Durango to Montrose

Boy oh Boy, we had an adventure today !
Well, it all started at 2:30AM, when I woke up and realized, "it's colder in here than it should be!! And it seems awfully quiet ... the MaxFan isn't running.... and I don't hear the furnace! (think, think) Oh no, no gas!!!!!!" Yep, turning up the thermostat didn't help at all!
I looked outside, and not only was it cold, it was snowing to beat the band!! At least 1-2" on the ground then! Oh well, somebody will be open (gas, grocery, etc) who has a Rhino Gas display. Out I go, and YES, there's one. "What am I doing up at this hour? Well sir, I uh, I uh..... Well, you see it's like this...." So, off I go with some bottled heat. Get to HokieEscape, pull up the hatch, reach in and.......the second tank was OFF!!! Oh man! Turn the screw and Hisssssssssss.... Reset the furnace, and off it fires!!! (Oh well, now I have an extra tank for the grill at home). My sweetheart was up by this time, 3AM, checking email with her coats piled on top, laughing at the adventure!!!! So, all Escaper's out there, always check after someone fills your tanks, they may not turn it back on (the guy at Camping World graciously reinstalled my newly filled tank so I could go in and pay). Oh well, another lesson learned, check the tanks before heading into town : - ) What a dope!
Well, we were up now, wide awake! So we had some great worship time, scripture time, prayer time, then decided, let's go check out that place, that hole in the wall (downtown) called Durango Diner. About 6:15, we were out and about in snowy Durango ... and we were the only ones!
Well, we decided, it's gonna clear, let's head North to Montose. Got 3 passes of 11,000 feet to go over, but surely, CO DOT will be on it! First electronic sign we passed said "Chains required on all Commercial Vehicles". Ok, that's not us!!! Now I've got to say, I was all about spending another day in Durango til the weather passed, but my sweet sidekick said, "it won't be bad". When we got to the first mountain, it looked OK to start, then as we climbed, my normally perky copilot starts getting a little antsy! "Maybe we should go back?" "Uh, sweet pea, there's no where to turn around!!!!" So, from about 1/2 way up, to 2/3 of the way down to Silverton, I learned how to drive our new Frontier with 2 people sitting in the drivers seat. I have to admit, there were very few guard rails and the shoulder was VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY low on her side of the truck!!!
We made it over the first 2 mountains into Silverton, and went into town. 98% of all the stores were CLOSED! We did find a coffee shop, and trying to straighten our wobbly knees, we wandered in and sat down. After a strawberry/raspberry smoothie, my smoothie agreed to get into the truck again.
The next mountain had the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen. Try the following: http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/million.htm
Now the reason we don't have any pictures of our own is, that it was snowing the whole way, and any pictures we took would have looked like a smeared black and white photo. Plus, I couldn't get my arms up high enough to take any because Jan was hanging on so tight : -)
Well, we made it to Montose, got settled in a nice site, and I gave Jan a little while to unwind, as I went out to fill up the gas tank, and buy her some flowers! She still loves me!
Tomorrow, to Pike's Peak, Lord willing! It's supposed to be sunny the next few days...Yeah


"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe

Mesa Verde

Heh Everyone,

Well, today we left Moab, and headed to Durango, CO. Yep, we've left another state behind, heading to Virginia. When we crossed over into Colorado, we were suprised at all the miles and miles of semi-arid land devoted to agriculture. Beautiful fields for miles with the tools of irriagation standing watch, ready for the first signs of Spring.

We were soon turning off to Mesa Verde National Park. I've really been looking forward to this side trip. These people came to the area about 600AD and lived here until about 1300AD (twice as long as when the US was discovered), then moved on. Remarkable following their culture from hunter/ gatherer's to more stable society, then to the builers. We really enjoyed the story. History is fascinating!

We made it into Durango. A beautiful old historical section of town, first settled in the 1880's, and made rich by silver and gold mining. Mostly tourism now. Wonderful little shops and resturants (we tried out Francisco's, it was great.

Wondering if we get to go North tomorrow. Apparently a Blizzard it hitting Colorado tomorrow, so we may have to sit out a day. That wouldn't be ALL bad! Love to all,

Dan and Jan

"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe

Arches National Park

Heh all,

This morning we went into the great little town of Moab, Utah, sent some mail, got a great cup of Joe in a neat little book store, a tasty blueberry scone, and off to Arches Nat'l Park we went.

What a GREAT place, it should definitely be on the "I've gotta go there some day" list. We had a ball. Your eyes just can't take it all in, just fascinating. Jan saw an elephant in almost everything, like this one???? What's it look like to you?

Isn't that neat?

Take a look at this one, I thought it looked like a man, laying on his back, looking up to heaven. Can you see his 2 eyes, and the underside of his nose looking at you?

Watch out, I heard he had a cold, and was about to sneeze......duck!!!!!!

One of the first things we saw was balancing rock.

