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Go to 2006 Tour

 

PART 1: We're on the Road Again...
PART 2: Virginia and DC Hello
PART 3: Emergence from the Wild
PART 4: Hello from the Road
PART 5: California Dreamin' Part 1
PART 6: California Dreamin' Part 2
PART 7: Sedona as a New Age Tourist
PART 8: Sedona to South Florida; The Road Home


Part Four; Hello from the Road

Hello from Ginger and Daniel on the road! From Green to Green...

We left Missouri by way of Kansas City, where we parked north of the city for two days in a steady mild rain. A weather system hung over the area and all the way down to Texas. Sleeping in an all-night rain in the RV is very restorative! We left the system by mid-Kansas but folks in SE Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas had subsequently to suffer through floods when it simply didn't move away.

We arrived in Denver area and spent 8 nights parked by delighfully frothy and fast flowing Clear Creek in Boulder. At night we left our windows open to hear the rushing water and feel the intense cool winds that descended through the canyon from the mountains. The city's RV park was next to a sports park and host to a youth kayak championship and it was a pleasure seeing all the healthy and slim muscular young people walking around.


Clear Creek


Kayaker

We'd seen so many many overweight children on our trip, we had been despairing for the coming health of Americans! Although the water was cold mountain water, the natives didn't mind. They were laughing and hollering down the stream from their innertubes and rafts. There were pleasant nature walks along the creek within a few hundred feet from our RV, so we didn't even have to go searching for any. The smells of the flowering herbs was uplifting and late rains had kept the hillsides and roadsides greener than usual, so there were many lovely colors, textures, and fragrances of nature to experience. The cottonwood trees were "snowing" their seeds, wrapped softly in what resembled cotton stuffing, and covering the ground for a July "snowstorm."

We put on three Galexis events, and all went well, and Daniel was kept busy by the demands. On the next to the last day of Mercury Retrograde, we went to a friend's studio to give a seminar and have it "captured" by sound experts. The A.C. didn't work well enough and the sound man didn't show - his beloved dog had died and he was focused on the burial and so forth. So we moved the workshop and all the understanding attendees to a nearby residence, Daniel went to a nearby store and bought a new digital recorder, and we had a wonderful workshop, albeit starting an hour and a half late.

So we gave it for free, after all the hassles our dedicated attendees had to go through! We laughed throughout the experience - what a typical Mercury Retrograde happening! But it's all part of the adventure so we didn't get all bent out of shape about it. I tell you, that makes a big difference from fretting and bitching!

From Denver, we travelled into the mountains, visited a biodynamic ranch where we saw heritage apple trees over a hundred and fifty years old still giving apples, and met an organic wine grower for a wine tasting. Before bedtime, we soaked in the hot springs pool at Glenwood Springs. Lithium in the water gave me a very nice night's sleep! How does it get more fun than this? And that was just the first day out of Denver!

Then we descended into the desert of Utah where we stayed at Green River, a small town nestled by a river that is, yes, green. This spot serves as a gateway to some spectacular national parks and beautiful nature sights.


Utah Rocks


Away from the river, everywhere else was dry and desolate and hot - oh so very hot. 104 in the afternoon! Daniel and I drove around through the deserted and desolate desert and sought out petroglyphs. Drawn by ancient peoples, such as the Anasazi, there are figures that look like spacebeings.
I took many pictures of the drawings and of the awesome scenery we saw on the way to them and back. Here and there was the strange appearance of water in the midst of the dryness and the green that emerged by the banks.
Although we'd planned to stay for 4 nights, the heat got to us and we rearranged our schedule, heading on out two days early.


Petroglyphs

Continuing our journey westward, we drove through more vast desert in Utah.
Huge scale of mountains and vistas - just immense. We felt so small. For two hours, we drove through beautiful canyons and plateaus with NO people living there and no cell phone reception. I am grateful that we didn't have any breakdown or such. All went very well, smoothly, effortlessly. The COLORS were outstanding. The artistic palette of shades were so lovely and varied that I understand now why so many western artists have fallen in love with the amazing colors of nature. Intense brick red, pale pink, grays, tans, golds and ochres, turquoise, dark green, olive green, gray-green, pale pastel green, almost-white, silver-blue, blue-gray, and charcoal. Maybe I'll paint them too some day. I took loads of pictures, hoping that some would capture the color, but none will do the scenergy true justice I'm sure.

 

On our way to our RV park in Provo, just south of Salt Lake City, we passed through a town called Mona. There we saw the Young Living farms. The well-known essential oils marketed by Young Living are extracted from the herbs grown there. They were having a promotional week called "Lavender Days" but we didn't stop. We also passed Neways, a MLM company that I think I was part of at one point (It had joined with the MLM I was in). Of course, Utah is home to many many MLMs. Those mormons love MLMs - I guess it could be because they're heavy networkers and they have such big families and kin.That night at the RV Park, we saw some very large families camping with 5 or more children. I wouldn't know how a mother could handle all of that!

We passed Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake, and then past the evaporation basin, all-white salt. Then we entered Nevada. It was still baking and so we stopped to stretch our legs and take a break at a rest area, only to find it the access to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is the place where the world's speed records are challenged and broken - a plain of nothing but very white salt and in the sun, it blazed like fresh snow, hurting our eyes. Daniel collected some of the brilliant white salt.


Bonneville Salt Flats

We finally arrived at our RV Park in Wells Nevada, but found to our dismay that it backed up to the railroad track. If you're not used to it, railroad horns only a few feet away from you at 3 a.m. can be disturbing! There was a golf tournament going on and RV spots were in short supply, so the park owner graciously referred us to another RV park a few miles on down the road. He would fill up the space easily, he said as he tore up our credit card slip. This next park was isolated - nothing else around. It was the only thing at its interstate exit. No RR track, no civilization, nothing else. And there were only three of us RVers parked there. The desert sunset was lovely, and at night when it cooled down some, we went outside and looked up. The sky was filled with thousands of bright stars, some feeling so close that I felt I could almost reach out and touch them. It was the new moon and there were no lights anywhere near us and the desert was dry, so the view was spectacular. I was awed by the beauty and felt gently loved and protected in a Universe filled with such light. We were so grateful to see this for it reaffirmed our choice to come here to this beautiful planet. We can understand why people forget the Earth when they live in cities and never get to see such a magnificent sight.

From there we parked one night in Mill City Nevada and did laundry. Yet another very hot town in a hot desert. Although we were hoping that the weather reports were correct, suggesting low temperatures in the 60's, we still didn't get a cool night this time either. How could all the weather reports be wrong? We yearned to feel cool.

We finally got it the next day, as we passed Reno and entered mountains with trees on them. Trees! Yes! We drove along the canyon around the Truckee River for several miles. We rose in elevation and the temperature dropped. We arrived at our campground with the temperature in the 70's in a stunningly green and beautiful place!


Snowing Cottonwood

We have made it to the west coast, and I'll send you a report after we leave northern California and head south. Hope you are staying cool and dry! Enjoy the pictures below.

Ginger