Fun in Denver!

On Tuesday we took our 5th wheel over to the Ford dealer.  Of course the truck isn't blowing out the black smoke it did when coming to Denver so they can't figure out what's wrong.  So oil change, fuel filter and air filter change later, they can only say it might be the altitude! 

Wednesday we had ladies/mens day!  Us ladies had lunch at BJ's then got haircuts followed by Starbucks!  The guys had a pizza lunch followed by a trip through the Hanger Air Museum!  It was huge and had a lot of old planes to see.  We met up at Pam and Jon's and took off to Hobby Lobby!  We found a few things to buy and were ready for dinner!  After a fun dinner at Mimi's we came home.

Today Pam and Jon drove us through the small historic town of Golden where we are camped.

Then we went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster Co.  They have live spiders, cockroaches, walking sticks, sea life and butterflies in a rain forest!  The butterflies only last a couple of weeks and then they buy more from various rain forests.  It is a cool place and really kid friendly.  We touched the starfish but had nothing to do with the tarantulas!  Saw two little girls hold Rosie the tarantula!!!!

It was a lot of fun at the Pavilion.  Tomorrow we leave Denver, will head through Nebraska for South Dakota!

Beautiful butterflies..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Monday in Denver!

We took the truck in this morning by 7:00 and they changed oil and fuel filter but didn't find anything wrong with turbo or figure out the black smoke problem!  Tomorrow we are going to load on the 5th wheel and take in to see if they can figure it out.

Meantime, our friends picked us up and we went to lunch at Salty Rita's in Lowry, Co.  Bet it's hopping on the weekends for happy hour!  Then they drove us over to Cherry Creek State Park so we could see the lake and look at the campground.  We will definitely stay there next time.  It's not any closer to our friends but they give you huge spaces on concrete with trees and grass all around and lots of space between RV's!  Being late Monday afternoon it was pretty deserted, probably lots of people on the weekends!

Back at the RV enjoying a glass of great wine..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Arriving in Denver!

Yesterday we left Moab for Denver Colorado.  In the last two passes to Denver, the truck started acting up AGAIN!  We had black smoke and the turbo wasn't kicking in, making it very difficult to get over the mountains.  We have an appointment at a Ford Dealer on Monday morning!

In Colorado, the Aspen are starting to change color and are bright yellow and beautiful. 

After we arrived we visited our friends Pam and Jonathan Pullen in Denver, went out for dinner and checked out their cute new apartment.  They haven't decided where in Colorado they want to live so they rented a place until they can decide.  They are having a lot of fun checking out all the areas!

Today they took us to the Garden of the Gods!  We took the bus ride around part of the park and the driver told us the story of how the Garden came about.  The area was owned by a private party and donated to the City.  The park is free to drive through and the bus ride was only $5.00 each, and interesting! There is a large visitor center that aparently pays for itself, and a lot of volunteers!  There is a movie, wild life exhibits and plenty of trails.  It's a pretty park and worth seeing in Colorado Springs.  Pikes Peak is in the distance at 14,110 elevation. 

After the park we had dinner at "Black Eyed Pea" restaurant.  It's a national chain but primarily in Texas and Colorado.  My mom used to love black eyed peas and cornbread so I always think of her when I eat there!

Seeing more of our beautiful country..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Moab, Utah

Yesterday we left Hurricane and are camped in Moab, Utah.  It was such a pretty drive with such different scenery around every corner that I took pictures while we were driving.  There is just a bit of fall showing in the trees, dessert areas, mountains and more:

We got to our campground and had such a pretty view, I took some more pictures!

We had a full moon last night.  The rock formations are what we see out our big window and the bottom three pictures are in the campground.  The school house was built for a movie, "Riders of the Purple Sage".  Ted and I had never seen it so I looked it up on line and it was from a book and filmed in 1918, 1925, 1931, 1941 and 1996.  Ed Harris was in the 1996 version and I looked at a film clip.  A trial was held in what looks like the school house in our campground!

