A Hike Into Mug House, Mesa Verde

With the cooking class over it was time to move on to Mesa Verde. In 2006 my dad, who was still with us, told me about 2 hikes that had opened up, one being to Mug House. We’d planned a grandkids trip with our 6,8,9 and 10-year old grandkids to the southwest so Mesa Verde was on the way. We bought tickets for the hikes and on we went. Unfortunately, I was using a small point and shoot and the camera card crashed after our trip so any photos, good or bad, were lost.

Several weeks ago, we were in Great Basin on a grandkids trip when I ran into retired rangers. As we were talking they mentioned that the hike into Mug House had just opened up but was only taking a few people down and it wouldn’t last long. I immediately got online and found that it was open for tours, 10 people per tour, 3 days a week for a few weeks. We were there!

The drive to Mesa Verde was an afternoon drive, arriving in the early evening. We found a site in the campground and set up camp. We not only had reservations for a hike on Fri a.m. but an evening hike on Sunday for sunset.

The drive from the campground to the mesa, where several ruins are located, takes about 45 minutes. The road follows hills and the tops of mesas. There are lookouts high on the hills that overlook the cities below.

The hike into Mug House is only open with a ranger-led hike. The hike itself is about 3 miles round trip, nearly straight down the hill, over boulders and rocks. At 7,000’ elevation, the hike back up is a scramble that will leave one breathless.

https://www.nps.gov/meve/planyourvisit/backcountry_hikes.htm

Mug House itself was amazing again. The ranger who led the hike was an archeologist so she pointed out items that we would have missed; slight differences between building bricks, residue paint inside rooms and windows used as doors.

 A small step ladder was onsite so that we could view, up close, the areas inside the ruins along the wall. We could note the designs still visible around the bottom of the kiva.

I was able to hang behind and shoot lots of photos while communing with the ancient ones.

Learning How To Make Chilie Sauce

Last Thanksgiving, we were in Taos with our youngest son and his family. I bought a new ristra for the kitchen. My plan was to make chile sauce from the old ristra and hang the new ristra for use this year. I did make the chilie sauce using the techniques told by “Orlando’s” and several natives. 

Unfortunately, the skins did not blend as they should have and we had small tough pieces of skins that did not have a good mouth feel.

I then made more sauce but after boiling the dried chilies scraped the meat off of each chilie, a tedious process. The sauce tasted fine but was stringy.

As we were going to be in Santa Fe, I had thought that I would sign us up for a cooking lesson. They were offering a cooking lesson on Wed, during our stay. Perfect as the class was on making chilie sauce. Of course, my sign up had not gone thru so I had to sign up again by phone.

On Tues, we moved up to Taos, and even though the campground site didn’t have the view, it was wonderful to be back. Taos feels like another home. We thought we’d spend a little time in Taos, get some good food from our favorite haunts and drive down to Santa Fe on Wed.

We spent our time filling our belly for the long cold winter ahead! But also found that our favorite chilie stand was now selling fresh picked and freshly roasted green “Hatch” chilies. I only bought ¼ bushel as I didn’t know whether our freezer could hold more. Now I am regretting not buying more. But the chilies were hot and our truck smelled like roasted chilies for some time.

Salsa, Chilie Sauce and fresh made tortillas

We did make our cooking class and I found out that the problem with my chilie sauce was my blender, I need a more powerful one. Otherwise, except for over cooking the dried pods, I did everything right. But we did learn lots about chilies which is helpful. We also made fresh corn tortillas which are so simple to make and taste so good.

Roasted tomato chilie salsa

Roasted tomatoes

Aztec hot chocolate

With our mouths still hot from the salsas we stopped for hot chocolate like the Aztec’s would drink. That and a spicy brownie seemed to help.

Camping (Glamping) In Santa Fe

We only had 4 days at home, only a short time to empty the very dirty clothes and bedding, wash about 30 loads of laundry, clean the RV and repack. This time we had to pack for only Dale and I to vacation and work if we get a call out.

