Day 81 and 82, September 27 and 28, 2008

Days 81 and 82
September 27 and 28, 2008
Winnemucca RV Park, Winnemucca, NV

It's been kind of nice to stay in one place for a few days and just relax and "piddle" around. Carolee and I caught up on our "beauty regime". Check out these pictures. Now, you know there can't be too much going on if I post a picture of me in Curlers and jammies!!!! And, with glasses on using the PedEgg on Carolee's feet!!! Teeheehee Carolee sneaked and took the picture of me in the curlers and Chuck did the ones of us doing the feet and nail thing. I figured I might as well let you see the REAL us!!! :>)



Carolee drying her nails while I work on her feet!!! LOL



Donna using the PedEgg on Carolee's feet. Good sister, huh???




OK, I will admit it!! This is ME....................... My most recent Glamour Shot!!! In Curlers AND wearing Jammies. :>) At least they didn't take a picture of me using NAIR on my legs. Teeheehee

Carolee's friend Marge and her husband brought their 5th wheel camper and parked close to us. They took us out to dinner at a really nice restaurant this evening. Food was great. Chuck hasn't been feeling very well for a couple of days, so he stayed in the RV while we were gone.

We sat out in the sun for awhile yesterday and today. This is the first time we have had time to do that since we left home. It felt wonderful.......................

Well, our part is supposed to be here tomorrow. Keep your fingers and toes crossed that it fixes the problem. I don't know if we will leave tomorrow or wait and leave tuesday. I guess it depends on what time the part gets here and how long it takes to put it on.

The weather has been wonderful here, but from what I understand, they don't get a lot of rain here.

Catch ya later,
Love, US

Day 80, September 26, 2008

Day 80
September 26, 2008
Winnemucca RV Park
Winnemucca, NV

Well, as you can see we are still here in Winnemucca. We actually pulled out this morning and Merrell wanted to drive through town to make sure the new part did what it was supposed to do and it did, BUT another part didn't. LOL Anyway, it's a small "thingy" that makes the new fan work (some kind of solenoid or something) and he ordered one today, but since it's friday, it will be Monday before it gets here. Actually, it's not a bad thing. It's nice here and we all had some stuff we need to catch up on, so that's what we will be doing until the part gets here. It should only take a half hour to put it on, if everything goes as it should.

The weather was really nice today. Carolee and I sat out in the sun for an hour or so. I watched the debate tonight and have been working on stuff on the computer since then. I'm about ready to kick back and watch some tv and then hit the sack.

Have a good weekend,
Love, US

Day 79, September 25, 2008

Day 79
September 25, 2008
Winnamucca RV Park
Winnamucca, NV

I wasn't going to post anymore tonight, but while I was cooking supper, Carolee went out and took pictures of the beautiful sunset here in Winnamucca. She came back in and said that she got carried away and took 30 or 40 pictures. Well, she don't count so good............ Teeheehee When she downloaded them, she had taken 117. I decided they were to pretty to keep to ourselves, so I put a few of them on my computer and thought I would share them with you guys. Marge told us the sunsets here were awesome and she was right.

Take care,
Love, US

I couldn't decide which ones to post, so I just picked the following five so you could get an idea of what 117 of them would look like in a slide show. It would be amazing.

Day 79, September 25, 2008

Day 79
September 25, 2008
Winnamucca RV Park, Winnamucca, NV

Marge took Carolee and I out to lunch today, while Merrell and Chuck were fixing the fan "thingy" in the engine of the Motor Home. Merrell had ordered the part while we were traveling and had it shipped to Marge's house. We ate lunch at the Martin Hotel in downtown Winnamucca. The hotel is over 120 years old. It still has the hitching posts out front for the horses. This place was settled in part by Basque sheepherders (spanish) and Native Americans. After lunch Marge took us for a tour of downtown Winnamucca. It's your typical small town, except it has several Casinos that we aren't used to seeing in WV. I think Marge said that there are about 10,000 residents of Winnemucca.
She and Carolee did a lot of "catching up" since they haven't seen each other in 40 some years. A day or two is NOT long enough catch up on that many years, but they had a good start on it. Maybe they will stay in touch with email now.



Front window of the Martin Hotel in Downtown Winnamucca, NV.



Beautiful old Catholic Church in Downtown Winnamucca



Carolee and Marge back at the RV park



Carolee and Marge again. I think I said something funny, cause they are laughing pretty hard!!



Carolee, Marge and Donna at the RV park. We conned Merrell into quitting work for a minute so
we could get the three of us together. I couldn't figure out how to take our picture together without a fourth party!! Teeheehee



Chuck working on the Motor Home engine from the inside of the motorhome.