Today we went to Arches National Park.  What a cook park and just beautiful!  I took over 100 pictures today!  Fortunately I'm only going to bore you with a few!  I did two collages, one of just the arches and one of everything else!  Apparently there are over 2000 arches in the park, some have broken and some are not close to the road.  The road is about 20 miles long into the park.

The arches of Arches National Park:

When we started out today it was about 77 degrees and sunny.  A storm came through while we were in the park and temps dropped to 59 and poured!  Then the sun came out and it got in the mid 80's! Tonight it has been raining with lots of thunder and lightning!  Poor Max is scared of thunder!

Enjoying the arches..."Ain't Life Grand!" 

Zion, Apple Valley and more!

On Friday we headed over to Zion National Park.  We took the shuttle bus through the Valley and then back to the Zion Lodge for lunch.  The restaurant looks out at Angels Landing and is beautiful.  The lodge is in a valley surrounded by tall cliffs formed by the Virgin River.  It's very peaceful and serene (if it weren't for all the tourists)!

On Saturday we took a drive to Apple Valley, Utah which is towards Arizona and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It's a pretty valley and there is a cool golf course, Kokopelli, that is having a Champions Tour Tournament in 2011.  Unfortunately it was toooooo hot to play (for us) as well as Ted hurt his toe pretty bad so we'll have to wait until next time.

Today we drove out to the Silver Reef ghost town.  Wasn't much of a ghost town, a couple of bricks that used to be buildings and a museum.   We drove through an area of homes to get there that had the most beautiful views of the Red Cliffs.  The homes were gorgeous and most of the landscaping was natural.  It's a beautiful area.  Quail Lake is right around the corner from our campground and at one time actually poured into an area below our campground with a marina and docks for boats!

After driving around looking at the views we went to lunch at Chuck-A-Rama!  When I retired, my friend Jeri had a retirement party for me and gave me a travel log book that she started with a State on each page.  At the party, friends wrote notes on some of the pages of things to see or do in a certain State.  In Utah, friends (and former bosses) Melissa and Don Teemsma mentioned Chuck-A-Rama!  So today we ate there and boy were they right!  It was a small and absoooolutely delicious buffet.

Tomorrow we leave Hurricane and are heading to Moab, Utah.  About 300 miles and near the border of Colorado, by Arches National Park.

Great desserts at the Chuck-A-Rama..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Cedar Breaks Monument

Wednesday we took a drive around Hurricane and St. George.  I took some pictures of the area east of St. George.

Yesterday we drove to Cedar Breaks.  On the way to see the monument, we got into higher elevations (and wonderfully cooler temperatures) and saw the following scenery:

The elevation at the Cedar breaks Monument is 10,350 feet.  The temperatures had been in the mid 90's and was 61 degrees up there!  The monument is called a giant amphitheater and is colored by iron and manganese oxides.  The limestone formation is made up of intricate ridges, pinnacles and buttresses.  They get a lot of snow in the winter!  The rock formations are so beautiful and so large that my camera doesn't do them justice!

After we left the Monument we drove down the hill by Brian Head and at 9500 feet it is a resort ski area.  The scenery changes, but is always beautiful!

Last night we had dinner with a group of people from the campground.  We drove into Hurricane and went to Ted and Allen's.  It's a sports bar with lots of big screen tvs.  We met some new people and had a good dinner!

Spending the day in cool temperatures..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Hurricane Utah

Yesterday we left Las Vegas traveling through Mesquite into Arizona to Utah.  I took these pictures in the Arizona part.  There is the Virgin River Gorge that created a path for the road.  There are beautiful rock formations throughout the gorge. 

It is a short drive through Arizona into St. George Utah.  We are staying in Hurricane which is not far from Zion National Park. We have stayed here before and enjoyed it.  There is a nice golf course, Zion and other things to do.  The area is so beautiful.  My little camera doesn't do it justice!

We will be in Hurricane a week to enjoy all the area has to offer!

Enjoying the beautiful red rock..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Viva Las Vegas again!

