A visit to Electra

We are made a trip to Electra Lake, north of Durango. Marianne's sister Eileen has a cabin on the lake. The occasion was a concert by Eileen's trio.
On our way to Electra on Wednesday, we stopped in Glenwood Springs and had lunch with our friends Charlie and Gail at the Pullman restaurant, near the train station. A good lunch and a good visit.


Grand Junction was very hot, 103 degrees, but cool in the mountains. We did run into some rain as we got closer to Electra. The drive was uneventful, but of course slow on the Million Dollar highway.

We had a nice dinner with Eileen. Pat and Stacey arrived after we had gone to bed.

Thursday midday Pat and I took the boat out on the lake to do a little fishing. Richard caught a 17 inch rainbow trout, which we kept for dinner. Stacey later caught a 13 inch fish off the dock, so we had trout for dinner.

Friday was a quiet day. Pat and Stacey went into town for the day. Eileen went to practice for her trio. Richard fished a bit after dark, no luck.
Friday and Saturday Richard and Pat did some repairs on the boathouse stairs, as well as the boat, tightened up some loose steps, etc. Nothing big, but things that needed to be done.

Saturday was all about the concert. Eileen went to practice in the morning, and we headed over to the clubhouse for the 5 PM concert. The concert was very good, and well attended.

Sunday we left at 8:30 AM. Traffic was light, so we easily made it to Montrose by the 11 am mass. This was the Spanish mass, well attended. The priest seemed like he didn't want to be there, speaking indifferent Spanish.

We picked up excellent fruit and vegetables in Palisade. The rest of the ride home went smoothly, with rain and lighter than expected traffic.

North Park Colorado

Fishing Delaney Buttes Lake

On Friday, we headed off fishing for the first time in 2011. It took a while to gather all the pieces for the boat, etc. When we hitch the boat to the 5th wheel, the entire rig is 62 feet long! The drive over was routine, although the traffic was heavier than usual, due to those leaving early on Friday afternoon.

We were hoping to see a moose, but no luck.

We bought our fishing licenses in Walden, where Richard talked about going out with a guide to try to learn to fish better. The guides suggested that we come back in the fall for a day of guided fishing.

South Delaney Butte Lake was a little more crowded than usual, but we found a decent campsite overlooking the lake. Richard went out in the boat in the evening, but no bites. He chatted in the dark with a fishing bum, sleeping in his van, with an unusual tiny ten foot boat, fully equiped, just big enough for one person on a small lake.

Saturday morning we slept in. Richard did a little midday fishing (it's called fishing, not catching). We headed in to Walden to go to mass; Richard saw an American Avocet on the way. There were about 25 people in the small church. The priest was one we recognized, he used to be in Boulder. There are now two priests covering two counties and five churches. We chatted with an couple after mass. He was a serious ice fisherman, a two time winner of the local ice fishing championship! They had lived in Walden since the 1940s.

After dinner, and around sunset, Richard went out in the boat, and caught a 14 inch trout on the first cast! He caught two more similar fish in the next 15 minutes, then nothing, but good to break the jinx. The fish were right at the legal limit, and Richard did not have an easy way to measure the fish, so he put them back. Marianne wanted him to keep some fish for her friends. Unfortunately, he also broke one of his fishing rods, but we have extra rods.

On Sunday morning we slept in again, and awoke to find the camper cold and the lake glassy. The thermometer says that it got down to 42 degrees overnight. Richard went out on the lake, but got off the lake around noon when the winds picked up. The winds later got strong enough to shake the camper. Richard went out in the evening, but no luck.

On Monday morning, Richard went out on the lake, and caught a couple of trout, one 15 inches and one 13 inches. The photo is of the smaller fish, which we kept. The day started out calm, but the winds returned by the afternoon.

Richard went out for the evening fishing and found himself in a hatch, with groups of fish slurping down something on the surface. Richard had a fish on with the first cast, but the fish headed to the bottom and wrapped around the weeds, so Richard only caught a clump of weeds! He had lots of bites, and some fish on, but only got one fish in his net. Richard found watching the fish activity to be quite entertaining. He never figured out which hatch had the fish so excited.

