10/31 A Bullet-Pointed Overview of our Time in Petaluma

• Lots of fun with Jonathan and Diane!!! Thanks to both of you!
• Three meals at Dempsey's in Petaluma (Yum!)
• Lots of time at FABULOUS Reed's Trailers in Petaluma (Thanks to Mike & Rick!)
• Half a day at McLea's Tires in Petaluma
• One meal at Henny Penny (the best veggie burger I'd had!)
• Three different sleeping arrangements at the KOA in Petaluma (great service, once again)
• Two meals at the Burger King in Petaluma
• One meal at La Rosa Market in Forestville, CA after wine tasting (Gracias para the Lagunitas Pale Ale! You made Jonathan's day!)
• And finally, two different fabulous wineries in Sonoma County.  We love Battaglini Winery and Joseph Swan Vineyards

10/31 Happy Caliweeeeen!

Not our campsite......

First of all, Happy Halloween to Harper, Avery, Mia, Seamus, Emily & Roger and, well, pretty much all of the kids who have popped out of our our friends'/family's wombs lately. I hope your mommies & daddies let you eat yummy candy like Reeses, not lame stuff like apples or even crappy Tootsie Rolls. Let's just be honest--Tootsie Rolls totally blow beans if there happens to be a Reeses or Kick Kat option...
I'm not sure we'll be handing out Snickers bars to any senior citizens tonight at the KOA in Los Banos, California, but if needed, I can offer up a few bags of split peas or quinoa...
As of today, we have officially moved Monty from Petaluma on our way to Williams, Arizona(the Grand Canyon area). We decided to take it slow and only go about 130 miles per day so we could get used to driving this hefty monstrosity on the expressway. So far, so good! In just a few days, I managed to learn all about electric trailer brakes, air suspension, tow mode, extendable mirrors and truck speed limits. Who knew that Larry and Monty were perfectly coordinated to work together just like Ginger and Fred...?

10/30 Loss of Hipster Points

It's 6:30 in the morning, and my brain is awake wanting coffee while Sam's is still catching z's upstairs in the bedroom. So I don't bother my sleeping fifth-wheel driver, I'm down in the living area typing on my computer and staying out of Sam's way. As I am sitting here, I started reflecting on everything we've just done. With a bit of quiet space, of course, the enormity of it all has snuck up on me.
I must admit, I am terribly in love with Monty. He's cozy like a house, yet is (relatively) mobile. We got a great deal, and I know that we will get a ton of use out of him. But, let's just admit it--in a lot of ways, he's really silly. And, I think we're the youngest couple ever to buy a fifth wheel this huge (although I found this blog post from a young couple who bought a fiver from their grandparents and had to learn how to tow it). To make matters worse, when all this is said and done, I'm pretty sure that our hipster points have dropped by fifty million or so.
I keep having these flashbacks to when I was living in the Dominican Republic. Everyone there wore tons of color and tropical prints. Of course, I had to invest in a couple of breezy hot pink, green, yellow, and purple floral print pant-skirts. In Santiago, I wore them with a grin on my face--feeling all free and flowy and Caribbean. When I got home to cold and drab Michigan, my outfits just didn't have the same, let's just say, pizzazz. All of a sudden, I was a petite tropical flower in a sea of Gap jeans and gray hoodies. As cool as Monty seems now, if we can't use him in Wisconsin or Michigan, it's just not going to matter how great he seems here. We've done our research, and I think everything will work out just fine, but I know that we still might have to make some compromises.
But as I rock back and forth on my recliner with a goofy grin on my face, all of a sudden, the epiphany hits--I am smiling and relaxed. Apparently I've just gotta be who I am. If that's an honorary AARP member, then that's OK-- as long as Sam is one too...