As usual, we had breakdowns that had to be repaired. The water pump completely quit and that took all morning and most of an afternoon. No cleaning could be done as there was no water. But Dale fixed the pump and the water output is better than ever.

We believed that we had tickets for the Santa Fe Opera so wanted to be in Santa Fe on Sunday in time for dinner, well before the opera. We wanted to leave on Sat and were able to get away in the heat of the afternoon. We didn’t care, we were on our way.

As we neared Santa Fe I looked up RV parks. We realized that we’d never camped in Santa Fe before, we’d always gone straight to Taos. I found an RV park with good reviews so called and found that they had space for us. The Santa Fe Skies had a site on the ridge overlooking the city on 3 sides of our RV. We were amazed at our luck.

Our luck did not hold for long. I searched for the confirmation that our Opera tickets had been changed. I’d called back in May when we realized we couldn’t make the night that we held tickets for. There was no confirmation email. But, I did find an email from a dear friend asking that we attend his retirement dinner that had taken place only days before. I cannot even convey had upset I was at this point.

On Monday morning, I called the opera and found, to my dismay, that the tickets were not changed, rather went unused on the night that we could not make it to Santa Fe.

Finally, if this is the worst that can happen on this trip we will call it a good trip. After all, how many people can visit a beautiful city, glamp with a fabulous view, and be together as we are; healthy and happy. We will not complain but rather put this one thing behind us.

A Tribute to The Journey

Oh boy, a trip to Canada in May, a trip to Canada in June, a trip to Iceland and London in July, Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest in July/August and here we are going to leave again. I’ll blog about these other trips as I can.

In May I started an Instagram blog and as we were going along I noticed the mileage of our truck and shot a photo of the odometer. I remembered that a neighbor wanted me to let him know the mileage once in a while. What better than to keep a record by photos.

I was thinking about our truck and thought I’d pay tribute to her and the people who have made our journey possible.

Back in 2006, we had a truck that was simply not big enough to handle the RV and was difficult to get equipment in and out of by myself.

I came home, my dad was declining with his cancer treatments when we got serious. I told Dale that I only wanted a new truck, I was tired of breakdowns and struggling with equipment. We started looking.

We’d been to several lots and one salesman made me so mad when he wouldn’t discuss anything with me. We walked away and wouldn’t shop for any of their trucks.

We decided to go to “Motor City Buick GMC”. We walked in the door and the salesman, Richard listened to what I needed in a truck. He looked and found that they had just ordered a truck to be built with nearly every specification that I needed. We agreed to buy the truck upon its delivery.

Our truck came into the dealership but my dad was failing. Richard told us to come get the truck, that we’d deal with the paperwork later. We left our old vehicle at the dealership and went to my dad with the new truck.

Dale has been obsessive with our truck and with the help of a couple of mechanics, our truck keeps going and towing. A shout out to Bob Klingenberg from Eye Street Automotive who freely gives Dale advice and has loaned a tool or 2 on occasion. And to Steve Foust who also has given advice and gone beyond the call of duty with repairs.

Our truck has been to the East Coast and Canada too many times to count. We drove our truck to Alaska and back. A friend made the comment that we have driven the circumference of the earth 19 times.

We don’t know when we will reach the 500,000-mile mark but I’m suspecting it will be sooner than later and hopefully, the camera will be ready. We will just keep on truckin’

The Great Mouse Adventure

Alas, it was time to press on to the next leg, Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. We didn’t know what to expect, except that there was a pool fed by a warm spring and camping was free.

We started on our way, spending the night outside a town about 2 hours away. We found a parking lot next to a grocery store with a couple of other RV’ers already parked there.

The following morning we finally had some internet and I saw that I had to renew my Texas Adjuster License that very day. This involves obtaining CE’s which I didn’t have enough of. Yikes, I had to spend the day doing the classes. We couldn’t go on to the Refuge as there would be no internet or service there. Instead, we found a camping spot in an RV park, the town closest to the Refuge.

Well, this turned into a real adventure. The Mouse Adventure!

