Welcome back. It’s been a very long time since I last posted to our blog and much has happened since then. First off, Kim & I are doing well. We’ve managed to stay healthy and avoided any COVID-19 infection. We’re still having fun, however, we are not traveling as much and are transitioning from our life as full-time RVers. In effect, we are taking the off ramp from being full-time. More about that, later.
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(October, 2020) Moving on from Durango, Colorado, we made our way to one of our perennial favorite places to spend autumn in – Bluff, Utah. We planned to spend the month of October relaxing in this southern Utah desert community – enjoying autumn in the high desert and socially distancing with friends. We were also looking forward to sight-seeing and photographing in this land of natural wonders and cultural treasures.
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(Late September, 2020) As the saying goes, “There’s gold in them thar hills!”, and we were determined to find it. Or at least, the Aspen gold of fall color high in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. We had just spent a week at the Alamosa KOA, photographing around Great Sand Dunes National Park, and our plan was to move on to Durango, Colorado. Our hope was to arrive in time for the peak of fall color in the San Juans.
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(Late September, 2020) Towering waves of sand breaking on the shore of a mountain-rimmed cove. That is the impression left by the dune-field at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. This was our first time visiting the dunes. We were excited to see and photograph such a breathtaking land of contrasts. Great Sand Dunes did not disappoint.
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(Mid-September, 2020) If you’ve ever driven the empty spaces of the Great Plains, then you’ve seen them. That lonely farmhouse sitting abandoned in the fields. Boards weathered to grey with no hint of paint. Empty windows. Door standing agape. Roof with missing shingles – or altogether gone.
Perhaps, instead it is a forlorn and leaning barn slouching into ruin; or a solitary windmill with battered and missing vanes; or even a proud old wooden grain elevator standing silent sentinel over rusted railroad tracks. You have just seen a Prairie Ghost – sad relic of past lives and of bygone eras.
In this post we’ll pay our respects to several of these ghosts of the prairies and high plains. Join me now along lonely roads – coming away with melancholic memories …and few photographs.
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(Mid-Oct. to mid-Nov. 2019) This post is a brief summary of the end of our travel season for 2019. It seems we have been so preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic that we have put off many things – including blogging. Time now to try to catch up on the blog posts.
(May 25, 2020) First, a status update – Kim and I remain in good health and are sheltering in a campground in Iowa, near my sister and brother-in-law’s home – as noted in my recent post. Now, on to our 2019 Fall travels…
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(early-March to early-May, 2020) Wow! When we started our journey we never would have imagined RVing during a global pandemic. What a difference a few weeks, let alone a few months, can make.
As of the 1st of March we were still living our “normal” RV life – wrapping up another winter in Southern California, busy planning our upcoming travel season, making campground reservations, and scheduling the last of our annual maintenance tasks. We were aware of the spreading COVID-19 epidemic, but it still seemed distant and not of immediate concern. How quaintly naive that seems, now.
Several weeks later, all of that had changed and we were making very different plans. By April 4th, we were back in rural Iowa and sheltering in place for the long-haul. Enough changes to make our heads spin and ask, “What just happened?”.
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(Mid August – mid October, 2019) Bidding farewell to friends in the Salt Lake City area, we set our sights on our next major goal – visiting family and friends in Iowa. From Provo we cut through the scenic Wasatch Mountains via Provo Canyon and soon merged onto Interstate I-80 for a straight shot east to Iowa.
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(Mid-August, 2019) After successfully finishing repairs on our trailer slide-out in Medford, Oregon, we headed east towards Bend, Oregon. Our winding route via highways OR-62, OR-230, and US-97 took us through the stunning scenery of the Cascade Range in Central Oregon. Our plans were to head east and spend some quality time with family in Iowa.
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(Late June – Early August, 2019) After visiting an RV service center in Medford, Oregon, to triage the jammed slide-out on our fifth-wheel and file an insurance claim, we made our way back to Bandon, one of our favorite spots on the southern Oregon coast. We looked forward to spending all of July enjoying the cooling sea breezes, exploring the historic port towns, and taking in the dramatic sights along this stretch of the Pacific coastline.
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