10/29 The Subtlety of Diesel

You've all heard the sound of a diesel truck. You know--shakee-ah shake-ah burururururu shake-uh cough cough. It's great when it's that farm dude's vehicle next to you that's causing all the racket, but when you realize YOU'RE the jackass who is waking everyone up, things can go two ways-- pump up the diesel pride, or hide head in shame at blatant disregard of community noise levels. Two days ago, I was definitely in the second camp. Luckily I'm small enough that I only need to bow my head a bit and I am dwarfed by Larry's monsterous interior.
Yesterday, however, as I began to pick out GMCs, Rams, and the all powerful FORD F-250s, I felt my diesel pride BURNIN'! So what if we paid more for fuel? So what if you could hear us coming before we crossed the continental divide!? We could pull your whole barn and STILL get 17 miles to the gallon!
Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'. You'd better look behind you and make sure we haven't towed your stuff away while you're busy coverin' yer ears over our "noise!"

10/28 Dig the Big Rig

Yes. That's Jonathan and Sam aligning chocks, plugging in connections, and figuring out why the heck we are pulling a trailer the size of my first condo across the Southwest. Sam is my hero, and drove Monty here from the dealership without incident. Honestly, if it were me, I would've had some sort of altercation with the parking gate at the KOA. Sam managed to slide on in between the two yellow poles and chug into our nice pull-through spot.

It's been a really long day. Tomorrow, we have to pack everything up because we are taking both Larry and Monty to the local tire place to add HUMVEE style mega-tires and to fill them with superhero nitrogen. The plan is to avoid the sort of blow-outs that we had on the way here with the popup.

More news tomorrow as we get settled.  

Jonathan was amazing today--we could not have done it without him. Many, many thanks to him and Diane.

10/27 Meet Larry

Larry, our FORD F-250 POWER STROKE TURBO DIESEL V8 LARIAT SUPER DUTY is parked in front of our Kamping Kabin. Yes, I said Kamping Kabin. And yes, I said Ford F-250. Even though we seem to own several RVs and a small fleet of trucks, we are spending the night in one of the KOA cabins since we have traded in The Clippah. Tomorrow, if all goes well, we pick up Monty, and go through a special RV course on how to pull a ridiculous load with a ridiculous truck. Apparently, it involves cones and a parking lot. But that's tomorrow. If we pass the test, Larry gets to pull Monty over to our new 40 foot pull-through RV site at the KOA, and we will "camp" for the first time.
Today, we picked up the truck and are all paid up with our California taxes, $80 diesel smog test, and lot's of fun other extras that we won't need in Chicago.
By the way, do you see that wonky front wheel angle? That's my doing. I just took Lair for a spin around the KOA.  Scary, eh? Stay off the I-5, folks!

10/16 The Clippah Staying West

So, yeah, uhmmm. I don't know how else to say this except for as bluntly as possible:
The Clippah is being retired for a fifth wheel named Monty. If you don't know what a fifth wheel is, then I'm sure my adoring brother will explain it to you. He LOVES them, and I know he will be very willing to tell you why we made a wonderful decision.
At this time, I'm pretty sure my mother and father think that we have played an April Fool's joke on them a bit too late. Either that, or they think that we have been admitted as honorary members of AARP. Neither is the case LOL.
There is an extremely long story here that I won't share right now, but it involves RV shopping yesterday with Jonathan and Diane at local Reed's Trailer Sales (fabulous, fabulous service) after enjoying our lunch perhaps a little TOO much...
We are a bit behind today after lots of big decision making, but we promise to share more details and information soon.

10/24 Pleasantly Perfect in Petaluma

After our first intense "city drive" in awhile, we made it to Petaluma, located north of San Francisco. We're staying at another KOA. This time we are here for five nights. One of the reasons we decided to come here is because Sam's dad, Jonathan, and his wife, Diane live here so we are excited to see them tomorrow. Another important goal of the trip is to "do" wine country.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love me some WINE. It might not love me back, but I don't seem to mind that much. We are right by Sonoma and Napa, and we heard that some of the vineyards are even dog friendly. Yet, I know that one of the best ways to see wine country is by bike. We'll have to decide what to do because we didn't bring Nora's trailer, and as far as I heard, she can't yet balance on the handlebars.