We woke up in the morning to find mouse droppings on the kitchen counter and then found some on the floor. YIKES!!! Now for those of you who know me know that I totally lose it with mice.

When we got to Sheldon we started looking and found mouse droppings in the cooktop as well. I guessed that the mouse was hiding out in the wall behind the cooktop.

Now, we did have a mouse try to travel with us another time. We were in Mesa Verde with the 4 older grandkids. We’d washed dishes but didn’t drain the water that night. I got up early but there was a mouse in the sink water. I let out a scream, ran back to our bed in the rear of the RV, climbed into the bed and covered my head with the blanket. Our granddaughter had to get the mouse out of the sink and throw it out.

Dale set up mouse traps, one in the cooktop, one on the counter, the rest in different places on the floor. We started to settle down for the night when the traps started going off. First, the one in the cooktop went off. We went to look and I saw another mouse trapped on the floor, then we saw one trapped by the door. Kids threw the mice, trap and all into the fire pit still burning.

Dale set up another trap in the cooktop and low and behold, another one was trapped. We couldn’t believe that 4 mice had gotten in. It was like an entire family had wanted to move and thought that we would transport them to a better place. Well, we did transport them to another place, in another world!

The kids laughed later and I overheard one saying: “did you see grandma? Grandpa started to put the mouse in her face and she started yelling in a funny voice to get it out”? They thought that it was great fun! We must have been quite a sight, me yelling for Dale to get it out, some kids yelling that they wanted to see it, others yelling that they wanted to hold it. We had total pandemonium.

The next morning we woke up to no mouse droppings. I cleaned everything with disinfectant, not leaving anything to chance.

A Cave Walk In Great Basin

We had to get up earlier than we had been

and made sure we all ate a good breakfast. We had a Cave Walk to attend.

There are several caves in the Great Basin National Park and 2 have ranger-led walks. One a 1-1/2 hour walk is more difficult and children under 5 are not allowed. As our youngest is only 4 we had to opt for the 1-hour walk which accepts people of any age.

The cave walk meets up at the Lehman Visitor Center. Lehman is the person who discovered the caves and capitalized on that discovery.

The grandkids were really excited as they have been in Lava Tubes but not a cave.

https://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/lehman-caves-tours.htm

After entering the cave we passed by the original opening. Wood stairs were built for people to access. Now there is a paved entry under the original opening and the entire path thru the cave is lit.

After entering the 1^st main room, the ranger turns out all of the lights. Lucian immediately said, “Oh, it is dark”. And dark it is, you can’t even see your hand in front of your face.

The walk goes thru several rooms, some so narrow that you can't put your elbows out without touching the walls.

The Music Room

Fortunately, all of us had no fear of being underground, although Dale admitted that the thought passed his mind that it was not a good time for an earthquake.

This is a must see for anyone going into Great Basin!

Hiking in Great Basin with Kids

Like all of our National Park visits, this one started at the Visitor’s Center, picking up Jr. Ranger booklets and learning about the park. Kids had looked at the displays and we all watched the film. The Ranger gave us good info on some hikes that would be easy but nice. The Ranger also gave us some info on nearby cave tours, but we’d need to get tickets online.

We got up late but we needed to go where we had enough internet service to get tickets for the caves. We had to go back to the Visitor’s Center to finally have enough service. After driving back to the RV to get our Senior Pass info necessary to purchase the tickets, and picking up firewood, we were finally ready to hike.

There was a short trail, .6 miles, up to the upper campground, that started close to our campsite. We decided to take that trail instead of one further away.

The trail runs along the stream and is an easy walk thru the woods. The trail ends up at a day use area where kids can climb and run. Kids took turns holding their hands in the ice cold stream with me timing them to see who could hold their hand in the longest. A good lesson on how cold the water can be.

This 1.2-mile r/t trail took about 3 hours to walk, a great afternoon activity.

Arriving at Great Basin National Park

We were anxious to see Great Basin National Park, and we were looking forward to do a little hiking and relaxing.

