garden in bloom in front of his house as we left.

Ides of April
We finished the packing. Around noon, took the car and bus to the fire station to have room to hook up the toad.

We drove to Denver, went to the Kings at Apple jacks. It was an adventure parking. John just parked cross wise to about 15 parking spaces. Drivers and people in the parking lots seemed to not like RV or RV people. Cars pulled out right in front of us on the highway, people who would move over to let a semi turn, would not do so for the RV.
We pulled out the lawn chairs and had Subway sandwiches for lunch, in the parking lot by the RV. We have become real rv'ers

hookup at fire station, John lunching in the parking lot

then drove straight thru to Rifle Gap, below parked the bus right on the Rifle Gap lake,

.

reflection, bus at Rifle Gap

We are the only people in the campground. We enjoyed the sunset with happy hour. There were deer and rabbit tracks in the site and the Canadian geese cackled until after sunset.
John cooked a sumptuous dinner in the kitchen. I did the dishes (scullery maid) No dishwasher in the bus.

We retired to bed. Still the only occupants of the camp ground. We left the curtains open so we could see the stars and the lake.

04 16 2010
Slept like babies. John got up at the crack of dawn and made coffee, his first coffee in the motor home. I got up late. Beautiful view of the lake in the am. We went to Harvey Gap and Rifle falls. Pretty falls and limestone caves.

Rifle Gap falls, bottom of falls

Upper falls, limestone caves

Sue and John in caves

Rifle Gap state park, ice falls

We drove up the canyon to Rifle state Park, a narrow canyon with camping, climbing, ice falls etc..
John figured out the heating system and turned on the water heater. John cooked dinner and I experimented with baking in the microwave/convection oven with corn bread John mixed up. I have not quite conquered the oven yet. We have no internet or cell phone coverage here. We are just relaxing. The RV is great. Seems too luxurious for camping, but I guess we are not camping, we are living in it. There are only 2 other groups camped in our site tonight. there is no water in our campground. A leak or something. maybe it will keep it nice. Very quiet and dark.
We considered going to Moab today. But I have been working weekends so long that I forgot how crowded they get. So we are staying here for the weekend. Learn how to use the bus and unwind some. Not like we have to rush back and work or anything. I am kind of getting used to not working. I am starting to relax.

041710-041810

First dump, dump sign

Pot of gold, Mist on lake and first dump

Rained some on 4/16. Very windy. I hate being in a tent in the wind, but the bus is ok. I feel like I am cheating not being in a tent. Woke up to clouds and rain. I got up 2 hours earlier John cooked me breakfast. He has been doing all the cooking. Last night he had head phones on, to preserve my tender little ears. He danced and sang to the music. Sat (04/18) we went to rifle. Went to the thrift shop for books and kitchen utes., Wal-Mart. Had lunch in Rib City. I was underwhelmed. We whipped out our phones in town, I had no messages. John had some. In rib city we pulled out our computers and the handy dandy myfi and internetted.a bit addicted? Not a lot of email, mostly Facebook. I posted rifle photos. We went to city market and back to the coach. It rained. I took a couple of rainbow shots. Wanted the rainbow on the coach, but did not get a good one. Cleaned the coach. John washed the windshield and vacuumed the living room/cockpit. The vacuume didn’t work, he fixed it and vacuumed. I waxed the bathroom sink and counter. Obsessive? We picked up in town all that we had forgotten. John tried the washer twice to flush the lines. filled up the gray water tank. I was going to wash my hair, but the tank was full. John told me to wash it in the toilet-into the black water tank. that was not full. There is a sprayer for cleaning out the toilet. We each took two showers so far. Nice having a shower. We will have to use less water dry camping. Here we are plugged in to electric. Didn’t get to try the battery/solar. We did not run out of water, just the gray tank full. I cooked a lasagna. Nice to have a kitchen, learning the oven still. Had to pour the dishwater in the toilet. (black tank) So far I have been obsessively cleaning an putting things away. small place, would clutter up fast. We are getting along ok so far. Does not feel like close quarters-I guess after Johns place it does not feel much smaller. We have been reading and computing. There are blue birds here and stellar Jays. Geese cackle until long after dark. I woke up to sunrise. We left the curtains open on the side w/ the mirror. It is like having 4 windows. The camp ground was full tonight. Noisier, had to close more curtains. I am liking these State parks. We are going to check out Island Acres this am. Maybe stay. Then we will go to Ridgeway park and go to Orvis. John just retracted the slides-wall came at me. My job to run the blinkers and brake lights for the preflight. When the sun rose the light rippled on the water. Steam rose from the water where the sun hit it. John is all excited because our first shit dump in coming up. He wants me to take a photo. He took a photo of his first cup of coffee he made in here and the first morning light in the LR/C.