10/23 Secret Campground

To break up our drive from Vegas to Petaluma (near San Fran), we decided to stop in Visalia for the night. From the road, I was horrified to think that I had chosen to stay in an industrial park (OK, OK, I know, we had just stayed in a parking lot for two nights, but that was Vegas!), but as we pulled in, my shoulders relaxed in a sigh of relief and I realized that the campground was really quite beautiful. Once again, consistent KOA won the game.
By the way, Nora is already tired out from romping with another dog at the grassy off-leash dog park here.
Jonathan & Diane, we'll see you soon!

10/22 There's Something About Vegas

I have fond memories of this silly place, and I think I'm going to miss it a bit when we pull out of here tomorrow morning.  It's been fun to be in a city and to have malls, restaurants, and cell phone service. It was even fun to camp in a parking lot. We met a lot of cool people at the KOA here--people from Canada, Israel, and we even heard about a couple who had driven their antiquated Mercedes bus conversion across Asia who were now in the process of driving down to South America.
In the short time we were here we met a couple from Texas (here's a little shout-out to the Roses and their dog Kipper) who were doing a similar thing to what we are. They are blogging it too at ontheroadwiththeroses.blogspot.com
Tomorrow it's on to California, but Vegas, I'm warnin' you, we'll be back!
By the way, even Nora had a great time here playing at the dog park!

10/22 Bellagio Buffet

Before:
So we were warned that the wait could be about two hours on a Saturday or Sunday, but sometimes it's hard to imagine such a long wait for some flapjacks. Since I have so much time on my hands, I'm thinking that these lines really seem like a big Disneyworld trick. You know,  there are lots of twists and turns and when you finally reach the next room there is a whole new set of lines and twists and turns. But it must be worth it... After all, the TV monitor in front of us keeps advertising not ONE, not FIVE, but TEN different types of potatoes! We are gonna be livin' large at the Bellagio Buffet when we finally get to our table...

After: 
Not as bad a wait as I thought. Well, blogging on my Evo helped pass the time. So, I want it to be known that Sam sure can put away some tenderloin! I think he's been holding out on me. "Yes, dear, of course I want more quinoa. I LOVE quinoa..."

10/21 Beer Me!

After almost three weeks of rockseeing, Las Vegas is a welcomed diversion. Like usual, we are staying at a KOA. This time it's basically in a parking lot at Circus Circus. We read about this KOA ahead of time, and snorted about the possibility of staying here. It seemed sort of random and slightly hilarious, so we decided to do it.
Let's just put it this way--here at Circus Circus, we aren't really on the ritzy side of the strip. We're more on the, well, BUDGET side. In other words, it takes way more effort to get handed an "escort" trading card on this end of town than it did the last time we stayed near the MGM. It took at least three walk-bys before a dude even offered me anything...

10/20 Bryce Canyon National Park

Fast and furious. We did it. It's interesting because compared to Zion or Arches, we weren't really amazed by Bryce until you drive in a bit. You have to drive up the mountain to the overlook to get to the sections that are the most famous (the hoodoos or columns that everyone has seen).  There are a couple of hikes that we decided NOT to do because we had already done the bike ride in the morning. There is definitely a lot more to do if we were to spend more time here.

10/20 Sam's a Badarse

If riding his bike up Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone wasn't enough, Sam has proven his athleticism one more time. Right now, I am sitting in the 4-Runner, winded but content. Sam, on the other hand, is still riding the Red Canyon bike path that winds its way up to the summit of yet another mountain in Southern Utah. Surprisingly this bike path was my idea, "Oh! It's only 5 miles up, I can do that! It goes through the Hoodoos! Ohhhhh!" Well, my out-of-shape butt climbed it for thirty minutes, then stole the car keys from Sam and rode back.
I must have timed this perfectly because a busload of French tourists just pulled into the visitor center. See??! Now I look like the badarse instead of Sam. Now if only I could time other stuff like this....