There were only 3 camping sites left at the lower campground, 2 of them pull thru. We grabbed one and the other 2 were gone quickly. There are only 12 or so in the lower campground. There is an upper campground but we found that we liked the lower better.

Our campsite had lots of shrubs, tall grass, and small trees so we had lots of privacy in the camping area. A strip on the side by the road had the same, and the pull thru was long so that we were separated from other campers on both sides.

The campsite was perfect for kids to play. A small area of dirt was perfect for the 4-year-old to sit and work with his trucks, the larger shrub area great for all 3 to play “Walkie Talkie Hide & Seek”. Don’t ask how this works but it somehow does. We only heard all 3 kids talking to each other on the walkie talkies and saw them when they’d come running thru the campsite

.

We’d had a long drive and had been on the road for a week, so it was a good chance to set up the RV, do a little cleaning, put things away and just relax.

The Loneliest Highway in America

Several months ago I’d read an online article about Highway 50, the Loneliest Highway in America. Dale and I looked on the atlas and found Great Basin National Park off of that highway. We now found a place we’d never been and needed to go to.

The Great Basin extends from the Nevada/California Border on the west, the SE corner of Oregon on the north, and into Utah to the east. The National Park is just a small portion but includes several different climate zones, from 13,000’ down to maybe 5,000’. We drove over mountain passes
where snow was falling and in valleys bathed in bright sunlight.

We started Highway 50 at its beginning, the little town of Fallon. We drove for miles, passing thru a couple of old towns, Austin and Eureka. Eureka has an Opera House that I’d love to stop at someday. But today was cold and snowy in these towns so we kept driving.

One interesting stop is the Hickison Petroglyphs Recreation area. There is a fairly easy loop walk that goes up a hill and then across to other hills. The petroglyphs are really worth a look, not to mention a chance to stretch the legs.  Unfortunately, it was beginning to rain and it really started to pelt us. We were concerned about the muddy road we had to drive on back to the main highway

and left quickly after viewing the last of the Petroglyphs.

Luckily, there are many pull outs along the highway and few people stopping for the night. We found a pull out with a grand view, and with little traffic were able to get a decent night’s sleep.

Grandkids Trip 2017

After a couple of days of packing up the RV we were able to leave in the early evening, only a couple of hours later than we’d hoped.

The 1st leg of our grandkids trip

Packing for a month on the road; freezing cold to moderately warm weather, enough stuff and food for 3 grandkids and Dale and I, and enough of everything to survive, we were off. The RV was stuffed, every bit of storage space stuffed, fridge and freezer stuffed until one had to push the doors closed. Add to all of our supplies, extra food requested by Bekki and our grandkids in NV, my sewing machine and whatever else Bekki needed.

We had to head to Nate’s as his oldest boy was graduating from high school. Elias was Master of Ceremonies and Salutatorian. We know him as our grandson so watching him give a speech and smoothly handle the ceremony was a real thrill. We were the dutiful proud grandparents.

Elias and I have always had a good relationship. When he was small, and the family lived in China, he’d call and talk to me until the phone card would run out of time. We have had great discussions on every topic over the years. He is the one we spent several weeks with us in Europe and enjoyed most every minute.

This trip we had great discussions on the UK elections. He came rushing into the RV on the morning after the results. Fortunately, I’d checked the news so we were both very happy that May had lost! It was so fun to share that with him. Now he will be off to college and a new chapter of his life.

Car Rental Adventures in Iceland

Well, it is always something.

I had looked at all of the car rental sites trying to determine which SUV/Sport Wagon style car would be best for our car camping in Iceland. Lots of cars are listed but they are European models so hard to know exactly what they are.

Our concern is that the back area be big enough with seats down. We have a tent, but in the event there are high winds or heavy rains we need something that we can sleep in.

We determined what we thought was the equivalent of the Hyundai i10 and at the Hyundai car lot we asked if they had the model we were looking for. The salesperson pulled out a car, we put the back seat down and climbed in, laying down to see how we’d fit. We didn’t, so figured we would rent something larger. I don’t think that the salesman ever figured out why we’d lay down in the back space of a car and not even get into the driver and passenger seats

Finally I’d made a decision and paid for it upfront, with a credit card. All settled, or so I thought.

