August 18, 2011 - Back at Home

It was nice spending over six weeks on vacation, most of which was in cool weather.  When we arrived at home, it was 107 degrees.  I reckon we came home a little too early but we are glad to be back.

On the way home, just a little ways into Kansas, we were stopped by a state trooper and given a ticket for being 3 feet over length.  He made us unhook the Jeep and, since Toni doesn't drive a standard shift, we had to leave it at a truck stop.  We went on with the camper and camped within 19 miles of the Kansas/Oklahoma border.  The next day we drove 500 miles round trip back to the Jeep to tow it back to our camper.

When we were ready to pull out, we hooked the Jeep back onto the fifth wheel and took back roads out of Kansas hoping we wouldn't run into another state trooper.  We had no more problems with the law going through Oklahoma or Texas.  The lenght restriction in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico is 65 feet and we measure 67 feet.  Funny thing though, Colorado allows 70 feet!

After we got home, we traded the silver Jeep off for one that has an automatic transmission so if this happens again, Toni can drive the Jeep home or out of the state.  The new one also has a hardtop, which does away with most of the wind noise.

Toni took this picture at the truck stop where we retrieved the Jeep.  We think we want to buy a bumper like this for our pickup!

This is the way we looked when we left on our trip.  Notice the nice straight front bumper!

This is the way we came back.  Also, the bed of the pickup is full of things like the Dana 44 axle I bought.

Our poor pickup.  I hope to get started on the repairs very soon now that we are home.  The Dodge dealer in New Mexico said we are going to have to have a new front axle housing as well.

We drove almost 7,500 miles and went through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and into Alaska and Canada.

One of the main reasons we spent as much time as we have on this blog of our 2011 vacation was due to our plan to convert it to a little book form.  We hope that day our grandchildren will have a written and picture account of this  six week period of time in our lives and learn something about us.

The time spent on our long trip brought back many memories that Mom and I have of all the times we spent with our kids on vacations, weekends, and even days after school.  It brought back memories of boy scout camps, hunting trips, bicycle rides, alpine slides, backpacking trips, tent camping, and generally just having fun with our family.

There are, basically, only two things in life that are truly important and that I fervently hope for our boys and their families:

1.  That they love Lord God above all else.
2.  That they spend tons of time with their wives and children and have FUN.

Odd as it may sound, this is the first time in our 45 years of marriage when Toni and I have spent 24-7 with each other for six weeks in one continuous period of time.  I have to admit that there were a few times when we got a little testy with one another (mainly me) but in the end, we connected in ways that goes back to when we were first married and is new unto itself.  It was a good trip.

Aug. 13th - Ophir Pass to Telluride

We finally had the chance to take a full day to run some Jeep trails.  We went over Ophir Pass (Jeep trail) to Telluride and came back to camp via Last Dollar Road.

As far as we are concerned, it is hard to beat the views around Ouray, especially since they are within a day's driving of Dallas!

Toni was particularly impressed by this shelf road that was near the summit!  ha

The small print says to not come this way if you are a wuss and don't have a high clearance four-wheel drive vehicle.  Just kidding...................I don't remember what it said.  Toni can probably tell you.

A nice view from the summit.

This is one of several nice flower pictures that Toni took while on the trail.

Do a double click on the picture and you will find a marmot.  (or a really big squirrel)

As you can see........................more flowers.

A look at the trail going down.  Toni actually did very well on this trip!  I was very proud of her (and relieved).

Nearing the bottom of the trail, we came through this beautiful stand of trees.

We came through the little town of Ophir.  As you can see, this still has a high elevation.

Local homes.

A nice home in Ophir.

This little bitty town even has a post office!

On the way back on the Last Dollar Road, we came by this nice grove of aspen.

We have a lot more pictures of all the various travel locations so if you want to see more, you are just going to have to come see us!!

Aug. 12 - Black Canyon - We Hiked!

I finally got the Jeep set up ready to tow home so we took a half day trip to the Black Canyon National Park.  We actually did some hiking of the trails to the rim edge, as you will see!

Entrance sign to the park.

