Moab and on to Arches and North Canyonland

Wednesday:  We decided to go into town for breakfast and ate at the Moab Cafe, which was very good!  Phillip decided that we should wash the sand off of our rig before heading out (it didn't do much good). 

We headed straight to Arches National Park and drove around to all sections and high points but no hiking today.

Notice that there are two guys climbing below:

This is the house at a settlement in this area.  I can't imagine living out here in these primitive conditions....it is hot in summer, cold in winter, no trees, dusty....

After Arches we headed directly to the north entrance to CLNP to see the sights and take some pictures. Again, today is just to drive through and see the sights (we did enough hiking yesterday). 

Both parks were beautiful!  After we left the park we found another BLM site, Horse Thief campground. Nice spot but again had only vault toilets. Good thing that I had planned ahead and had boiled eggs so I could make tuna salad for dinner.

It had been warm all day but cooled way down just in time for our shower...another cold shower tonight.....

Hiking the Needles

Tuesday:   We spend the day at Canyonlands National Park, entering at the southeast entrance (there is another entrance and you can't cover the whole park from either entrance).  We stopped at the visitor center first, then took the long hike to the needles - 6 miles round trip.   This was a challenging hike!  We took a simple picnic lunch and enjoyed it in a shady spot.   We left around 9 and got back around 2, so we were pretty hot, dusty and tired by the time we returned.  We drove on to Moab and stayed at the Spanish Trail RV park which was very nice.

Durango to Canyonlands

Monday:  we went into Durango for lunch at the pizza place and had that fig salad that I like. Looked around town a little, but it was raining.  We stopped and enjoyed Starbucks around 2 and then hit the road. 

We stayed at a BLM campsite before entering Canyonlands National Park.  This is the first time that we have stayed at a BLM campsite.  The sites are not expensive anyway, and Phillip's Senior pass for the National Parks gets us half price at BLM campsites!  The sites don't have water or electricity, but the park does have vault toilets.  Actually, I like the BLM sites because they are spread out so it is quieter and more private.

If you're in Colorado, it will snow....

Sunday.  We got up this morning and headed to a Walmart to get a new set of tires! The nearest Wal Mart on our way is Trinidad, CO.  While waiting to have the tires put on the truck, we did some grocery shopping. Then, we stopped at the Starbucks in the Safeway at Trinidad (we have been here before) and had a Frappuccino. 

We continued on our way to Durango.  It hailed/sleeted on us several times for short periods today. Once during the afternoon, it got really dark so Phillip decided to pull over and let the system pass before continuing (he just wanted a nap).  It rained pretty hard, but no sleet or hail where we were stopped.  Right after getting back on the road, we topped a hill and the road was covered in hail!  We just missed that mess.  In fact, there was a car in the ditch at this spot.

As we went over Wolf Creek pass, it was snowing!

We spent the night at a nice Koa on the east side of Durango.

Day One: Off like a heard of turtles....

Saturday.   We Left from the Lakehouse via hwy 412 around 6:30 am. Today is a rainy day, in fact very heavy rain.  We had to stop several times - mainly because I made Phillip promise that if it was raining so hard we could barely see that he would pull over and wait it out :) We had a flat on the truck around 2 pm. Phillip had a good spare and was able to get it changed during a time when it was not raining.   Although Phillip is the one crawling on the ground, I helped....I documented the event in pictures AND put the lug nuts on!  We stayed this first night at Clayton, NM....our first night in the Wanderlust.   Hwy 412  has been  a pretty good road...lots of 4 lanes or passing lanes and not a lot of traffic.  

This is a pic of the Camper, named Wanderlust by Phillip:

The warning signs for snakes were all over the place at this rest stop....

Gentry Zoo

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a great Thanksgiving this year...but then again, I think they are all great.  I just love getting everyone together in Arkadelphia for a few days :)  Miranda, Adam and Avery came in on Thursday around 1:30 and Mim and Mike arrived around 5:00.  We enjoyed a dinner of gumbo, french bread and pecan pie....getting in touch with our Louisiana roots.  The Pitts family celebrated Thanksgiving day with Meme and joined us on Friday around 10 am.   The Daily family Thanksgiving was ready around noon on Friday.  As usual, we were all stuffed and during the afternoon we had a scavenger hunt (hopefully Melissa will post about that since I did not get a single picture) and then attempted a family picture.....

Whew!  It is hard to get a family photo of this group!  I think this is our best:

We tried to get a "four generations" picture, but that did not work out.  Avery was wanting to chase after the boys and was not happy that her mother grabbed her up for a picture.  This picture cracks me up every time I see it:

Mim and Mike headed out late on Friday since they have pets to take care of in Shreveport.  We had a little outside playtime on the swingset Saturday morning before all of these kids were stuck for hours in the car for the trip home: