This year the Covid pandemic affected all of our travel and vacation decisions. The biggest risk for exposure was at family gatherings and reunions where many people from different households would be together for periods of time. Both Liz and I had planned to attend family reunions this year, one for her family at Warm River in Idaho and one at our house for my siblings. We ended up canceling the sibling reunion and skipping the Idaho reunion. However, we decided that we would do our annual trip to Lake Powell and co-quarantine on the houseboat with the Kathryn Keetons and the d Daytons.
We left Dallas in the motorhome on June 24th and stayed the night at the Sams Club in Amarillo. The next day we drove to Colorado Springs. We spent the next day in the Colorado Springs area. First we went to the Garden of the Gods, an area where beautiful red sandstone formations jut out of the landscape. We drove the scooter around the garden area and did a few short hikes....the scenery was amazing.
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| Walking toward the spires in Garden of the Gods |
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| Scenic hike...facemasks required for Covid 19 |
In the afternoon we made an appointment to have the RV generator serviced. It would run for about 20 minutes and then die. When we took it to the service place it ran perfectly for about two hours so they found nothing wrong. That night we camped near the service place and once again it stopped after about 20 min. In addition, that night a major hail storm hit us and made us worried that we'd get a broken window or have some roof damage. Luckily, the only damage was to the two skylights in the roof. They were both cracked so we repaired them with some awning tape.
On Saturday we drove into the Rocky Mountains and headed for Eagle, CO. We stopped along the way at Frolissant Fossil Beds, a National Monument we hadn't seen before. The area was once a forest with huge trees that have become petrified.
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| Petrified stump of an ancient tree |
As we continued our journey, just outside of Leadville, CO at the top of a canyon we ran into stopped traffic. It turned out that a truck hauling a large backhoe on a trailer had tipped over on a curve spilling the backhoe and diesel fuel all over the 2 lane highway. We were told it would be several hours before road was cleared and they suggested we choose another route. Instead, we found a nice little cozy parking area nearby and decided to wait it our or stay overnight if necessary. It turned out to be an overnight wait because they didn't get the accident cleared until early the next morning.
The next day we went on to Grand Junction, CO where we stayed overnight at the Sam's Club. We were still having trouble with the generator so decided to see if we could get a new fuel pump to fix the problem. We were able to find a Cummins dealer and get the part which I put in and fortunately it seemed to fix the problem. Then we headed up to Saddlehorn campground in Colorado National Monument, another NM we hadn't seen.
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| Overlook at Colorado National Monument |
We stayed a couple of nights exploring the park on the scooter. On July 1 we drove to our favorite rest area near Moab for the night. The next day we went to Devil's Canyon campground near Blanding, UT where we stayed for two nights, again exploring the local area on the scooter.
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| Devil's Canyon campground |
On July 4th we drove to Hanksville, UT where we had a reservation at Duke's Slickrock Campground. There we met d and Zhouyi with their kids Meila and Euan. That night we all stayed in the motorhome and watched the local Hanksville fireworks display.....a great memory.
On July 5 we arrived at Bullfrog Marina where we met up with the Keeton's for our houseboat week at Lake Powell. The Keeton's brought their speedboat and we all got settled on the houseboat on that Sunday. Unfortunately, exec services had failed to gas and dump the houseboat so it was not ready to take down river on Monday morning as we had planned. After some phone calls and arm twisting, exec services got the houseboat ready and we were underway by Monday afternoon.
This year we stayed in Ribbon Canyon near Hole in the Rock. This canyon has a sunken speed boat and the houseboat was anchored directly above it in the water. Our campsite had great shade, only about 4 hours of sun in the middle of the day, and a usable beach and fire pit.
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| Nice beach in Escalante side canyon |
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| Liz still slaloms at 70 |
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| Me too (but I'm a year younger) |
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| Elynn Keeton |
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| Euan Dayton |
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| Akston Keeton |
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| Melila Dayton |
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| Ryder Keeton |
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| Reayen Keeton |
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| Kathryn & John |
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| d & Zhouyi |
Once again we had a wonderful time and Lake Powell. We left on July 12 and headed for Riverside, CA to stay with d and Zhouyi for a week. The first night on the journey we stayed in the campground at Cedar Breaks National Monument. This place is a small version of Bryce Canyon NP.....we love it! d had to get back to work so he drove his car straight through to get home and we took Zhouyi, Meila and Euan with us in the RV. The second night we stayed at a rest stop outside of Barstow, CA and on July 14th we arrived at d's house in Riverside.
During our time in Riverside we climbed Mt Rubidoux with d's family, rode the Santa Anna River Trail on our bikes, went to the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, and took several scooter rides around town. We thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with d and his family.
On Friday July 24 we left d's house and went to Joshua Tree NP and got a campsite at Black Rock campground in the park. d's family joined us that night at the campsite. July 25th was Liz's birthday and we took a trip to the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens near Palm Springs. This is a space that showcases desert animals and plants along with regular zoo animals.
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| Euan feeding the giraffe at the Living Desert Zoo |
On Saturday we said our goodbyes to d's family and headed home. We stayed overnight near Prescott, AZ in a beautiful turnout off the highway in the forest. On Sunday we traveled through beautiful country in Prescott, Sedona, and Flagstaff where we picked up I40. That night we stayed at Meteor Crater rest area in Arizona. On July 28 we drove through New Mexico staying the night at a rest stop near Moriarty. Our final night on the road was spent at at rest stop near Quanah, TX and we arrive home on July 30th. After being locked down under quarantine with Covid 19 for several months, it was great to be on the road once again.