0419(?) 10

The dump went fine. We were on the road at 10a. Drove to Island Acres east of Grand Junc. Nice grass, trees. Ok, between highway, river and rail road tracks. 85 degrees. We hiked a few miles along river trail to a truck stop and got ice cream. Spoke to a man who has a shop and makes beautiful log and wood furniture. An osprey building a nest on a power pole by our campsite. We had electrical hookup. John discovered the broil works better for quesadillas than the micro wave. The lawn chair was nice in the sun. I cleaned all the windows this am. We got out at 9am. Stopping in Grand Junction to get a rock chip in the wind shield fixed. We had phone and internet in the campsite. John figured out if you open the windows in the bedroom and turn on the bathroom fan it sucks air in the bedroom. This am I got up at 7 am and took the camera and binoculars out walking. Nice way to start the day.

coach at Island Acres, train going by bus

sunrise on Colorado river

042110
We went to Grand Junction to get the windshield fixed and found out it was already fixed. We drove to Montrose and discovered that the green lollipop trees in the spring are some kind of willow. Stopped in Montrose, found a lovely spot at Ridge way state park. Over looking the Uncompaghre river. Ponderosa pines, almost deserted. Hook ups. We biked some then went to Orvis and soaked. It was lovely. Had dinner at the Thai place. Had a good beer in the Colorado Boy brew pub. Stayed another night. Scattered showers. Rode on a trail across Enchanted Mesa. Maybe 6-8 miles. Kicked our butts, but beautiful. Had lasagna then went to Orvis and sunbathed naked (clothing optional hot spring) for a few hours. Saw deer and elk near campsite. Spectacular views of Dallas Divide and Uncompaghre Mts. John made chicken fried steak and homemade potatoes chips. In the am I saw a new bird, Towhee I think.

View from campground, bus in the campground

Sue riding Enchanted Mesa, deer in the campground

Packed up, shopped at Ridgeway Market and Ace. Drove the scenic route thru Norwood and Naterita. Stopped in a scenic spot for PBJ's. Drove to Canyonlands. Scattered showers. Drove to Needles, no vacancy, drove to Needles outpost, no vacancy, drove to Lockhart basin road. Determined that the beast could not handle the road and parked in a wide spot right after the cattle guard. Drove into the park to check out camp sites. Rain, cool-cozy in the coach. Poured rain and blew hard all night. Kind of a spooky place, cars would stop in the middle of the night, lights on the coach, then later drive off.

Light on the rocks, Lockhart road sun in blowing dust

bus in Lockhart basin, needles in mist

sunsets from the bus in Lockhart basin.

042210

We got up, packed up to hike. We stopped in the campground to get water and there was a site open, just our size. So we went back and moved the bus in. This week is national park appreciation week, so the parks are free. We had to pay for the site, no hookups, but much, much better than the Lockhart road. We hiked to Druid Arch. Perfect cool weather, and beautiful. 11 miles round trip. On the way back my knees gave out, but we made it back ok. I took a sun shower. We are trying to conserve water/tank space to see how long we can dry camp. I made pesto for dinner.

elephant canyon ,Sue and John at Druid Arch

bus in the campground, vie of six shooter peak from the trail

John hiking toward the needles, John in Elephant canyon

John enjoying sunset at our site, sunset

042310
Woke to sun coming in the window on me at sunrise. Windy ,kind of hazy today. We are going to rest our poor legs and drive somewhere scenic. Drove to the Colorado river overlook, thought we were going to the confluence. Got stopped by bad road, hiked 4 miles looking for the confluence, gave up. Found out we were on the river overlook, not the confluence overlook. Came back, it rained some we relaxed. John made gumbo for dinner.We have been saving water so well that we both took short showers and washed dishes in the coach.

rain

042410
Got up to a clear blue beautiful day. We packed up and hiked to Chesler park and the joints. Incredible as always. Ran into a woman John knows from a grand trip. He knows women every where. It was hotter and a long, long hike. Came back had apps in the sun in the lawn chairs, then left overs for dinner . I took a fabulous sun shower, used the whole bag. The solar made the battery 100%. Then went to bed exhausted.