Later that evening, I was reading about Iceland and found warnings about renting from some of the car rental companies. I looked up the company I’d just paid a bunch of money too and it looked like others had problems with them. I wasn’t sure what to do.

The next morning I woke up to a message that my credit card had not gone thru, they had thought it was a possible fraudulent charge. Well maybe it was but not for the same reasons.

I got back on line and rented a car from a mainstream company, one I rent from all the time. We ended up getting something a little larger, more money but likely more comfortable and we know that we won’t be pressured into paying for other stuff we don’t want.

Summer Trips Already?

Well, so much for blogging the remainder of our last trip. I suspect that I needed a break from the laptop. Instead of this blog, I started a photo blog which did not require a laptop or writing something intelligible.

We did return from a great trip to Canada and are now in desperate preparations for 5 summer trips. How did we get to this place? We wanted to have some time to breathe. Alas….

So our first trip will be to head back to Northeast Cali, actually just into Nevada, where kids now live. Our oldest grandson is graduating from high school and we must be there. 

Because it will be boiling hot at home by then, from NE Cali we will head to the high country in Nevada, Great Basin National Park. Campsites are at the 7,000’ elevation. We do not have further plans for a few days but will figure it out as we go.

From Great Basin we will drive to Washington where we will meet up with our youngest son and his family, traveling up to Vancouver, Canada (again) and back. We will travel with them as my parents did with us, meeting along the way.

We will be home for a couple of days before heading off to London and then Iceland where we will car camp for 2 weeks.

After Europe, another couple of days at home then, hopefully off to the Grand Canyon with Grandkids. That trip will include the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

Home for 1 day then off to the east side of the Sierras where we will backpack in for several days. We will backpack with 2 of our kids and several grandkids.

From the Sierras, home to wash clothes and repack the RV. Then off to Santa Fe where we will attend an opera at the Santa Fe Opera House. From Santa Fe we will go where our spirits lead! 

We intend to stay gone until the weather is nice at home. Of course, if a storm hits then we will head that direction.

Adventures Abound

A little over 1 week ago we left for yet again, another adventure. I inspected a couple of last claims as we headed north to Oregon. Now we are heading back to Oregon after a couple of days in NE California.

We have been driving for nearly 8 hours, are hungry and really tired of being in this truck. But not to complain, it is wonderful to be able to work on photos while Dale takes his turn driving, or do word games or just look out the window. Not having to work with my head in the laptop every minute is so amazing!!

Well, you are probably wondering what adventures we have encountered. And yes, we’ve had one doozy, one I’d really rather not repeat.

I always check our bank accounts, every morning 1^st thing. Just to make sure that there are no nasty surprises.

Last week I checked our account to find that an electronic check, for the entire amount of our account was being processed. Not only were we out of state but heading soon out of the country with no cash.

I called the bank but we couldn’t find out any information as the check hadn’t processed.

The following morning I checked the account and found that someone had taken our banking info and put another name on the check, wiping out our account. Fortunately, the bank reversed the funds but strongly suggested that we put a freeze on the account. So now we have a balance of -$888,888.00. This is what they do in fraud cases. In this case, we didn’t even get to spend that kind of money, alas! We will deal with all of this when we get home.

I wrote a check to one of our sons, from another account for some cash and we have our cards, which charge no foreign transaction fees anyway.

2^nd issue we found when we picked up our RV that we’d left at an RV park near Clayton’s. It had rained for 3 days and there on our newly warped kitchen counter top was a puddle of water. We apparently have 2 roof leaks. We will try to tape the roof and then have it repaired when we get home.

On the plus side, we’ve had great fun with grandkids and have enjoyed visiting with our kids. We’ve also had some beautiful weather for the last couple of days.

So we will just keep on moving down the road and see what awaits us. It’s always something.