Merrell working on the engine of the motor home from underneath. I couldn't bend down that low and didn't want to stand on my head, so I just aimed my camera where I thought he should be and started clicking!! Teeheehee

RV parks don't allow you to work on your vehicles in the actual campground, but they let them move it up behind the office in the owner's work area and even let them use his workshop. Merrell brought a lot of tools with him for "just in case" and it's a good thing he did. Carolee and I are sitting here waiting until we can move back to our spot and hook up to electric and water. She's reading a book and I'm "computing". It's a fine time to get caught up on downloading pictures and updating the "blog".

I'm hoping they get it fixed soon. I know they are tired. I fixed a pot of butter beans this morning and was going to make corn bread to go with them, BUT I have to have electricity to do that!! That will be supper/dinner depending on which part of the good ole U S of A you are from. :>) It's almost 5:00 p.m. and they are still working, so we will see.......................

Not much else to tell you, except we are still surrounded by brown mountains. Marge said in the spring they are greeen, then they turn red and by summer they are brown and stay that way. She is from Lewisburg, WV and said it took her a long time to get used to it, but now it's home and she guessed they would probably end up staying here after her husband retires. He works in the gold mines. She said that is the major industry in this area other than the casinos.

If it gets fixed today, we will pull out tomorrow morning and head to California.

Catch ya later,
Love, US

Day 78-September 24, 2008

Day 78
September 24, 2008
Drove from Lake Point, UT to Winnemucca, NV

We left Lake Point around 10:30 a.m. and headed down I-80. It wasn't long before we realized there wouldn't be many pictures taken today. It was hazy and the landscape was BROWN.......
We went for miles and miles and saw nothing except totally flat land with mountain ranges in the far distance. It was so hazy that we couldn't even get a good view of the mountains. According to the Atlas, the goverment has a testing site in this area and it's off limits to civilians except for the road through the land. It's a good place for a testing site because NOTHING could live there. We went for miles and miles and saw nothing, not even a bush or blade of grass.



Flat Hazy Utah landscape on our drive to Winnemucca, NV



Finally, some hills instead of all flat.



We finally started seeing a whitish substance instead of the brown and Merrell thought it might be sand and we wondered if it could possibly be salt. The further we drove, the whiter it got. We stopped at a rest area to see if we could find out what it was and the adventurer in Merrell decided to taste it!!! Well, it was salt!!! Coarse, white salt. It was packed just like sand on a beWe saw some people out on the "salt beach" and it looked like they were having some kind of foot race. After we left, we drove a little ways and saw lots of cars and trucks on the "salt beach" and it looked like they were having a race. I read in some of our papers that the Great Salt Flats was where the record for land speed was set. It was because there is such a large expanse of hard surface suitable for driving and trust me, there is NOTHING to get in your way!! :>)




The brownish white salt flats in Utah on our way to Nevada.



Chuck and Carolee on the "salt beach" in the Bonneville Utah area.



Donna and Carolee on the salt beach in Utah. The salt was so white and the sun so bright that we couldn't hold our eyes open.




Donna and Merrell on the salt beach in Utah





Donna and Merrell on the salt beach.






Cars and trucks on the salt beach near the Bonneville Speedway.



Salt processing plant in Utah on the Great Salt Flats.




Finally some green!!! Of course, it has irrigation pipes to it, but it sure was nice to see some green after hundreds of miles of brown.




Brown again, but at least there is a little color in the sage brush.



After we got past all of the flat areas, we went up some pretty high hills. I think the highest elevation was 6,000+ feet. It was still a nice change after all the flat we had driven through. And, we got to see some water!!! I took this from the top of the mountain looking down on the road we would be on driving down the mountain.




We finally got back to civilization and BARNS and old buildings. Yeah!!



It's the older barns that I love the most. The more they are falling down, the better I like them. Strange, aren't I??? :>)

We finally made it to Winnemucca and are staying at the Winnamucca RV Park. Carolee's friend Marge and her husband Bill Workman came out for a little while to visit. Carolee and Marge are going out to lunch tomorrow.



Our Motor home has been turned into a spa mobile!!! I tried to convince Merrell that if Chuck could do a foot massage, he could. But, no luck...................


Carolee, Chuck and Marge Workman.

Well, I guess that's enough pictures for now!!! Merrell and Chuck are going to put a part on the motor home engine tomorrow and I guess we will pull out of here on Friday heading to California.