10/19 Sometimes Laundry Baskets Make All the Difference

Today we drove the brief two hour distance from Zion to Cannonville, UT.  We are once again staying at a KOA. There's something kind of homey about the KOA thing. I know that I can do laundry, I know that I can take a shower, I know that I can get wifi, and I know that customer service will be pretty decent.  It's not necessarily camping--it's more about having a consistent place to stay on the road.  Think of a Holiday Inn where you have to provide your own bed (!). This KOA, though not in the most happening location, stares down the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (I'm eyeing at it as I write this post), and the very cool Kodachrome Basin State Park (we checked that out today after we arrived) is just eight miles away. Tomorrow, our plan is to visit Bryce Canyon, but today I was lucky enough to wash clothes in the cleanest laundry room I've ever seen--they even had sturdy black laundry baskets for me to deliver Sam's freshly cleaned t-shirts to The Clippah.

10/18 ZNP: The Well-Oiled Machine

You know how I feel about efficiency, and Zion National Park seems to have modeled their experience on the German Rail System. With mandatory public transportation throughout the park, we didn't suffer the same "bear jams" that we did in Yellowstone. To make ZNP more efficient,there are buses into the park from the cute town of Springdale (a walkable and slightly trendy town outside the park). Additionally, due to the tunnel system into the park, larger vehicles are either prohibited from entering, or, they must pay extra for an escort. And finally, during the high season, travelers are required to park at the visitor center and board the Scenic Drive Shuttle that runs through the park (I am calling this ZBRT). Now, as much as I miss my mother's narration "DAY-vid, Quick! Turn into Canyon Village!!! We need to drop off the recycling!!!" The narrated ZBRT is a great way to keep crowds to a minimum and the information flowing.
As I write this, I am sitting in the sun at the Zion Lodge stop. We just hiked the georgous trail to the Emerald Pool, and now we are enjoying our lunch. We are planning on jumping back on the ZBRT and continuing north to the last overlook...
So we're back on the bus and I have to admit that I have a pang of regret about ignoring some of the hikes. Right now, Nora Woofington Swett is back at the campground in the air conditioned popup (actually, I'm much more concerned that she has been racking up our bill at the resort with hours of ATVing, Zip lining, and horseback riding), and we don't really have the time to hike the longer trails. Instead of hiking, we are on the shuttle, and admiring the tiny dots of the rock climbers who are scaling the canyon to our left. Sigh. Nora would have approved of Zion and the ZBRT. Maybe it's time we invested in her own (Needs) "Therapy Dog" vest.

10/17 Dangers of the Outdoors

You have heard all about the dangers of bears, buffalo--excuse me--bison, and mountain lions. But have you heard about the precarious experience that is The Water slide???? Even though I had been warned by many experienced outdoorsmen, I blatantly ignored their opinions about the most subtle attack of them all--BUTT BURN on a dry water slide. Without fully understanding its consequences, I perched on top of the Zion Ponderosa slide, ready to plummet into water. Sam had already completed this challenge three times, and I had yet to conquer my fears.  "It's easy!" He called from the pool below. Little did he know that my fate was sealed.  Without proper protection on my rear end, I was about to receive a little taste of mother nature's fury.

"Zwweeeehheee--blub-blub-OWWWWWW-zweehh-SPLASH!

And now, folks, I have rug burn on my butt.

10/16 A Popup Life

I know most of you are jealous of my McMansion that I've been living in. I'm rockin' a dual-purpose-indoor/outdoor stovetop, a portable refrigeration cooler, and even a mini slow cooker. Don't hate. I got the high-end features, and I aint gonna lie.
When we started this idea, I was secretly scheming to get some sort of cool hip trailer you know, like this, or this, or maybe even this. The problem is that although I am quite tiny, Sam is well, tall. This makes upgrading to a cool hip trailer really difficult. Most of the travel trailers out there have only about 6'6" of headroom (I don't really see the problem, but whatever...) The Clippah, on the other hand, has quite a high ceiling. We're talking 6'10" giving Sam a whopping two inches of head clearance! For us to upgrade from our very basic popup would mean purchasing a larger tow vehicle (can you imagine a Ford F150 jammed into our parking spot in Chicago?) or purchase a ritzy "high wall" popup camper.
Sometimes it would be tempting to have more "stuff" to make everything more homey.  For example, we've been sleeping in our sleeping bags at night because the temperature drops a lot. We also have to hike to the bathrooms at 4 am when we've had too much beer to drink the night before.  But then, on the other hand, we never have to clean the bathrooms, and I don't have to worry about the bed being made! The funny thing is that we don't use all the features that this came with.  We don't use the water hookup, we are not using our fridge (we purchased a plug-in coleman cooler instead), nor are we really using indoor stove hook-up (we always connect it to outside instead).  To cook, we saute up quick dinners outside on the stove, or I use my mini slow cooker.  In the evenings, we watch a tv show that we've downloaded to Sam's computer, or we just hang out.
I'm finding that I can live without a lot.
Just don't you take my Bodum electric tea kettle.  No one messes with my morning Starbucks Via...

