Bryce Canyon, Utah

Since we have not been summonsed to a service bay as yet, I am using the "down time" to catch up on my blogging.

This entry will cover our trip to and visit to Bryce Canyon, Utah. Last fall, we visited Zion National Park, about 50 miles south of Bryce Canyon. At that time, we felt that Bryce would be more of the same scenery we saw in Zion. Well, now I can say that that perception was totally wrong!
From Red Bay, Alabama - Friday, October 30thBryce Canyon National Park is even more spectacular than Zion! That is due to the fact that the views in Bryce are from the top of the canyon walls, while Zion takes you into the canyons from below.

Our "base camp" was a campground in Panguitch, Utah, which is about 23 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon. While in Panquitch, we stopped in to the local cafe for coffee after our visit to Bryce Canyon. While there, we got into a conversation with the waitress behind the counter. She told us about where she lived, on Panguitch Lake, about 15 miles south of town, and how beautiful the scenery and landscape was out there. She also told us about another spectacular canyon overlook, which was about another 15 miles, or so, beyond the lake. Since it was a beautiful afternoon, and we had plenty of daylight left, we decided to drive out to see this canyon overlook.

As we started out, we were excited and anxious to see this overlook. However, our excitement began to fade the further we drove. We were out in the middle of nowhere, without a clue as to what to expect. The further we drove, the more we felt that we had been duped into taking a "wild goose chase". Since I was driving, I insisted that we keep going "just a little farther along". Finally, we came to the end of the road, where we had to go right or left. The waitress had told us we would find this, and that we should go to the right, which we did. A bit further up the road, we came to the overlook. As we exited the car, we immediately felt the cold wind and we could see snow on the ground at the base of the overlook wall. Poor Charlie Burch! He was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Kathy and I were wearing jeans and fleece jackets, so we weren't feeling AS COLD! But it was well worth the trip and the cold! The views from up here were as spectacular, if not more so, as Bryce Canyon. The bonus was that the rock formations up here had snow on them. Our altitude up here was 11,000 feet! We were quite happy that we "stuck it out" and made it to this spot. We have some great pictures in the web album, so be sure to check them out.

The next morning, sadly, we headed south from Bryce, heading for Flagstaff, AZ, where the weather, we hoped, would be a little warmer. Check the next edition of the blog for that trip.

Here is the link to the web album for today's blog:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BryceCanyonUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCJew4t6H7b315gE&feat=directlink

Mesa Verde National Park, CO and Moab, UT

Thursday, October 29 - Red Bay, Alabama

We are currently located in Red Bay, Alabama, at the Tiffin Motor Home factory. We arrived here yesterday morning to have some warranty work done on our coach before heading to Florida. But, more on that in another blog.

I know that it's been a while since my last blog entry, but we are not able to get WiFi access every night, so I have to wait until we get to a spot where we are able to access the internet reliably. I have some catching up to do, so this blog will cover our visit to Mesa Verde National Park and our trip up to Moab, Utah from Colorado.

We had originally intended to travel west from Farmington, NM to Kanab, Utah to meet with Lol and Cal Hargreaves before they headed back to MA, and we headed up to Bryce Canyon N.P. However, after doing some research on the condition of the roads west, we decided to travel north through Colorado, stopping in Durango and Mesa Verde N.P., before heading into Utah toward Bryce. Had we not taken this route, we would have missed some spectacular scenery and sights. I've already mentioned Durango in my previous blog, so I'll start with Mesa Verde in this one.

Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwest Colorado, approximately 30 miles north of Durango. This park was once home to native Americans known as "the cliff dwellers". We got to see the "homes" they built into the sides of the cliffs in this rugged land. As we learned, at the top of the cliffs, the men would till and cultivate the land and grow crops. Each day, they would climb the sheer cliff walls to tend their fields, and to harvest the crops when the time came. One of the challenges they faced was knowing exactly WHEN to plant, and WHEN to harvest. It is thought that they built their homes in the cliffs to protect them from predators and enemies. Be sure to take a look at the pictures from Mesa Verde in the web album.