On Tuesday we drove back to Boulder, making a stop in the Wildlife refuge to go on the wetlands hike.

Cow Head to Colorado

We slept in on Wednesday, as we had stayed up late to see the play.

As we drove south, we stopped to admire a couple of attractions which we had not visited on the way up. One was the wreck of the SS Effie. The other was sea caves.

When we got to Deer Lake, we called several B&Bs which were full, and ended up in the very nice Humberview BB. Marianne wanted to visit Cornerbrook, which is the largest city that we have seen in Newfoundland. We were told that this is where residents of western Newfoundland go to shop, and we saw plenty of shopping there. We drove up to the top of the hill, where a monument commememorates Captian Cook, who originally made his name producing detailed surveys of the coast in this area. There are views of the bay, of the city, and of the paper mill. Not much for tourists, however.

One interesting thing that ties Deer Lake to Cornerbrook is the powerplant. The hydro plant in Deer lake was built in the 1920s specifically to power the paper mill in Cornerbrook. This was the beginning of the town of Deer Lake. The power lines between the two cities look like they date from the same era.

Our Air Canada flight on Thursday morning left as 6 AM, so we woke up at 4 AM to make our flight. The flight left on time, and almost immediately flew into the clouds. When we arrived at Toronto, we were surprised to learn that we would clear customs and immigration in Toronto. This effectively torpedoed Richard's plan to go into Toronto, as we needed to claim our checked luggage inside the secured area. Oh, well, it was a very hot day in Toronto, and we would have had limited time to tour anyway. The secured area is a very large concourse, dedicated to flights from Toronto to the USA. We found that our flight to Denver was already projected to depart 30 minutes late, even though the departure time was five hours away.

Ultimately, we left two hours late. In addition to the forecast delay due to the previous flight being delayed, they took some time to cool the aircraft before we got into it. But when we pulled away from the concourse, the pilot found that his defroster was giving an error indication, perhaps due to the heat. We returned to the concourse, where the technician reset the computer and cleared the error. This put us back to our house about 10 PM, making it a 20 hour day from when the alarm went off.

We really liked Newfoundland, the friendiness of the people, the lack of stress, the scenery, and the fresh seafood. Marianne said that it was one of her favorite trips ever. We hope to return.

Vikings, Icebergs, Thrombolites, and Theatre

We decided to spend one more night in the St. Anthony area, which meant one more night in the Triple Rose B&B. We found that Rose is the maiden name of Irene and Eileen, the twin sisters who run the place, along with their brother.

We woke up to a beautiful clear day.

We first headed back to the Viking site, where Marianne got a demonstration of single needle knitting, and we took a tour of the archeological site. You can see the Marianne swings a mean sword.

After that, we stopped at a nearby craft store, where Marianne bought a hat made by the lady who ran the store, as well as a needle made of moose antler. The hat and the needle were both single needle knitting. You can see the hat on Marianne's head next to the iceberg.


After a pleasant lunch at "The Catch", we drove out to Onion point, where there was an overlook with a bench. Quite a view, and the weather was nice enough to sit out and admire it.

On Tuesday, we said goodbye to our hosts, and headed south. We decided to stop and see the Thrombolites. We were hiking on the trail, but we did not know what we were looking for. These were fossils of single-celled bacteria and algae, one to three billion years old! They grew in clumps or clots, hence the name.


We decided to stay in Cow Head, and see one of their plays, a comedy about two guys opening Ed and Ed's B&B. Pretty funny, lots of Newfoundland jokes. The sunset picture is from Cow Head, at low tide.



Wednesday is our last day in Newfoundland, as we leave early Thursday. We will be sorry to leave Newfoundland, which we have enjoyed very much.

Icebergs

We went to mass at the St. Anthony Catholic church. A nice mass, with a personable priest. The priest said that his previous assignment was as an itinerant priest in Labrador, where he traveled by air, boat, and snowmobile, to serve his far flung flock.