10/16 Zion Ponderosa

This is our shwanky leg of the trip, with us diving into readily available shower stalls, and busting out our wi-fis with abandon.  We are here at the Zion Ponderosa Resort.  It sounds a little cheesy, but it's great after three days of not showering, and no internets!  It's actually quite beautiful here, and very close to the entrance to Zion National Park.  We will use this time to slow down a bit, do laundry, and maybe even go horseback riding!

10/15 Flat Tire!

So, I'm learning a lot on this trip.  I'm learning about stuff like "steel-belted radials" and the benefits to having multiple spares.  We were on our way to Zion when we heard a "ph-lushshhsh!" I looked at Sam and said, "What was that???!" We fixed it, and will be getting the bad one replaced.

10/14 The “Caw” of the Wild

Waking up in the quite a.m. of the Kayenta Campground is pretty much heaven.  The only noise around us is the “caw” of the gigantic ravens that occasionally swoop down onto the campground to scavenge some extra snacks.  Right now, a raven is roosted at the top of the light post and is scoping out his territory. 

When we first arrived, and I saw two of the big puffed up birds for the first time, I was terrified.  I immediately thought “Hitchcock!!!!” and high-tailed it the other way.  (There were two ravens having some sort of late dinner meeting on top of a campground shelter--I’m pretty sure I saw two dirty martinis and some deals go down—it looked pretty serious).  Anyway, the ravens are quite a presence in this whole region.  Maybe some of our bird watching family members can add more to this post.

10/14 Lots of Points!

Wow.  I don’t need to add much.  Nora gives it a thumbs up. We leave tomorrow in the a.m. and we didn't want to miss this opportunity to see this "Mini-Canyonlands."

10/13 Back at Kayenta

Our day wasn’t over quite over yet, as we returned to beautiful Kayenta (named after the type of rock that covers the park) Campground in Dead Horse Point State Park.  We knew that Nora had been sitting in the car all day, so she would want to do some hiking herself.  We decided to take a different trail this time. 

Skip this part unless you are a dog training SUPERFAN:  Sam and I have been working on HEEL with little, sweet, Nora (LOL), because most of the time, she has to be on leash when hiking these trails.  I personally do not see the fun in being pulled down a rocky pass, but hey, sometimes, I’m wrong.  Anyway, Sam and I have finally gotten on the same page when it comes to HEEL.  Apparently I was using the command as a punishment (i.e., yanking her to a stop and grunting, “HEEL,” whereas Sam was correcting her tendency to walk ahead (pull) by stopping and moving backward, then using “heel” to start her off correctly.  Anyway, you know pups can be a slow learner, but Moms was really messing her up.  Long story short, she’s getting a bit better, and she is learning to hike on and off the leash.

Keep reading here if you have skipped the previous section: So with Nora in a perfect HEEL, we headed on out to an amazing overlook of the Colorado River.  Pictures should be in the Dead Horse Point  State Park Campground album. 

10/13 A Discussion on the Road

“So, I kind of like Utah”  

“Yeah, me too”

“How do you feel about not going to Tahoe & Yosemite, but instead staying in Utah a bit longer?”

“Yeah, that sounds great”

And so it went.  After Moab, we are headed down to Zion for four nights, and in that time, we had planned on zooming up to Bryce Canyon for a quick day trip (it’s about two hours away from Zion).  After this discussion, we realized that we should just concentrate on enjoying Zion, and then head to Bryce Canyon for two nights after that.  

