Firing Up The Blog - Heading West

Summerdale, AL (45 degrees, chilly, blue skies)

Oxbow Bend looking over Mount Moran

I haven't posted a blog in some time but I'm excited about our upcoming plans and wanted to be sure to document them.  To catch you up we spent the summer and fall working for Grand Teton Association in the Grand Teton National Park. It was our third time working for the non-profit bookstores in the park.This time I was the Administrative Assistant in the office and John had the best job driving out to all the trail heads and stocking them with maps and guides. He collected the money, counted it, and then took deposits to the bank three days a week.  It was a great way to spend the summer in such a beautiful place. 

Chris and Chet

Gary, Jill, Kenzie, and Jackie

New solar panels

We had lots of friends who came out to visit us and we had a great time showing them all around. After this gig was completed we headed to Colorado to have some solar panels installed and then attended  the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We camped with the Boomers with the Escapee RV Club. It was such a great time. We have been before and really love this event  Our daughter Jen came for a visit and some of our friends were here too.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We then headed east to the Smoky Mountain area for a renovation to the inside of our motorhome with Smoky Mountain Coach Works. We met the owner of this company at a rally with FMCA last year and really liked his presentation. We spent three weeks at his place and are really happy with the results. The noggin loggin TV above the front windshield was removed and recessed back. A new cabinet was built to hold a TV which goes up and and down on a special lift. We added fireplace to the front and a great computer desk along the side. We also modified a kitchen cabinet and removed all the dusty shades and replaced them with MCD's. We stayed in the coach throughout and really were impressed with his staff and attention to detail.  Oh, and we bought a new Jeep Wrangler!  Our bank account certainly took a hit but we have been saving up for these expenses for awhile. What made it really special was having a reunion with our volunteer friends from Ding Darling NWR. Bob & Patsy and Al & Linda came up for a few days and stayed in nearby hotels.  We had a great time exploring the park while the renovation was being completed.

New TV/Computer cabinet

Linda, Alan, me, John, Bob and Patsy

Meet Teddy Bear

From there we headed south to Florida. It was great to spend the holidays with John's daughter Jen. We had some great times together and even got to see her scuba dive with some friends. We stayed mostly at MacDill AFB. The weather was certainly not as warm as usual, but that's the case for most places this winter.

We also had a nice visit with our friends Debbie and Dave from Indianapolis and met up with more Ding Darling friends for Christmas on the beach. That was very special.

John, me, Debbie, Dave, and Jen

Linda, Jen, Alan, me, John, Lynda, and Charlie

Kayaking is one of our favorite things to do in Florida. We met up with several friends and went back to some of our favorite rivers (Rainbow and Weeki  Wachee plus a new one for us at Lido Key). The rivers in northern Florida are breathtaking.

Weeki Wachee

These are only some of the highlights. We have traveled back to many of our favorite places and it's always very special to meet up with friends and family along the way. 

St. Andrews State Park 

So, now we have turned left out of Florida and have traveled along the beautiful panhandle of Florida and tomorrow we will be in New Orleans for a few days. Let the good times roll!

We have some exciting plans ahead. Ultimately we are heading west and along the coast of California where we will met up with friends and travel into Canada and Alaska. This is a long time dream of ours and it's finally just about here. It's took a lot of planning and research and we hope to hit as many of the highlights as possible. Come along with us as we tour the last frontier.

Escapee Park in Summerdale Alabama

Cliff Dwellings, Rocks, Rare Owl, Farewell Luncheon, and Future Plans -- Oh My!

San Antonio, NM (weather is improving 62 high 40 degree low, blue skies)

 "In every walk with nature

one receives far more

then he seeks"

John Muir

Mexican Spotted Owl

We saw this beautiful and very rare owl while hiking at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. We were so excited to see him and he seemed to enjoy watching us too. This owl is one of the largest in North America and is a threatened specie due to loss of old growth forests. Isn't he a beauty. 

Gila National Monument Visitor Center

We planned one last getaway weekend with our friends Bob and Amy to see the Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument near Silver City New Mexico. It was a spectacular drive to Silver City from Bosque del Apache where we are volunteering. The road climbed and twisted and turned through some of the prettiest scenery in New Mexico.  We saw lots of wildlife including a bobcat, javelina, red fox, and this beautiful owl. On the way there we drove the road at night. I'm not sure this is such a good idea but Bob did a great job.

I was really struck by the vastness of this place. Between the National Monument and National Forest there are 3.3 million acres of land. There are hundreds of miles of trails and the overlooks as you wind along the road to the park are spectacular. 

