Day 60 Home Sweet Home

Yesterday we drove from Greenfield, IN to Delaware, OH. It felt good to be home. Here is the final info on miles, etc. The truck is a 2000 Silverado, 25oo, 6 liter V8 engine, 4X4, with a 1997 Shadow Cruiser camper, total weight 8500 lbs. We drove 7962 miles. We used 678 gallons of gas, which is 11.74 miles per gallon. Our lowest price for gas was $2.68 and highest was $3.39 per gallon. Total spent for gas was $2045. I have posted pictures of the outside of the truck and camper before, but not the inside. Here are pictures of the inside. It has microwave, refrigerator, stove/oven, 23 in. tv with satellite receiver, Internet on the Laptop, complete bath with shower, furnace, hot and cold water, and cell phone. The 2 bikes set right between the kitchen and living room while we are driving. It is completely self contained and with the batteries fully charged we can go about 5 days without hookups. Thanks to all the readers who paid attention to our boring blog. Maybe we will do this again next trip. Special thanks to Sprint Mobile Broadband for making the internet accessible while traveling, and to Google for their free Blogger.

Day 59 East of Indianapolis, IN

Yesterday we drove thru various rain showers to a town just east of Indianapolis, called Greenfield. We picked out a campground from our big Trailer Life campground book. It was the Heartland Resort, and we didn't know at the time we picked it, but after we got there we found out it was the first place we stayed at on the way west 2 months ago. From our records it also turned out to be about 10 degrees warmer than 2 months ago, at close to 70. It rained all night and today it is clear and cooler. We head for home today.

Day 58 West of St. Louis, Missouri

Yesterday we drove from Paxico, KS to Danville, Missouri, a little town west of St. Louis. We are camped at a private campground close to I70 called Kan-Do Kampground. Still didn't see anything to take a picture of, so here is the last of the Grand Canyon pictures.

Day 57 Paxico, KS

Yesterday we drove from Ellis, KS to Paxico, KS. We only drove 4 hours because I wanted to watch the Ohio State game. We are at the Mill creek campground in Paxico. The game didn't turn out too good. Couldn't find anything to take a picture of so here are some more Grand Canyon pictures. The first one is the full moon at night over the canyon. The 3rd picture is the mule ride coming out of the canyon, like we went on in 1987. The last picture is of a nuthatch eating out of my hand at the Grand Canyon campground.

Day 56 Ellis, Kansas

Yesterday we drove from Strasburg, CO. to Ellis, Kansas. We are now camped at the city park lake. It is $8 per night with electricity and restrooms closed for winter. The city police come around to collect the fee. We had a pizza delivered last night. There was nothing much to take a picture of and nothing exciting happened yesterday so I am posting pictures of Grand Canyon which I could not send when we were there.

Day 55 Interstate 70 across Colorado

Yesterday we drove across Colorado. It was a lot of driving up and down the mountains, but pretty uneventful with spectacular scenery. There was also a lot of traffic thru Denver. We are now camped at a KOA campground in Strasburg, CO. It is just east of Denver. The pictures of the sking was taken out the window as we were driving on I70, somewhere around Loveland pass. The weather is great.

Day 54 Beautiful Arches NP

Yesterday on our way out of Arches we stoped to see a few more things that we had missed. In the pictures here is the list. 1 Rock climbers on rocks. 2 Parade of Elephants. 3 Barb in South Window Arch. 4 Double Arch. 5 Balanced Rock. 6 Fisher Tower. We picked up groceries and gas in Moab and headed for Interstate 70. We stayed last night at Colorada River Island Acres (Colorada State Park). It is located just west of Grand Junction, Colorada. The weather had been great in Utah, but today the skies are still clear, but colder and windy. Heading east on I70 today.

Day 53 Still at Arches NP

Yesterday we had decided that we would clean up the camper and just rest. By 2 pm we were done so we went for another hike. We were just going to see Landscape arch but wound up seeing three more arches for a total of 4.5 miles of walking. In the first picture is Landscape arch. A large chunk fell out of it in 1991. In the next 3 pictures is Wall Arch, Navajo Arch, and Partition Arch. We were tired again when we returned to same campsite as night before.

Day 52 More Arches NP

We have been out here several times and the 2 things we wanted to accomplish was to camp in Devils Garden campground and hike up to Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is the most famous arch. Well yesterday we completed the 4 mile round trip hike to Delicate Arch. This is a strenuous, uphill, over slickrock and along the edge of cliffs hike. We were pretty tired by the time we got back, but we made it. Still haven't seen any mountain lions. We just registered for another night in this campground. In the pictures below, the first 2 are Delicate Arch. The third picture is of Barb and cairns. These are the guideposts for the trails. The fourth picture is Skyline arch. The fifth picture is called Fiery Furnace, and the last picture is sunset from our campsite.

Day 51 Arches National Park

Yesterday we left Moab and drove out to the Devils garden campground in Arches NP. After reading all the signs about mountain lions, we took about 3 hours of hiking the trails to the various arches close to the campground. It was a lot of walking up and down and thru heavy sand. Our campground is perhaps the most beautiful we have ever stayed in, but no electric hookups. We are on top of a hill with a great view. Last night I tried to send pictures, without any luck. We do have internet way out here but very weak. This morning it is working fine. We are staying at this campground at least thru tonight. More hikes today.

Day 50 Capitol Reef National Park

Yesterday we drove from Bryce Canyon NP to Capitol Reef National Park. We camped in Fruita campground. It is named fruita because it has many old orchards. It also has an old farmhouse and barn with horses. One of the pictures is of me leaning on the running board of the Ford in the front yard. We took several hikes, with one climbing about 300 ft overlooking the valley. Today we left for Arches NP. One of the pictures shows a cattle drive crossing the road. We are camped in Canyonlands campground in downtown Moab, UT. Tomorrow we are going to try to camp in Arches National Park for several days. There will probably be no internet for several days, as the campground is 20 or so miles out of town.

Day 49 Bryce Canyon National Park

Yesterday we left Zion NP and drove to Bryce canyon National Park. We took a lot of pictures (136) along the way. After we got to Bryce we got a campsite and then drove out the scenic drive making many stops to see the scenery. We ended the daylight at Sunset Point, taking many beautiful pictures. The altitude is as high as 9000 ft. in some places so the temperature is rather chilly. It was 35 degrees when we got up this morning. Most of the facilities here have closed for the winter. We have propane heat in the camper, but as I set here on the bed typing the moisture drips on me from the aluminum vent. Here are but a few of the many pictures we took yesterday.

Day 48 More Zion NP

Yesterday we took a bike ride, about 4 miles round trip. It was a beautiful ride on a paved trail but going out was all uphill. It sure made coming back to camp easy as it was all downhill. When I got back I discovered that I had a flat tire on my bike. I had to fix it. It had 2 cactus thorns in it. Barb said that will teach you for riding off the trail. Later we took a drive out the scenic road again. We were too tired from the day before hikes, so we didn't take a walk. We didn't see any rock climbers this time. We will be leaving this morning. Weather sill great. Notice the sky in the pictures, it is always a dark blue. I have probably mentioned this before. If you left mouse button click on the pictures they will refresh larger. If you right mouse button click, you can save the picture, etc.