So here is our new itinerary (the Google Calendar has been updated):

Arrive Zion on Sat, Oct 15 and stay for 4 nights

Arrive Cannonville (near Bryce Canyon) on Wed, Oct 19 and stay for 2 nights

Arrive Las Vegas on Fri, Oct 21 and stay for 2 nights

Arrive Visalia (near Fresno on the route to Petaluma) on Sun, Oct 23 and stay 1 night

Arrive Petaluma on Mon, Oct 24 and stay for 5 nights

10/13 Moab Madness!

Today, we tried to fit in everything we could.  First we had breakfast at our campsite, and then we took Nora and the bikes to a separated bike route on the side of 191. This is the road that twists around the edge of Arches National Park, and continues south to the town of Moab.  We saw the bike route when we were driving in yesterday, and Sam immediately decided that it would be a destination for us.  This morning, I biked a section of it, but Sam did more (I was worried about Nora hanging out in a car for too long).  

After that, we drove into Arches National Park.  Our surly British Rough Guide has a great quote about Arches, and describes it as, “the national park for people who aren’t so sure they like national parks.” Unlike other parks (think Yellowstone), it is only a short drive in before you start actually seeing the sites, and once you are there, you can spend the day doing things that suit one’s level of interest/energy.  Since we had the dog with us, we did a lot of popping in and out of the car (no dogs on any trails).  But it was enough to give us a taste for the park. Here is our Arches photo album.

After Sam and I reflected on the park itself, we realized that it was beautiful, but the magnificence of the entire region (and even the drive in from Colorado) had blown us away.  The national park was incredible, but it was so much more crowded (and much less so than normal being that summer was over) than our quiet campground. In fact, we were OK with just seeing the major sites.  We know that if we ever want to go back and hike some of the incredible trails, we will have to do it sans “the dog.”

10/12 Dead Horse Point State Park

I had done a lot of research about where to stay when we were in Moab, and through Trip Advisor and Yelp, I found out about Kayenta Campground in Dead Horse Point State Park. One of the neat things about the park is that is nestled between Arches and Canyonland on its own mini plateau.  This makes exploring this park a lot more intimate and rewarding than just driving through the national parks and hopping out to take pictures every so often. In this small 21-site campground, we had electricity, but no showers, however; we also had amazing views and incredible trails right outside our door.  And, unlike the national parks, dogs are allowed on the trails here. That alone led to our meeting Maggie, the Great Pyrenees dog, and Tucker, the magnificent, friendly, and fluffy Bernese mountain dog. Oh, and of course, their owners…Here's the album of DHPSP.

10/12 First Impressions of Utah

The drive from Cortez, Colorado, to Moab, Utah, is only a little over three hours on two-lane state highways.  Yet, the landscape changes so much that it feels as though we had taken a trip to Mars. Now I know that certain family members of mine are not very interested in Utah (cough…cough…), but I have to say that this is some of the most incredible scenery I have ever driven through.  I kept muttering things, like, “This reminds me of Petra!!” or just, “Whoa,” over and over.  With Canyonlands National Park to our left, and Arches National Park looming in the north, the orange landscape seemed pretty impressive to two kids from Chi-town.

10/14 Island in the Sky

PARTY SIZE!!!

Canyonlands is a huge national park.  Island in the Sky district is part of the drivable area filled with hiking paths, viewpoints, and wonderful picnic areas.  We spent much of the day there, and our pictures are in this album.  We listened to a 15-minute presentation with a NPS ranger explaining the geology of the canyons. Sam wants to come back and drive the 100+ mile, 4x4-only White Rim road and camp on BLM lands. Here are the photos from the day.

10/12 No internets in Moab

Hi all, today we head to Moab for three nights and we are staying Dead Horse State Park. We will not have wifi or 3G, so we'll post all of our adventures when we come back to civilization.

10/11 Post Train Ride

So this was a really fabulous day. I'm pretty convinced that I'm spoiled rotten. The train was pretty amazing, but I think we both have view overload! We will be uploading our pictures to the Durango Silverton album. No captions yet, and no video.
The whole experience of traveling through the mountains on an old-fashioned train was neat it itself, but then our AARP buddies started talking to the conductor, Mike Nichols, and we found out out that he is from a railroading family. His grandfather was a conductor as well. 