Two volunteers we met at Bosque are now volunteering at Gila Cliff Dwellings. They have enjoyed the experience but found the very cold weather and lack of any internet or cell phone signal a challenge. The nearest grocery store  is quite a distance and not a easy drive to Silver City and oh did I mention the road also washed out for a few weeks to the Cliffs.  Volunteering certainly can give you many interesting stories to tell and memories.

We hiked out to the Gila Cliff Dwellings after a stop at the Visitor Center. There is an excellent movie which tells all about the Indians who built and lived here as cliff dwellers. You can actually go through some of the dwellings and there is a ranger there to tell you more about the inhabitants. The hike is about 1.5 miles in length and is moderately strenuous. There is one ladder involved but this can be bypassed if needed.  

We stayed in Silver City at a reasonable and clean Motel 6. The locals seem to  love living here and much has been done to restore the downtown. An owner of a restaurant told us many people are moving here to retire. 

City of Rock State Park

On our way back we stopped at the City of Rock State Park.  It sure looked like Fred Flintstone must have lived here. We had fun  hiking among the big boulders and added a few new birds to our life list. 

It has a nice campground with no hookups and your site is right among the boulders or there are electric and water sites on the perimeter. 

John and Jimmy

Curved -billed Thrasher

Red-tail Hawk

The next day at Bosque a really nice farewell luncheon was planned for us. Several of the rangers cooked a delicious New Mexican themed lunch for all of us to enjoy.  The refuge manager gave a nice speech thanking the volunteers for all their support to this beautiful refuge. 

Christian and Dennis our amazing chefs

Kevin - Refuge Manger

In addition, the volunteer coordinator gave out certificates and pins to the volunteers who had reached certain milestones of volunteer service. John received a pin for 2000 hours of services with Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm close behind him at about 1900 hours. We also got a nice gift certificate to use at the Nature Store as an added bonus. I used mine to buy a beautiful fetish necklace and John got a handsome Tilley Hat. The refuge also welcomed all the new volunteers who have arrived for the spring season.

Fetish necklace and earrings

Volunteers at Bosque del Apache NWR

We are ready to be back on the road again and certainly have a strong case of "hitch itch". However, we will miss all our new friends and rangers at Bosque. Saying good bye is not easy. Soon we  will be attending three rallies in Arizona. The first one is the FMCA rally in Chandler (near Phoenix) where we have volunteered to be a part of the parking crew. Over 2000 motorhomes will be arriving over the next few days. That is sure to be an interesting challenge. 

Other upcoming rallies include the Escapee Rally in Tuscon and a joint Newmar Kountry Klub rally with a fulltiming and Arizona chapter in Benson. My brother is also coming out for a visit and we are planning on visiting some friends in Why Arizona.  Check back to see why we go there. 

A two week visit to some of the spectacular National Parks in Utah is planned with our dear friend Sally from Sanibel and some friends with the FMCA camping club Cuatro Estados. 

This summer and fall we will be working for Grand Teton Association. Once again we will be returning to this very special place and are looking forward to seeing our friends who work for GTA too. Stay tuned for many more adventures. Life is good!

Salt, Societies, and Spirituality - A Visit to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Mountainair, New Mexico (very chilly, high 42 degrees, low 20's, clear blue skies)

"Listen to the wind,

it talks

Listen to the silence,

it speaks

Listen to your heart,

it knows."

Native American Proverb

ABO

One chilly morning we ventured out with our visiting friends Fran and Randy and went on a all day tour of the Salinas Pueblo Missions which are a part of a National Monument. They are not all together but spread out over a very scenic part  of New Mexico. It's an all day adventure but easily done with a good map and an early start. 

ABO

ABO

John, Fran, and Randy with ABO in the distance

The title of this post is taken from the parks website and it aptly summarizes what happened at these three beautiful missions. Here you can see ruins of churches operated by Franciscan monks which were  built by Tompiro Indians in 1150. The Pueblo Indians were the most recent residents.

We visited all three pueblos starting with Abo, then went downtown to Mountainiar visitor center to watch the historical film, ate a delicious lunch at a cute coffee house, and then on to Quarai, and finally Gran Quivira.  

This valley eventually because a major trade center with over 10,000 inhabitants. They traded pinyon nuts, maize, salt, pinto beans, pottery, and cotton goods for meat and hides. 

Quarai

Canyon  Towee

I won't go into all the history but it's important to know that  many cultures lived here including Nomadic Indians as far back as 20,000 years ago and later the Mongolian pithouse dwellers. The Spaniards eventually tried to settle this area and built churches to convert the Indians to Christianity. This clash of culture did not always go well. Eventually famine, lack of water, and relentless raids from the Apaches finally drove them away in 1670's never to return again. 

Gran Quivira

This is a very helpful map from the park website which shows the locations of the missions. It was a great road trip and the architecture was magnificent against the blue skies. We all thought these walls had many stories to tell.