We took the Northland Discovery tour boat out of St. Anthony. The tour included a knowledgeable onboard biologist. The tour focused on icebergs, as they have more and larger icebergs this year than any time in the last 60 years, because of calving from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland a year ago. The Labrador current carries the icebergs down "iceberg alley". The largest iceberg, really an ice island, was a mile long and a quarter mile wide. Icebergs are the largest pieces, growlers are the size of a car or a house, while bergy bits are the smaller pieces. Seamen regard the growlers as the most dangerous, because the large icebergs are easily seen on radar, but the growlers can still destroy a ship. The bergy bits are not a hazard.


The trip started foggy, but when we reached the icebergs the sun came out, glistening on the icebergs, perhaps the nicest day in a week.

Marianne thought that this was one of the most beautiful sights that she had ever seen.

Icebergs are some of the purest water on the planet. When I put a bit in my mouth, it was salty for a moment, but once the sea water was gone, the ice was pure fresh water. The Quidi Vidi brewery, takes some of the bergy bits and uses them to brew beer!


We had dinner at the Lightkeeper's restaurant. We have not eaten any meat since we arrived, instead we have eaten excellent cod, halibut, and salmon. It reminds Marianne of her diet as a girl. When we came out, Richard noticed a spouting whale, the first whale that we have seen on this trip.

A beautiful day. It is so quiet and peaceful here we will probably stay another day.

Port au Choix to the Vikings

We had an excellent breakfast at Jeannie's B&B, and enjoyed conversations with some of our fellow guests.

We then headed to the Port Au Choix National Park visitor center, where we learned about the many cultures that lived in this area, including paleo-eskimo cultures. The climate would change, and one group would displace another. The archeological digs uncovered some of their fine work in stone, wood, and bone. This was a particularly bountiful area, hence the various dwellings and groups over the centuries.

The cemetary outside of Port Au Choix was especially interesting, including this unique gravestone.

We continued north toward St. Anthony, and saw our first iceberg, as well as the coast of Labrador. Our goal was the National Park of the L'anse aux Meadows, where the vikings built dwellings and lived, at least for a time. This is the only documented Viking site in North America, occupied around 1000 years ago.

The weather was cold, humid, and windy, all day.

We had an excellent lunch at the Norseman restaurant, including an "Iceberg" beer from Quidi Vidi, the local brewery, which came in a beautiful blue bottle. We then proceeded to the Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, which included reconstructed Viking buildings. It was so cold that Marianne did not leave the visitor center. Richard went back in the evening to hear Icelandic sagas and legends, inside one of the buildings. The sagas are like bloody soap operas.

Norris Point to Port au Choix

Friday was a rainy day, pretty much all day. The road north follows the sea. Our first stop was the Rocky Harbor Lighthouse, now an educational exhibit about life in this area. The area was pretty isolated until the road was put in in the 1960s.

Our second stop was Broom Point, which was a fishing business until the 1970s, when the national park bought out the brothers, who wanted to retire. Another fisherman explained life in a fishing camp, before and after the road, which was put in in the 1960s. Before the road, they salted and dried their cod, and canned their own salmon, using a copper pot that may have dated to the 1700's!

We had lunch at the Shallow Bay motel, known for its dinner theatre. They had an excellent cod chowder.

When we got to Port aux Choix, (Port-oo-shwaa), we stopped at Jeannie's Sunrise B&B, where she had a very nice room available, and then headed to the Anchor Cafe for an excellent meal. This is a fishing town, with commercial fishing boats wherever you look. The local Sears catalog outlet sells gas and beer! They say that in a small town, they can't make it on the Sears sales alone.

Colorado to Newfoundland

We drove to DIA, and were pleasantly surprised that we would be flying Air Canada instead of United. The flight was cross listed and for some reason we assumed that we were going to be flying United. We liked Air Canada, the crews were very nice.

We changed planes in Montreal. The airport was about as international a place as one could imagine, with many different kinds of garb and languages.