10/11 Hat = Obtained

Boy oh boy. The state of mankind has been restored. I found a hat in the tiny town of Silverton during our lunch break. It's always cool to find a fun local store, and instead of a finding a hat in a kitchy-everything-from-China store, we walked into the San Juan Trading Company and low and behold, I walked out with a hat! I had a special hat fitting with the shop owner's girlfriend and after digging through her supplies, she found  me a special extra small hat! And it fits!!! Now if only I could find some bling for it......

10/11 Train ride!

We are bumping along on the D & S railroad. We're in the low-budget-AARP HECKLER section. As we eavesdrop on our recently-retired coachmates, we are cracking up! They are providing a running commentary about the trip. I think a couple of them are "SUPERrailfans." I think they've done this before.

10/11 Up Before Sunrise

It's an early morning for us today as we drive back to Durango (before the sun rises) to catch the Durango Silverton Railroad. I didn't know anything about it, but as soon as one starts looking at "Things to do in Durango" this comes up. The train is a narrow gauge steam railroad that chugs through the mountains and stops in Silverton for two hours then heads back.
We were really excited to do this, but we didn't think that a bonnet was going to disguise Nora enough, so we had to look into other options for her.
This is when I get on my soapbox about customer service, and what a difference it makes. We were talking to the staff at the KOA and we asked them about Doggie Daycare options in Cortez. It took the guy all of three minutes before he offered to take care of Nora so we could enjoy ourselves. He met her yesterday, and she immediately "Berner Bumped" him with her nose. He's going to walk her every hour and a half! Wow.
Anyway, we are excited about today, and will obviously post more later.

10/10 Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings!

We got sick of hat shopping in Durango-more about that later- and decided to head to Mesa Verde National Park. Because we've seen pictures so many times, we both had an idea of what to expect. Since some of the areas were closed for the season, and we only had half a day there, we spent our time at Spruce Tree House. Although the dwellings were interesting, I think both of us were more affected by the serene beauty of the location itself. Even the 20 mile drive up to the mesa was filled with amazing views, cooler air, surprise deer crossings, and trotting coyotes. We just added some photos to the Cortez Album

10/10 Doing Durango This Morning

The day started slowly since I drank a bit too much red wine at the rowdy campfire last night, so we've decided to start with the town of Durango instead of Mesa Verde. Now here's the thing-my entire goal of our mini trip to Durango is to get a kick-ass hat to wear on the trip. Some of you might recall my pink cowboy hat from the Mexico trip with Colleen, and others might remember my fabulous cowboy hat from my honeymoon in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, both of those hats are no longer with us.  I know, I know, it's a sad day for mankind. I hope I can improve the state of humanity by finding the perfect hat in Durango today...I'll keep you in the loop.

10/09 Cortez!

Wow. We made it to the highly rated (not kidding) Cortez KOA. Our friendly neighbors have already invited us over for tequila and smores, and Nora made friends with a couple of canines at the 3 acre dog park here. It is quiet, peaceful, and oh-so-different than Colorado Springs and the surrounding mountain towns. I thought I would share the sunset out our back door...

10/09 An Incredibly Beautiful Drive

Wow. Wow. Wow. We haven't turned on the radio or read any books at all. Both of us are in agreement that this is one of the most beautiful drives we've ever seen.  The combination of the fall colors, the snowy mountain passes, and the pine trees are causing us to whip out the camera and take way too many pictures that definitely won't capture the magnificence of it all. We've added a ton of new photos to the Drive from Colorado Springs to Cortez album. [It's going to take hours to upload all the photos - there are over 100!]

We should be tired after driving through the mountains for eight hours, but instead we are energized.

10/09 On the Road to Cortez

With the weather report favorable again, we've headed out early this morning for our drive to Cortez. There are a couple of different routes we could take, but we decided to take Route 50 through Canon City, and the Rockies. The hardest pass that we have to drive is Monarch Pass over the Continental Divide. This is the pass that was closed yesterday. We're hoping the weather stays above freezing like predicted. So far everthing has been dry, but we will see!