Take care,
Love, US

Day 77-September 23, 2008

Day 77
September 23, 2008
Drove from Provo, UT to Lake Point, UT
Toured Temple Square in Downtown Salt Lake City

We drove from the campground in Provo to Lake Point, UT this morning. We decided to move there because it was on the West side of Salt Lake and that made it a shorter drive for Merrell to drive to Winnemucca, NV tomorrow. I had looked in the Next Exit book we use when traveling to tell us what is off of each exit on the major interstates in the US and knew there was a campground there, so we just drove there and figured we would see it off of the exit. When we got there we saw some campers up a side road, so we figured it was the campground and drove up to the entrance. Well, when we saw a pink building with LOUNGE on it, it should have been a good indication that we didn't want to stay there. :>) We looked around and it was packed full of old campers and trailers and piles of junk sitting around the campers. Chuck went to the "office" to ask if we were at the right place. He said the lady was stewed to the gills, but thank goodness she said they didn't have any room for a rig our size. Whew!!! That was a relief............. As it turned out, we were at the wrong place anyway. Just up the road there was a motel/RV park combination and we were able to park there.


We ALMOST stayed here!!! Thank goodness there was no room at the Inn for us. LOL


After we got the motor home hooked up, we loaded into the car and headed to Salt Lake City to tour the Temple Square. Merrell wanted me to drive, so I did. Thank goodness forour GPS. It's amazing how much you come to rely on them to get you where you are going. I bet they have prevented a gazillion divorces!! Teeheehee No more fights because of wrong turns..............

Chuck took this picture while I was driving to Salt Lake City. I didn't even see it!!! And, I was driving.......................... :>)


Temple square is a ten acre tract in Salt Lake City that houses the Mormon Temple, the Mormon Tabernacle and beautiful flower gardens, fountains and statues. It is an amazingly beautiful place and all of the people who worked/volunteered there were so kind and helpful. We spent the afternoon wandering around in the flower gardens and touring some of the buildings. I could spend days and days there just wandering around amongst the flowers, shrubs and trees. I'm sure they have a HUGE staff who work on the grounds full time in order to keep them looking like that, but I can dream that at some point in my life I could have something equally beautiful at my house. The flower beds were a combination of shrubs, trees, perennials and annuals as well as a lot of herb gardens.


The beautiful Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. They started building the Temple in April, 1853 and it wasn't completed until April, 1893. From what I read, it would take 4 days just to get each load of granite (the stone it's built with) to the site. I can't even imagine how labor intense the project was. It's an amazing feat and a testimony to the strength and determination of a group of people who had been persecuted for so long because of their beliefs. Not that I believe as they do, but I do respect them and I believe they have the right to worship as they please.



Donna and Merrell in front of one of the massive planters that are all over the grounds in Temple Square.





Donna and Merrell in the flower gardens at Temple Square in SLC.



Chuck and Carolee at one of the fountains in Temple Square, SLC.






This is one of the many statues and beds of beautimous flowers that were scattered amongst the building and fountains. I just wanted to crawl (well, maybe not crawl) right in the middle of them and smell all of the different scents. Some of the flowers smelled sooooooooooo good.



Merrell, Donna, Chuck and Carolee inside the Mormon Tabernacle. This is where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs. In the background you can see the pipe organ. They say that the acoustics are so good that if it's quiet inside you can drop a pin up front and hear it in the back. People come from all over the world to study the architecture of the building. It is over 150 years old and is dome shaped with no roof supports. Can't remember exactly what they said, but it sounded good. :>)



Another wonderful flower bed.



Another flower bed withg a fountain in the background.





This is another statue that they were in the process of installing and it didn't have any flowers around it yet. It was still a beautiful piece. The Mormons are really into family and it shows in the way they have designed their gardens and the various statues scattered around the square.




Now you see why I loved Temple Square. Have you ever seen so many beautiful flowers? We have seen a lot of flowers since our trip started. Anchorage had some beautiful ones and a lot of the other places we saw, but these were really magnificent, not to mention BEAUTIMOUS!!!




Chuck and Carolee and a neat old tree. I hope you can see how the branches have been trained (I assume that is why they are the way they are??) to twine around each other.




Donna and Merrell sitting under the same neat old tree. We should have been singing "Merrell and Donna, sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G...................... You know the rest of the story. Teeheehee :>)))))




This is the conference house located at Temple Square. It has a beautiful rose garden right behind where Chuck and Merrell are standing. The smell was sooooooooooooo good!!!



This house was not at Temple Square, but a block or so up the street. We asked one of the people at the information center about this house and he said it had originally been a school of music. It is now a private residence. Isn't it something?? I wanted to sneak in it and do a private tour. Teeheehee I love old houses and especially ones that have character and this one has character plus.

We took LOTS more pictures, but I probably posted too many already. I just couldn't decide which ones to post.