We arrived in Deer Lake Newfoundland about midnight local time, 8:30 PM Denver time. Yes, Newfoundland has its own time zone. We picked up a very nice Chrysler Sebring rental car from Enterprise, and headed for the Deer Lake Motel, which was convenient, but somewhat overpriced.

In the morning, we slept in and walked across the street to a popular restaurant in a combination gas station, convenience store, and car repair business.

We found ourselves being addressed by many names, including "My Love", "Sweetie", and "My Darling".

We had beautiful weather for the drive into Gros Morne National Park, very rugged and scenic. Everything is very green, and there are wildflowers everywhere.


We stopped in Norris Point, where we received an excellent tour of the aquarium from Mary, a biology student. We enjoyed seeing and touching the different species of sea life. Norris Point is at the intersection of two bays, each of which is a different ecosystem.


The graveyard at Norris Point includes a gravestone for a private Harding, part of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. This regiment suffered a 90% casualty rate in a single attack on July 1, 1916. I spoke to a man painting the grave, he was the son in law of private Harding. He said that private Harding was wounded in the war, that he had a chunk out of his leg that you could put your fist into. Another local man lost his leg in the war, and had a wooden leg. There is a separate War Memorial for a Private Major who died in the war. Many gravestones included a handshake, which signified the marriage bond.

When we started looking for a place to stay in Rocky Harbor, we mostly found no vacancy signs, or $160 hotel rooms. But one of the ladies at a B&B told us that she had spoken to the lady at Burnt Cottages in Norris Point, and that she had a room. We drove back to Norris Point, and were pleasantly surprised to be able to stay in a nice modern fully equipped cottage for $85 a night, cash. We have a view of the bay and the tablelands.

We had dinner at Jackie's in Rocky Harbor. The sunset photos are from the end of the road at Rocky Harbor

The drive home

On Sunday, we started our drive home, heading West on Interstate 72 to St. Joseph.

In St. Joseph, we stopped at the Pony Express museum. The Pony Express had its eastern terminus at St. Joseph. The Pony Express operated for less than two years, but is big in romance and the American imagination.

We stayed at a good campground that was more or less in town.

On Monday, we resumed driving West on US36. Our original plan was to drive NW on I-29, but flooding had closed the interstate, so our only practical route was due West. However, that meant that US36 was busy. The heavy traffic and construction meant slow travel for the first couple of hours.

We made a short detour to the "geographic center of the USA", with a monument and a tiny chapel.


On Monday afternoon, we were listening to the weather reports, including a tornado in the county we were headed towards. We later saw downed power lines, presumably from the storm. We stayed at Prarie Dog State Park, where we saw a cardinal and a brown thrasher.


Tuesday had us continuing on US36, essentially all the way to Boulder. The driving was enlivened by seeing Lark Buntings, the official state bird of Colorado. We also had unexpected anxiety about fuel, as the towns that we drove through in eastern Colorado had no operating businesses. We were relived to see the COOP (cooperative) in Anton, where we bought gas. A good trip, but we were glad to be home, as were our cats.

History and the end of the reunion

On Thursday, we started at the local cemetery, very close to the farm. This is where Hap is buried. Some of the graves date back to the mid-1800s.

Our next stop was a visit to "Aunt Sally's House". This is the house that Nick lived in until he was 5 years old. The house is as if somebody moved out 50 years ago and left their photos and furniture behind. One photo showed a young Hap and his father fishing; Hap looked very much like Lucas.

We later drove to New Salem, where Abraham Lincoln owned a store. We talked with reenactors about life in those days, and were amazed by the oxen-powered mill, where the oxen walked on a large inclined turntable, which drove the mill.

We ate an excellent meal at a local Italian restaurant.

On Friday, we headed to the new Lincoln museum in Springfield. Besides the usual enlarged newspaper clippings and artifacts under glass, there were high tech multimedia presentations. An excellent museum. We had our picture taken with wax figures of the Lincoln family. In the afternoon, we took the girls to Walmart, to buy paints and a T-shirt to make a special reunion T-shirt.