The stone on top is a denser stone, the layer just

below softer, and as the years have eroded the softer stone, it is perched pretty precariously!!! That in fact, is what has formed all the amazing things we saw (actually, it's all God's amazing sculpture work, like He was playing with play dough and blobbed some here, and some there). We started the day reading Romans 1 to remind ourselves to worship the Creator and not the creation: - ) (ie. where it all REALLY came from).
The arch to the right is Landscape Arch. The longest in the Park (over 300'), you can see how thin it is. In 1991, a 180 ton chunk of it fell from the right bottom, while visitors scrambled. Now it's REALLY thin! They don't let you get THAT close any more!

Some you can however, and we enjoyed getting our picture taken in front of these two. The one on the right is called Delicate Arch and it the most photographed. It was a 3 mile hike uphill!!! But, when we got there, it was worth ever ounce of energy it took. Of course, in these two pictures, you can also see why I think I'm the most blessed man in the world! What a side kick!!!

We were famished when we got back and had a couple of the most delicious burgers and salads we'd ever had at

Slippery Rock Cafe! A must on the list.....

(of course, we're not sure whether the burger's were really that good, or we were just soooo hungry?)

Tomorrow we head into these mountains.

That's Colorado folks! Headed South to Mesa Verde National Park, then on to Durango, CO

See you tomorrow.
Dan and Jan

"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe

Provo to Moab - Utah

Heh Blog Followers,

We stayed last night at Lakeside RV, close to Lake Utah. We would have preferred to have been at Utah Lake State Park, which was right next door, and actually ON the Lake, but they didn't open until today : - ( Boo Hiss!!!! We awoke last night to the sound of rain on the roof of the Escape, and both mellowly dosed back off to sleep. Oh the sound of rain on the roof. However, when we awoke this AM, it wasn't rain, but sleet and freezing rain! It was 27 degrees, and the wind was blowing! Heh Provo, this is our only visit here, you could be a little nicer : - )

Well, hook up went fine, and off we go, toward SE Utah. The huge mountains on every side of Salt Lake, were shrouded in low snow clouds. (Reminded me of the description of Mt. Sinai when Moses ascended!) Supposedly, there was supposed to be a storm moving in, so we skedaddled it out of town, headed South, and hopefully, sunshine and warmer temps. Well, we did find the sunshine about 50 miles

South. See what else we saw when the clouds lifted! Oh Man! Just beautiful. We left I-15 at RT 50 and started heading SE again, toward Salina. Jan kept saying over and over, "all this land and no one living here" Well, that little cabin to the left was one of the only houses we saw for miles! Right after that we came upon Scripio Lake, nice. We crossed over the mountains at 8000 feet and then started into Salina. And, since we'd not eaten (remember the way to keep your dishes clean) we stopped at Mom's Cafe!

It was GREAT HOME COOKING, featured in National Geographic in '96!

Pork Chops, eggs, fried potatoes, and biscuit gravy, Ooooooooooh, we rolled out of there. Should be on every one's "one day" list!

Well, now we were on I-70 (our companion til we get to St. Louis), and headed for the San Rafael Swell (look it up)! We were leaving the snow covered mountains behind, and letting down into the desert country! Check out

this "castle" made of limestone! Amazing! I'm speaking of the beauty just emerging from the Escape, but the view beyond isn't too shabby either : - ) Cute little rig

here too! Both pictures! (I know, I'm partial)

When we hit the height of the San Rafael Swell, closer to Green River, we hit a section, that both of us described as "like driving down into the Grand Canyon". I've never seen anything like it! We had to pry our mouths shut!!!! As we hit the end of this particular geological wonder, called the San Rafael Shelf, we let down into the flatter desert and headed for Moab. Now we're getting some rest, to tackle Arches National Park tomorrow. Nite nite!

"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe

Idaho to Utah

Heh Fellow travelers,
We left the Ward's home, full of a delicious breakfast, and followed Brian over to MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) headquarters, where he works. MAF just moved to Nampa a few years ago, from Redlands, CA. It was just too expensive there for poor missionaries to live. The facilities are on the grounds of the Nampa, ID, airport, and are fabulous. Many built by volunteers like SOWERS (Seniors On Wheels Ever Ready Servants - for you RV buffs looking for something useful to do), who first built a little RV park for them to stay in, then build some buildings like these dorms for new recruits.

One of the awesome exhibits they have at MAF, is this salvaged frame from Nate Saints little yellow Piper Cub. (if you click on the picture to enlarge, you will see a picture of it on the sand bar in the Amazon River, in Equador)

It was recovered from the site of the massacre of 5 missionaries in 1959, including Jim Elliot. If you saw the recent movie "End of The Spear", you are familiar with the incident. Nate Saint was with MAF.

Some of the more recent work that many may know of, was in response to the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The pictures to the left are from work they were doing in Sumatra, following the tsunami, to establish communications for many disaster groups, and to fly in supplies.

