9/30 Sunrise at Mesa Arch

 We got up early so we could watch the sunrise at Mesa Arch at Canyonlands National Park.

Then we hiked around some of the shorter hikes like Aztec Butte where they had some old ruins.

9/29 chill day bike riding

 Today we rode bikes on the local bike path.  Gorgeous scenery.  We popped into the Arches Visitor center.  Unfortunately the exhibits were closed.  

Ross hit a 1000 miles for September for his ride to support Childhood Cancer research.  Woohoo!

Found dinosaurs on our ride.  Lucky we were quicker than them!

9/28/21 Travel Day to Moab

 Travel and restocking day. We will drive to next  destination Moab, but stop at a few stores along the way. It will be good to get someplace where we have phone service. Here in Rifle it is pretty much non-existent. Overall, we really like this location. The facilities at Rifle Gap State Park are really nice.  The scenery is pretty cool up in the gap.

 

Travel  to Moab went well and we got all set up fairly quickly. We’re getting better with this.

 

 We managed to get out to Arches National Park by 4:00 so we were able to hike and see at least 5 of the

arches. Pretty cool structures. The scenery is unbelievable. If you’ve never been here, get here.  I don’t have a scripture passage to share today other than to say God’s creation is a marvelous thing to see and ponder. 

 

 

 

 

 

9/27/21 Rifle Gap

Someone is climbing the rock behind us!

 Chilly morning….even in the camper. Duh. We left the windows open all night. 

 

Scripture this morning addresses anxiety which in todays chaotic environment sure hits home…..

 

25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Matthew%206:25-34&version=NASB

 

Amen to that! Yesterday I turned my anxiety about any possible damage to the camper and pickup over to God. Sure makes it easier to sleep.

 

Plan for the day….another ride and possibly some hiking. I went on a ride up CO 325 past the fish hatchery thru Rifle Mountain Park. Wow! What beauty. The rock cliffs that line both sides of the gravel road are incredible. Lots of young adventure seekers (rock climbing boondockers there climbing the vertical cliffs. Crazy buggers (my opinion). I made it up into Forest Service roads but the gravel was hard to ride on with my hybrid. So, I rode back to get Liz. We loaded up the truck with our mountain and gravel bikes and drove back up to the fish hatchery. From there both of us meandered on our bikes thru the 5 mile cliff lined gap.  Liz voted this a Top 5 ride. On the way back we stopped into the fish hatchery. Loads and loads of 4 different species of trout. 

 

Back to the camper……shower and some downtime. I started reading Halftime by Bob Buford.  Will be a good book given where are.

 

Cooked up some fried bread in bacon lard (yum) to go along with Liz’s green chili chicken dish. Had to go for a walk after dinner. 

 

Campfire tonight we hope. Was windy before….looks to be dying down. Looking forward to seeing the stars again like last night. 

 

 

9/26/21 in Rifle Gap

Well, we made our way from the interstate KOA in Rawlins WY down to Rifle CO. Stopped in Meeker CO along the way for lunch at the Meeker Café. Great burgers! Some road construction enroute which was a little bit of a challenge pulling a camper. No issues today 👍😁

 

Rifle Gap State Park is in a nice little valley and has a reservoir lake in it. The lake level was way  down which is typical of this time of year….but…they say this is a bit of an extreme year with lack of snowfall last winter. 

 

We got the camper all set up and then set out on a bike ride up to Rifle Falls. It was good to be back in the saddle 😁 after a couple of days off from riding. I needed the break. The falls were nice although they come from some fish hatchery ponds on a hill above. Picturesque. 

 

We came back to camp and got ready for dinner. As we were doing so, a couple stopped by to talk campers. He was originally from MN and she was French. Good chat. Dinner turned out good.

 

Afterwards we watched the sun set and then looked at the stars when it really got dark. The lack of light pollution really makes the stars pop. Gods creation is so awesome! An app on my phone called Sky Guide helped in identifying some of the stars, planets, and constellations. Lots of planes and satellites flying by as well.

 

Anyway, it was a good day.  No cell phone service out here so post will be a few days late.

 

 

 

 

 

Independent Rock. day 1 of fall trip…

Yesterday started off with a challenge when we went to pick up the camper from storage. The valve stem was leaking on one of the camper tires. So we went to the Bargain Barn Tire store to get out fixed. We got it home and packed up the camper and truck. Off to the weigh scale to make sure we weren’t overloaded. On the way we heard an audible crash. We stopped. Nothing wrong on the outside. We went inside the camper. Much to out shagrin the refrigerator door came open. Soda cans and eggs were scattered about in the camper…..scrambled eggs (3 survived!)all over the floor 😂.  

 

In the two forays, we handled the situations differently. One good. One not so good. God is always teaching us. My scripture yesterday was this……

 

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36

 

I figure that we’re going to need endurance for such a long trip.  Our reward will be seeing the awesomeness of God’s creation and ultimately the kids and grandkids. 

 

Today……..started very similarly. We embarked on our journey at 7am. Sigh…..the valve stem was leaking again. Argh. Another trip to the Bargain Barn. After an hour and a half we finally got on our way. The tire tech hopefully did not damage our truck and trailer with the way he initially jacked up the trailer to work on it. Praying that all is ok.

 

We traversed thru barren areas of SW SD and Wyoming….lots of arid areas, antelope, and WIND.  We stopped at Independence Rock between Casper and Rawlins. It’s a spot along the Oregon trail where folks would stop and carve their names on top of this rock. Saw lots of names dated from the 1800’s. Pretty cool.

 

Finally made it to Rawlins, WY late afternoon. Set up the camper. Have some kinks to work out being out of practice with camper setup.  Met some nice folks from OK named Cheryl and Ron next door. 

 

 

 

Trip #3 Legion Lake in Custer State Park

 Two nights at Legion lake campground.  Really like this campground.  I hiked the Centennial Trail and Ross road his bike.  He had to wait to get a ride thru a herd of Buffalo!

Was able to SUP on Legion Lake as well as Stockade Lake.  

Camper Trip #2 Pierre

 We have the new loon mat.  Landed by the water on Farm Island in Pierre, SD.  Biked the paths up to the dam as well as on Framboise Island.  Used the SUP on the lake by the camper.  

Camper trip #1 rainy in Spearfish

Even though it rained, we managed to make brownies in the Quick Cooker!  No bike riding - too rainy.

 

Fort Robinson Trip #4

Trial #4 was taking the camper down to Fort Robinson State Park in Nebraska.  Our friends Sue and Brad met us there.  We hiked.  We rode horseback.  And Ross and I biked the gravel out to the pond and the rail trail into Crawford.  Unfortunately we ran into some goatsheads which gave us a couple of flat tires.