We've had a couple of fun days here in Las Vegas!  Friday we had lunch at the casino before going to see the movie "Despicable Me".  I sat down at a dorky old little machine that I like and won $50 in just a few minutes.  Then we went in to see the movie.  It was a cute movie!  After the movie we gambled a bit more and I was still ahead when we left for the day!

Yesterday was laundry day so this morning we headed over to another casino for one last gamble before leaving Vegas tomorrow.  I had some good luck again and Ted and I each played one last machine before we left.  He put in $5 and cashed in $20 and I put in $5 and cashed in $40.  I ended up with all the winnings which made me way ahead but didn't help Ted much!

Tomorrow we leave for Hurricane, Utah (near St. George just over the Utah border).  We've been there before and enjoyed the area so we'll spend a week there.

Being lucky in Vegas..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Back in Las Vegas!

Last Tuesday we took our truck to the Ford dealer.  We had black smoke driving to Cherry Valley on Thursday and again on Friday so I made an appt for Tuesday.  When we went out on Sunday and Monday, of course no smoke!  They put the truck on the computer when cold and when hot and not one bit of black smoke or bad computer code.  Hopefully it was a fluke, but it is recorded if we should have any problems.  Feeling lucky after leaving the dealership we went to the casino for lunch and a little gambling.  Ted didn't have much luck but I came out with $10 more than I went in with!  Then at bingo that night both Ted and I had bingos that paid for the price of bingo!  A successful day all in all.

Yesterday we left Cherry Valley for Las Vegas.  No smoke so that was a plus!  It was in the mid-90's when we got here.  Today we went over to the casino and met one of Ted's former co-workers, Howard, for lunch.  We gambled a little but we were not so lucky today but had fun trying!

No black smoke..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Happy Labor Day!

Everything gets busy on holiday weekends, so we've been hanging out here at the campground.  We did take a drive over to Hemet one day and did a little shopping yesterday (trying to do our part to help the economy)!  We've been doing some reading, playing games on the computer and I have a craft project I've been working on.  At least we haven't been eating out much (yes, I've actually been cooking)!  Yesterday we did have breakfast at the campground cafe.  They had a delicious brunch with eggs benedict and lots of good stuff including cute little cinnamon buns.

It's a small campground and a bit close to the freeway but they really keep it up nice.  There are two ponds with catch and release fishing (catfish) with lots of sitting areas to enjoy.  The trees (and air conditioning) have made the heat bearable!  It is supposed to cool down this week.

Max went up to the deer statues and was very scared, he finally got close enough to sniff them but still wasn't sure about them!

No labor over Labor Day..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Another truck appt!

Yesterday we took off to the Moronga Casino.  Had a fun day, up and down in our winnings/losings!  Ted ended up even and I lost :( but I tried as hard as I could to be a winner too!

We noticed a little more black smoke yesterday so I called my friend Donald at the dealership and we have a 7:00 a.m. appt on Tuesday.  Don't even know what to think about it!

On a better note, Ted and I played bingo here at the campground last night.  He was the first bingoer for $29.  I bingoed twice for a total of $15.00!  It was a lot of fun and we came home winners!

Winning at bingo..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Cherry Valley, CA

On Monday Max, Ted and I were invited to Jim and Della Crownover's for some cards and dinner.  (Max didn't feel like cards so we played without him)!  Jim made his FAMOUS and DELICIOUS beer can chicken and Jimmy's Rub Ribs!  Della made her delicious potato salad and made the Colonel's recipe of coleslaw.  We brought some fresh fruit for dessert and a spinach dip with veggies for card playing.  It was a fun day with Jim (as usual) being the big winner!

Today we are in Cherry Valley for a week.  We left San Diego this morning.  We will be here through the holiday weekend and then take off for Las Vegas next Wednesday.  Cherry Valley is by the town of Beaumont off of the 10 freeway, east of 215 toward Palm Springs.  The campground has some beautiful trees so even though it is hot, we are in the shade!

The truck ran okay but Ted saw some black smoke.  We will keep our eye on it and see what happens.  We aren't far from Fontana (truck service place) if need be!

Loving the shade trees..."Ain't Life Grand!"