10/08 We heart our internets

I think we're going to spend the day surfing and watching the Good Wife while the weather blows over.

10/08 DON'T WORRY! (updated)

We are NOT in that photo! We are hunkered down in our trailer.  So, we'd been checking CDOT for road conditions on the way to Cortez, and we knew this would be a wet...
Wait a minute! Sam just popped out of the trailer and stuck his head back in and said, "It's snowing!"
So anyway, we knew that driving conditions would be bad.  There are three ways to get to Cortez (which is clear right now), but they all involve going through a mountain pass. Last night, things still looked OK, but this morning, when we checked the CDOT cameras, we got a taste of reality.  In other words, we are waiting it out here in "The Springs" for a bit.  We'll keep everyone in the loop.

update -- here's our campsite at the moment... it's been raining for about 8 hours and there's a little snow mixed in.

10/07 Pikes Peak in the am

We are about to turn around and go down the mountain as the summit is closed. This is an amazing drive! The temperature has been dropping as we climbed up and now there's snow and it's 32 degrees. Nora has been in heaven on this drive as it's like her home in the Swiss Alps!
We stopped at Crystal Reservoir to take a walk, eat lunch, and visit the gift shop. There is a walking path going part of the way around the reservoir. The reservoir itself is it deep crystal blue with sunlight glistening off its surface rippled by light wind. Behind it is the backdrop of Pikes Peak — a snow covered mountain (14,000+ feet elevation) with a foreground of pine trees and beautiful bursts of bright yellow birch trees in their fall finest.

10/07 Taking a nap

Wow. I think we'll all be sad to be leaving Colorado Springs tomorrow morning. It's been a really amazing two days here. Nora has personally voted for us to move near the Bear Creek Dog Park, and I think Sam and I could hike here all year without getting bored.  Tomorrow we leave for Cortez, Colorado, where we will spend three nights visiting Mesa Verde, as well as the town of Durango.

10/06 We are relaxing after a busy day

I just wanted to share our Picasa album.  I know, I know!  We normally use Flickr, but this is really easy for us because Blogger hooks up automatically.  It was a fun day, but now we're making dinner and hanging out in the Clippah.  Nora is so tired after TWO dog park romps, that I think she could sleep for a day!
So, on another note, the weather here is windy (like Larney warned us), and so the temperature has dropped down to 48 degrees.  We have actually deployed the space heater in the popup already!

10/06 Garden of the Gods Park

Nora and I are hanging out waiting for Sam to get back from the second bike loop around the park. I did the first one with him, but because of the altitude and my lack of bad-ass-ness, I had to let him take the second one solo. It is really beautiful here. I imagine Moab will be like this but better.

10/06 am Bear Creek Dog Park

On the way to Garden of the Gods park, we stopped at this dog park so Nora could burn off a little energy. It was HUGE! She got to romp in a creek and chase a bunch of friends.

10/04 Nora test drives the F150

Nora added a couple more miles to this 130,000 miler!  This was the truck that the dealership leant us yesterday, and this photo made Sam and me crack up.

10/05 Colorado Springs

Finally! Our trip begins "for real" in Colorado Springs. We are staying at the Mountaindale Campground and RV Resort.  With the words, "RV Resort" you might have some horrible thoughts, but I did a lot of research before I went on this trip, and this campsite's secluded location + amenities (fenced in dog area LOL) really help us.  So far, it's exactly what we expected--quiet, clean, and in the mountains.  Nora is sitting by me right now as I type out this blog post in the middle of her dog area. She's wiped out again, but she loves being off the leash!
Sam and I are doing well. He's being the amazing driver that we love, and I am the obsessed navigator.  Currently, I am fixated on the large scale Rand McNally road atlas.  It's my job to get us where we need to go, so I take my duties very, very serously! Heheh.
Tomorrow, I think our sight-seeing official begins. We have a lot of ideas, but we'll have to decide. Have a great night!