We're going to Winnemucca tomorrow to visit one of Carolee's friend that she hasn't seen in 47 years. We've had a great time in this area and will hate to leave, but there's so much still out there to see that we have to get back on the road.

Catch ya later,
Love, US

Day 76- September 22., 2008

Day 76
September 22, 2008
Drove from the WalMart Parking lot in Mountain Home, Idaho to
Provo, Utah

We had a nice comfortable night in the WalMart parking lot. It was either pretty quiet all night or we were all so tired we didn't hear the noise.

We had a beautiful day for our drive from Idaho to Utah. It was sunny and warm and there was very little traffic. For the most part our drive through Idaho was a lot like our drive through Oregon. We saw lots of sagebrush and brown mountains, with an occasional green area where they irrigate. All of the pictures were taken from inside the motor home driving on some very windy roads, so it's amazing that any of them turned out good enough to post. If you look really close, you may see what look like spots on the pictures. That's DEAD BUGS!!! Teeheehee



Just check out this beautiful Idaho blue sky.



The contrast between the brown mountains and the blue Idaho sky was fantastic. You can see what a difference there is in the areas that are not irrigated and the areas that have been irrigated.



This is a farm/ranch in Idaho. It isn't the typical farm you think of in WV since there is very little green, but it has a beauty all of it's own. Irrigation is very big in Idaho and Utah. We saw lots of those wheel and pipe "thingys" that water acres of fields at one time.


We also saw quite a few windmills. You will have to enlarge this picture or look really close, but you can see the windmills in the distance. This was taken in Idaho, but we have seen a lot of these type windmills on our trip.




This was also a farm in Idaho. It looks more like what we think of as a farm/ranch. It was so peaceful looking with the cows and stream. A big change from all of the brown we had been seeing all the way through Oregon and Idaho.


This is farmland on the river in Idaho. I love the green against the brown background of the mountains.



This is also some of the irrigated farm land in Idaho. Love the GREEN!!!




We saw lots of these very large square hay bales in Oregon and Idaho. I wondered why they would make such large square bales when I have been used to seeing the large round bales. I was told that round ones are going to be outlawed in WV!!! I asked why and they told me because the cows could never get a square meal!! Teeheehee :>) Had you going, didn't I???



I think this is what they call a Butte in Oregon, Idaho and Utah. This one is in Idaho. Do you know the difference between a butte and a butt?? An E on the end!!! LOL



Another view of the BUTTe...................................... LOL




I wanted to document that the price of diesel has come down AGAIN!!! $3.99 is better than the $4.01 we paid last time.


This was taken in Utah, which also had a lot of desert type land everywhere they don't irrigate.








This was taken on the drive around Salt Lake City towards Provo, Utah. We drove through a beautiful Canyon and the fall colors were just beautiful especially after seeing so much brown desert areas over the past few days.



This was also taken in the Canyon on the way to Provo, Utah



Another view of the mountains in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. Very unique, huh?




This was also taken in the Canyon area outside of Salt Lake City.


And yet another view of the beautiful fall colors in the canyon.





I kind of took a picture of the window in the motorhome as I was taking this picture. I saw the mountain and Merrell was driving so fast that I didn't have time to aim it any better. I still thought it was a pretty picture so decided to post it anyway. This was also taken in the Canyon as I'm sure you can tell by now.


Another mountain in the Canyon we traveled through.



I know you can't really see the lake in this picture. It was kind of hazy, so the picture didn't turn out too well. This is the Salt Lake that Salt Lake City was named for. The edges of the lake are white salty looking areas similar to sand, but not as clean looking.


When I saw this wagon, I thought about all of the pioneers and the hardships they must have endured in order to settle this harsh land we have been traveling through. I know that I have a greater understanding of what they must have gone through. We have been traveling in comfort and it still seems like it takes forever to get from point A to point B in this vast land. I wonder how many of us would have been able to do what they did? I also wonder if any of them ever said "why am I doing this"?



This is part of the mountain range that surrounds Salt Lake City. It has a very "unreal" look. Some of the mountains have reminded me of the painted backdrops that they use in theaters. They look real, yet "unreal".


This is a farm at the base of the mountains that we saw in a distance all across Utah. Of course, it has a barn!!! :>)

And, LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, I could not post without adding some Utah BARNS!!! LOL

















I know I have posted a lot of pictures today, but it was just so hard to choose which ones and without seeing all of the different views, it's hard to really visualize the land we are traveling through. It's as much for my benefit as anything. I go back and look at the pictures and remind myself where we have been and all of the wonderful things we have seen. We are truly blessed to have been able to take this trip.

Tomorrow it's Salt Lake City and the Mormon Temple.

Catch ya later,
Love, US