See!!  Here is a picture of Toni after we hiked the 134 yards to the overlook!!

We took the lower road down to the river.  Very steep (16% grade).

This is a river down in the bottom.  (can't remember its name).  My blogs are very educational, right!?

Picture of the same unknown river in the bottom of the canyon.

Still in the bottom.  This is a far as we could go.  There is a top secret dam behind our Jeep.

Rocky cliff things.

Back on the top again.

I actually walked down to this sign!!

A pose by a deep gorge.

Toni during one of our LONG hikes!

Another giant rocky ledge.

We decided this was too far to walk so we didn't do it.

This was a pretty interesting trip but it wasn't the highlight of our time abroad.

Aug. 10th - Now in Montrose, CO

We have spent the last several days in Ouray just messing around, watching the soap operas on TV, riding my bike some, and generally taking it easy.  Oh.............and buying a Jeep.

A guy from Texas came into the campground pulling a fifth wheel and towing a Jeep behind the trailer.  After visiting  with the guy about how easy it was to pull, I got the fever.  That was Sunday and we went to Montrose the next day and found this Jeep Wrangler TJ.  It is a 2002 model but only has 14,400 miles.

I ordered a special tow bar on Tuesday and we moved over to Montrose where it will be shipped.  Hopefully, it won't be too long getting here. 

We plan to run a few Jeep trails while here and then head home.

Offroading in Ouray

We went over to Ridgeway to check out housing, buy diesel, and get my sunglasses that I had left at the bike store. 

We looked at this duplex that just came on the market, which is a foreclosure.  It is a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath unit in really good condition for $154,900.  I wish we had a couple of people that would be interested in co-oping with this!  Lots of parking space in the front.  Any takers out there?  We will even buy the Jeep to leave here for everyone to use!

While in Ridgeway, we went to their little train museum, which was interesting.  This is a prison wagon that they used to haul our distant cousin, Jesse James, to the federal jail.  ha

After we left Ridgeway, we took an off-highway trip up to Yankee Boy Basin.  This is a shot of part of the shelf road up.  We were glad that the rock didn't fall on us, which happens sometimes, as you will see by the next picture.

Double click this picture and you can read the plaques.  The one on the left is for Jim Parker, a member of the Lone Star Jeep Club out of the Dallas area.  One year while the group was running this shelf road, a large boulder fell from above and killed Jim.  His wife was riding with him but wasn't injured.  After the collision, the Jeep veered sharp left into the side of the mountain and stalled out.  Had it gone to the right, it would have gone over the edge.

When we came to this spot, there was an elderly couple that we visited with.  Their 21 year old grandson was killed here 13 months ago.  He and some friends were here over July 4th last year and for some reason, their grandson jumped backwards while shooting fireworks and went over the edge.

Nice view.

And more.  Wow, what good photographers we are.  Of course Toni deems herself as the pro!

More of the same.

No comment necessary, but.................as Toni says, I like to talk so I have to say something, even if it is meaningless!

This is an old gold mine.  The old building was used for processing gold ore.  There is a lot of this in the entire region.

Lots of wildflowers.  (Toni took this one.)

I will say it again.  We like the Ouray area much better than Yellowstone.

Nice little stream that crossed the trail.

More of the Lord's handywork.

The road up here was really steep.  This is one of the better spots.  I actually had to use 4 wheel low and the old Dodge did a great job.  For you gearheads, 2000 rpm's in low, low only does 5 mph. 

Lots of these spots up here.

We are near the top here, at the end of the trail.  You can see the corner of a house that is for sale.  My goodness, the road to this point is long and treacherous!

I don't know whether we were going up or down here!  I think up.

I am pretty sure we were going down the mountain in this one.  Toni isn't much of a thrill seeker so this run is probably the last one we will make off-highway. 

A person doesn't have to have a highly modified vehicle to do most of the trails but you definitely need four wheel drive and high clearance.  The main drawback to our long wheelbase crew cab pickup is its length.  We had to do several switchbacks but they happened to be large ones and I didn't have to do any backing up to get around them.