After our usual good dinner at Teresa's house, we said goodbye to Tim, Cindy, and Hadley, who had to leave early Saturday morning to start the long drive to Montana. The severe weather alarms started going off before we went to bed, but the storm passed south of us.

On Saturday, Nick and Teresa drove Dennis, Roxanne, Ari, and Erica to the St. Louis Airport. Ron, Judy, Richard, and Donald drove to Lincoln, looking for the Antique stores that Marianne remembered, but found only the old courthouse, used by Lincoln when he was a circuit riding lawyer.

Fun at the reunion

Monday, Tim, Cindy, and Hadley arrived, having taken three days to make the drive from Montana. Hadley was a good traveler, but they did need to make some stops to let her get out and play. The girls invented a game in which one was searching with their tongue for Skittles in whipped cream; Teresa won. Don arrived, having had the trip from hell, including truck problems and a blowout on his trailer, which caused a lot of damage to the trailer. Teresa cooked a great dinner of pork loin.

Tuesday, Marianne went shopping with Grace, Ari, Erica, Cindy, and Hadley. The highlight was an impromptu dance by Hadley in the Abercrombie and Fitch store. Nick, Roxanne, and Richard went on a team shopping trip; you know that you are in the midwest when the grocery store has a large neon sign marking their Smoked Meat section. Tim and Nick, with help from Teresa and others, produced prodigious quantities of fried french fries and onion rings, which we followed with a late dinner of meatloaf. Marianne enjoyed listening to old music in Lucas's Mustang.


Wednesday it had rained most of the night, but dried up enough to allow a trip to the farmer's market in Springfield. This was a social event, as well as an opportunity to purchase fresh strawberries. Judy and Ron joined us at the market, having gotten in late Tuesday night. The sun came out, very nice. Richard used the fancy new lawn mower at the farm. We made a visit to Mike's house to see the two new foals, and the redone 1905 house. Dinner was make your own tacos. The fresh strawberries from the farmer's market were excellent. The girls decided to take advantage of the clear skies and camp out in the back yard.

Off to Illinois for the Family Reunion

We left Boulder on Friday June 10th about 10:30 AM. Our drive was easier than usual, we even had a tailwind. The amber waves of grain in Kansas were quite pretty.

Our planned campsite was Wilson Lake, in the middle of Kansas. When we arrived around 6 PM, we were surprised to see the campground almost full, and those sites that were not occupied had "reserved" signs. We were about to leave, but Richard walked over to an empty campsite, and the lady in the next campsite asked if we were looking for site 19. It turned out that site 19 was the only unclaimed site there, so we took it. Richard saw a red-headed woodpecker, a spectacular bird with a red head and large white wing patches. Neither of us had ever seen one before.

Saturday we continued our trip East. We sailed through Kansas City, and continued through hilly Missouri, the land of bilboards. Mid-afternoon, Richard evaluated our progress, and reserved a campsite at Lazy Day campground, an hour west of St. Louis. Conveniently, there was a 5 PM Saturday mass in Montgomery City, a few miles away. We made it to the 5 PM Mass, and then headed to the campground, which we had last visited in 2003. A nice quiet campground.

Sunday morning we went looking for a Walmart. Unfortunately, the directions we got off the internet were faulty, and we ended up driving down a twisty country road. When we stopped to turn around, a couple of people asked us if we needed help. Teresa said that is how country people are, helpful.

We picked up Dennis, Roxanne, Ari, and Erica at their hotel in St. Louis, and then headed north to Springfield. Nick, Teresa, and Grace met us at the farm, and then we headed to their house for dinner.

A Beautiful But Stormy Drive

We got on the road about 8 AM, and headed east on Utah Highway 12, a National Scenic Highway. It lived up to its reputation. The driving was slow, twisty, up and down, but often very beautiful. At one point we were going up a ridge, with a dropoff on each side, and we could not see very far in front of us; we both wondered where we were going. We ran into some light snow, especially on the 9200 ft pass, but the roads were good.