Brian's group is the non-flying side of MAF. He's involved in Distance Learning Technologies. For instance, they were one of the first groups into Russia after the fall of the Iron Curtain, to provide Russian pastors with much needed resources, such as Bibles, and literature. They had had none for years. They did that by digitizing resources, and sending them on CD's and DVD's. Can you imagine the joy? They're continuing similar work today. (note the Russian hat to the left??)


I tried to get them to let me take their new STOL turbo jet, the Kodiac, out for a spin, but as you can see, they were installing some special avionics, and getting it ready for the field.

So, I had to settle for one of their Cessna 208's that they use for training. Now I'd need some training, since despite having private, twin engine, and instrument ratings, I haven't flown in 20 years.....so, I had to only sit in the pilots seat and dream of those days of pushing the throttle to the wall and soaring like a bird.

Speaking of soaring like a bird, we made it to Provo, Utah today, and I'm not sure any birds fly that high, but we enjoyed an unbelievable variety of terrain again today, but our favorite is to the left,

here in Provo, Utah.

Tomorrow, we head to South East Utah, the desert country, where we hope to camp for a few days, do some hiking, and some RESTING.

We're ready!

"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe

Oregon to Idaho

Hi Fellow Traveler's,


We left the Reservation without any problems this AM, headed to Idaho. I'm probably the only one who thought this, but I thought most of Washington, Oregon and Idaho were mountainous, green places. And parts are, but from what we've seen so far, most are semi-arid plains with large outcroppings of mountains spaced fairly far apart. Now, this is along the roads we are traveling, but I'm getting to understand more, the effects of the Cascade Mountains in retaining most of the moisture on the Pacific coast. Most of the landscape we saw was barren scrub brush hills, and this:

Great fertile plains, all irrigated, covering miles and miles of country. There's a lot of open country out here! Being from the East, it's hard to imagine. I understand here in Idaho, besides the potato, that the number one crop is seeds. Apparently, because it is so arid, and everything is irrigated by the root, it's possible to grow seeds without the damage of molds, etc., that accompanies plants that are irrigated from the sky. Never knew that!

We got to Nampa, Idaho to visit with good friends, the Brian Ward family, who are stationed here with Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF). Brian and Christy, and 5 kiddos, have been here for a couple of years now, developing long distance learning aids for Christian training, in developing country's, in particular. It's been great catching up, and in particular seeing what a great job they are doing raising these kids. It was wonderful to share a meal with them, and share our hearts together.

Well, another day. Discovered I''ve got some kind of exhaust leak on my water heater that smells up the trailer when it's running. Just fine except when we make hot water (OK Jan, no more showers til we get home April 12th! OK, OK!!! I'll come up with a solution, you don't have to catch a plane in Boise!!!). We've got a temporary solution, no big problem, the trip will continue....... Good night!

"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe

Washington to Oregon

Heh fellow cyber journey(er's),

This AM we couldn't find another Cookie's Grill, so we ate oatmeal and toast in our new kitchen. Yummmm, but not as Yummmm as Cookie's!! Had a great time worshipping with Rick and Melissa at Plain Community
Church (the only church in Plain - it's a Plain small place). We said our teary goodbye's (hope to see them in the East in the fall), and off we went.

Now tell me that's not one good looking family. I only know one other that's cuter!

Driving out of Plain, we headed for a little Bavarian town along Washington 2, that I'm sure is a great tourist spot, called Leavenworth (no, no prison there). Rt2 runs along the Wenatachee River and the whole 14 miles looked much like this:

In the summer, Rick runs inflatable kayaks down this river with lots of kids. They love to have kids that are "at risk" (troubled kids, families), and put them through hiking, back packing, ropes courses, and river stuff in the summer, and skiing, snow mobiling, etc in the winter.
Not too shabby of a drive, eh?? Leavenworth was just lovely with Swiss Chalet type stores, and shops, narrow streets (I didn't want to take HokieEscape down them), and quite a few shoppers for this time of year. Of course, there's lot of Alpine skiing around, so I guess they're there for that too. Here's a shot back toward the mountains in Leavenworth:

Nice eh?

Letting down out of the mountains, going South, we headed toward Yakima. Very soon we were in a desert area, and it got flatter and flatter. Big wine country for the next 40 miles or so (lots of irrigation), then desert again with nothing much too look at except sage brushy hills. Beautiful in it's own right. Washington sure has a wide variety of terrain.

Just into Oregon, we stopped at a campground called Wildhorse RV Park in Pendleton. Didn't know it, but it's on an Indian Reservation, and shares property with a Casino!!!!! Nice place, as a matter of fact, it's "outstanding in it's field" (ie. there's not a tree around). Here's the view toward the Idaho mountains, where we head tomorrow:

Off to the sack, Good night, and sleep tight (no bed bugs in an Escape!!!)

"The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart, and ONLY God's Spirit and God's Word can change and control the heart" Wiersbe