From Mesa Verde, we traveled into Utah and on to Moab, where we planned to visit both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Along the way into Moab, we got some great photos of the ever-changing landscape out here. We have been blessed with great weather since we left Albuquerque, but once we got to Moab, we did get rained upon for at least one afternoon. Fortunately, we had already been to Arches N.P., so we delayed going to Canyonlands until the next morning. Unfortunately, we had to leave the campground we were in and take the motor homes, since the management would not allow us to stay in the campground until early afternoon (they were going to charge us for another night's stay if we did). So, we left and drove to Arches, where we were able to park the motor homes and take a car to Canyonlands N.P. As I mentioned earlier, the scenery and landscape changes out here every time you go in a different direction. Canyonlands was NO EXCEPTION! Be sure to check out the pictures from here in the web album.

My next entry will be Bryce Canyon, and the trip there from Moab.

Here are the web album links from Mesa Verde and Moab:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MesaVerdeNationalParkCO?authkey=Gv1sRgCIHFk6bYtfTnVw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnToMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX3vYSbpPDNqQE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/ArchesNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCNaj3qvulcOCWQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CanyonlandsNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCp_KnRls6B_gE&feat=directlink

Albuquerque to Farmington, NM

Tuesday, October 20 - Moab, UT

We finally have a WIFI connection here in Moab, so I will try to bring you up-to-date on our latest adventures. Since my last post was from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, we will pick up from there. I will include pictures from the fireworks display on the last night of the fiesta in the web albums, below.

We left Albuquerque on Sunday morning, Oct. 11, heading for Santa Fe. Our traveling companions, the Burches, came along with us on our way to Farmington, NM, to lend a hand with our first RV show as vendors. Santa Fe is a beautiful city in northern New Mexico. It is the Capital City of New Mexico, and has lots of charm. Upon arrival, we parked our coaches in a WalMart parking lot and took a car into the city to scout around. After parking the car in town, we walked around a bit and decided to have lunch at a neat little cafe called "The Burrito Company". From there, we did a bit of shopping and sightseeing, and finally headed back to the coaches (after a quick stop at the local Dunkin' Donuts!). Since we could not park in the WalMart lot overnight, we left Santa Fe and headed for Espanola, NM, where the local WalMart did allow overnight parking.

On Monday morning, we departed for Farmington, where the Rocky Mountain Ramble RV show was to be held. Since we had originally scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, we decided to stay in a local RV park before heading over to the Fair Grounds to register for the show. After settling in, we took the car and scouted out various locations we would need to use during the show (bank, ice vendors). At the recommendation of our host at the RV park, we all went to dinner Monday evening at the local Red Lobster. If you've never been to a Red Lobster, you HAVE to go!! The food was excellent and plentiful. We will be sure to keep this on our list as a place to go for dinner.

Tuesday morning started with breakfast at another local establishment highly recommended by our host at the campground - Sonyas Country Cookin'. Again, an excellent choice. After breakfast, we returned to the campground and buttoned up the motor home and moved over to the Fair Grounds to register for the show. The Burch's came over once we were settled on our campsite to help us load up and transport everything over to the vendor building, where we then had to haul everything inside and set up the booth. This took us about 4 hours to accomplish, and we covered everything up before heading out for the afternoon. Kathy and I returned to the booth on Wednesday morning to finalize everything and make sure we had all we needed for the start of the show at 9AM Thursday morning.

The RV show was a great experience for us. This was our first show "on our own", and we had a great time. We met lots of other vendors, as well as attendees, who shared our avocation - motorhoming. Charlie and Kathy Burch were so very helpful to us throughout this show. We are forever indebted to them!! Also, in addition to having a wonderful time, we also made a little money!!

From Farmington, we headed north to Colorado to Visit Durango and Mesa Verde National Park. Details of that leg of our trip will be in the next edition of "the Journal". Here are the links to the web albums for this edition:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/DrivingToSantaFeNM?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCjorr7_6SVhQE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnTheWayToFarmingtonNM?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjD07rC2O3cCQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/RockyMountainRambleFarmingtonNM?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPwv9WrvqqPsAE&feat=directlink

Albuquerque Balloon Festival, 2009

TOTALLY AWESOME!! That's the only way to describe this event.

We left our coach at 5AM and headed down to the launch field to witness what they describe here as a "Mass Ascension". What that means is that all of the balloons on the field take off one after another, or simultaneously if they're not too close together. What a sight to see!