We had a lunch stop in Cedar Breaks National Park, near the orchards which are part of the park. That park deserves a future visit.

Much of the drive was plagued by wind. We spent perhaps an hour going 50 mph bucking a headwind and a crosswind, no fun.

We stopped about 5 PM, tired and glad to get off the road. We camped in Rabbit Valley, just south of I-70, just east of the Utah-Colo line. It is beautiful in its own more modest way, as the photo below attests.
When we got up in the morning, it was clear and 22 degrees. I called the road information line, and there was chain law at the Eisenhower Tunnel. We proceeded, expecting conditions to improve.

The Grand Junction valley area was very green and beautiful. The Colorado River was running big. We ran into some snow on Vail Pass and at the tunnel, but the roads were wet and good. We were surprised to find the Boulder/Denver area very dry and brown.

A good trip, we saw some new places that we would like to go back to.

Kodachrome Basin

After the long day to see Zion, we got a kind of late start on Saturday. It was raining on and off all day. Luckily, we had less than 100 miles to go. Our destination was Kodachrome Basin State Park, as beautiful as you might expect from the name. Hard to take a bad photo. National Geographic visited here in 1948, and gave the area its name.

Richard went for a hike up to the rim, an overlook from which he took some of the photos. He also met a recently retired couple from Washington state.

On Sunday, we woke up to a cold, rainy day. The photo shows the snow at higher elevations. We drove 50 miles to Panguitch, to the closest Catholic Church, St. Gertrude. The place was packed, with about 60 people in the small church. A 75 year old retired Irish priest said the mass, he had a great sense of humor. We ate Easter dinner at a cafe promoting its soup and homemade pies. There were plenty of cars outside, and the food was good.

Monday was a nicer day, partly cloudy, and warmer, up to the 60s. Bryce Canyon National Park was reported to be snowy, so we took a hike to Shakespeare Arch in Kodachrome Basin State Park, where we were camped. The paw print that we saw on the hike was identified as a bobcat by the park ranger. He said that there are many bobcats and mountain lions here. We watched some Mountain Bluebirds, and later a Raven turning over cow pies, looking for insects.

We are pretty much out of communication here, since cell phones don't work, and we have no internet connection. We will post this when we can. We did read the Sunday paper from Cedar City, so we sort of know what is going on in the world.

Zion

On Good Friday, we drove to Zion National Park. Very impressive. Most of the photos I took do not do justice to the place. The visitors come from all over the world. Very popular park, you have to take a shuttle bus up the canyon. We came in from the East, so we drove through the one mile tunnel, and got to see that part of the park from our own vehicle.

It has been wet, so the falls are running and the river is high, much too high to hike in the riverbed at the Narrows. The photo below does not really capture the 900 cubic feet per second (cfs) flow. They close the Narrows to hiking at 150 cfs.

Phoenix to Zion

On Wednesday, Krista came by in the morning. Charley, Aracelli, and Bridget came by in the evening. Good to see them all. Richard went to the Phoenix Art museum and the Heard museum, while Eileen and Marianne went shopping.



On Thursday, we left Phoenix behind and headed to Utah. The photo below is of the valley below Glen Canyon Dam; the crack in the earth is the canyon of the Colorado River.

Our destination was a commercial campground near Zion National Park, from which we are sending this email.

As an aside, the cats seem to be adjusting to life on the road, which is good.

Visiting Eileen

We enjoyed Palm Sunday mass at the Casa Franciscan center, a big production, with choir and even dancers.

On Monday, Marianne and Richard went to the State Capitol museum, in the old state capitol, as well as the Mining and Mineral museum. The Mining and Mineral museum is a good one. Copper is a sizable employer in Arizona, which makes sense, given the record high copper prices.

We have been enjoying Eileen's loveable dog, Boo. Her back yard is an oasis, complete with a pond with Koi and turtles.



We plan to leave Thursday for SW Utah, Zion and Bryce National parks.