Just as we arrived at the field, about 10 balloons launched - this was about 6AM. These first 10 are considered the lead flight, and they go up to test the winds. If all is in order, then the remaining balloons will launch within the next hour. It was still dark when the lead flight launched, so we did not get many pictures. You can only see them when they "light up" to rise, and then as they heat more air for lift. We stayed until every balloon had taken flight, around 8 - 8:30AM. This year, the mass ascension totaled approximately 550 balloons. One of the balloons we spotted appeared to be the same one that Kathy, Nancy Borsetti and Gail Dimaggio rode in up in New York some years ago (around 1998, or so). It was called "Amazing Grace". Other than that, we did not see a single familiar face among the thousands of people here.

Speaking of the numbers of people here, another thing we noticed was that the city of Albuquerque certainly has their "ducks in a row" for this festival. Despite the throngs of people, traffic and parking was very orderly and efficient. Add to that the fact that people (attendees) were not "gouged" for the tickets to get in ($6/person), less for kids, this was a very good take, and a real family value. Anyone who has wanted to see this festival, I urge you to make every effort to attend this event at some time. It is a "bucket list" MUST!

Here are the links to the web albums - enjoy the photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BalloonFestival2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-BxaCqi8rM5QE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BalloonFestival2?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKQrc2ukpjKMQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BalloonFestival3?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHvrqz60L-JEw&feat=directlink

Chapter 3

Interesting title. Let me explain. Chapter 1, I suppose, would be our lives up to our retirement. Chapter 2 began with our retirement and trip west last fall. Chapter 3 represents a new phase in our lives, beginning with the acquisition of our "dream" motorhome, a 2009 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40QXP, and continuing with our newest venture. As most of you are aware, we have embarked upon a new business venture. We will be working as vendors at various RV trade shows selling dips, that's right, I said dips! We will be representing a company known as "Dip'n Good Dips" at these trade shows. We have decided to call ourselves "The 'DIP'lomats. Our first trade show takes place in Farmington, NM from October 14th thru the 17th. Our product line includes 15 flavors of dried dip mixes and 2 flavors of "sweet treats" (Pumpkin Spice and Raspberry). In addition, we will also be selling the "coolers" used to keep the dips cold while on display. We are anxiously looking forward to this first show, as it will serve as our "baptism of fire". We actually did work at this down in Nashville last July and August, to see if this was something we wanted to do. We had so much fun that we are now going for it!

OK! On to the good stuff! As I mentioned, we purchased a new motorhome in September and, as a result of having to arrange the insurance and registration by telephone/FAX/e-mail/snail mail, we were not able to get underway until Friday, October 2. Our first stop was in Chicago to pick up additional sales items from the couple who sponsored us for this distributorship, Steve and Sherry Metz. These are two of the hardest-working people we have met. They work about 40 - 45 shows per year, traveling far and wide to attend these shows. In addition, Steve has his own appliance repair business, and builds/restores vintage automobiles in his "spare time"! We spent Sunday afternoon and evening with Steve and Sherry, going over some important items regarding these shows.

On Monday morning we again got underway, heading for Albuquerque, NM, where we met up with Charlie and Kathy Burch on Wednesday at the Balloon Festival. The trip to NM was basically uneventful. Kathy did get to drive the new motorhome for a bit, and she really enjoyed it. She was quite nervous at first, since it is longer and much heavier than our Discovery was. However, she soon discovered how easily it drive and handles on the open road. We are truly impressed with the quietness and power of this coach. The interior is quite beautiful and spacious when all 4 slide-outs are extended. We will try to post photographs of the motorhome, exterior and interior, soon.

Today we ventured down to the balloon festival, where we got some very good pictures of some of the "shape" balloons, so called because they are in the shape of familiar things (see the photographs). We also visited a museum here which houses replicas of Nuclear devices, from weapons to medical instruments. Quite interesting and educational.

Tomorrow, we hope to be able to get more photos of the balloons closer up to them. We may even get to photograph them taking off and in flight. The weather through Saturday promises to be ideal for balloon launching. Be sure to check back for those photos. We will be in Albuquerque until Sunday. Then we will head up to Santa Fe to do some exploring along the "Turquoise Trail" before finally heading over to Farmington to get ready for the show. We will keep you posted via this blog.

Here's the link to the web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MovinWestAgain?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmVjZHVxYaoqgE&feat=directlink