Sunday we were up way before the crack of dawn. Of course, we are up every day way before the crack of dawn. But this was special....we were headed back to our Summer home in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was such a beautiful morning. Clear as a bell and not even a breeze as the sun came up over the horizon. We checked the place one last time and pulled the Motorhome onto the street, hooked the pickup on the back and by 7:30, we were “ready to roll”! We swung around by Paul and Nancy's place to stop and say our final goodbyes and get our much needed hugs. We sure hated to leave our good friends but we'll see them again real soon. By 7:45, we were headed North up Yarnell hill towards Prescott.
We wanted to get an early start before the wind came up. WELL, by the time we got to Prescott, it was blowing pretty hard but it was a nice tail wind. It blew us all the way up to I-40 but I knew when we headed East, we were going to have problems, as it would be a direct side wind. Plus, by that time, it was blowing 30-40mph and wind advisories were out for I-40 and especially East of Flagstaff. That is a trouble area that is always prone to serious wind and dust storms. We limped into Flagstaff but along the way we nearly lost one of the Fantastic fan covers. We stopped and I dug out our good old “DUCK TAPE” and taped it down as best I could. We're lucky we didn't lose the whole cover. When we arrived at Flagstaff, we knew we couldn't go any further!! WOW, 166 miles. For some RV’ers, that’s a days drive but not us,. However, that was it for today…… better conditions tomorrow, we hope.
Monday, Memorial Day, we were up and out on the Interstate by 7:30 again with another pleasant morning. We stopped at the Flying J in Winslow, AZ and filled with diesel. Even Flying J is quiet at that time of the morning and we were feeling good when the price of fuel was only $3.819. Yeah....ONLY!!!
We continued East and soon turned North on AZ 191 and proceeded on to Chinle and spent some time at the Canyon De Chelly National Monument. We didn't get to go through the whole thing because we didn't want to hang around until the wind started blowing again. It's a beautiful place and we'll get back there one day.
We ended up at Echo Basin Ranch RV Resort, near Mancos, Co, about half way between Cortez and Durango. Now, we lost an hour when we crossed into Colorado, so we arrived right at.....you guessed it "HAPPY HOUR"!!!!
Ms. Megabyte2 was also happy to arrive so she could check out the new area. It was a great travel day and we put 375 miles under our belts that day.
Yesterday, we decided to tour the Durango area and check out the Million Dollar Highway. We drove all the way up Hwy 550 to Silverton, then through Ouray and on up to Ridgway. We turned at Ridgway and made a loop back towards Cortez, going through the Telluride Ski Area and on home to Mancos. What a wonderful, beautiful trip. We went a total of 245 miles through some of the most beautiful country in the world. The weather was again outstanding and you don’t see country this pretty that often.!! I love this Mountain Time zone, as "Happy Hour" comes an hour earlier! Hip, Hip, Hurray!!!
Above are a few of the pictures of the Million Dollar highway and our Campground.
It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!
Tomorrow we will continue on our trip and head up to Grand Junction, CO, where we will stop for a short visit with my favorite cousin, Shirley. She recently had some major surgery and we need to stop by to see how she's doing. Then, we'll continue on North up to Rawlins, WY and from there to Custer. We are anxious to get home to our Beautiful Black Hills and our "little piece of Heaven". We continue to thank our Father for all he has provided us.
Travel Safe and God Bless you all…
Sunday’s Blog may well come to you from Custer. Please stop back!
Mike
This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..
We wanted to get an early start before the wind came up. WELL, by the time we got to Prescott, it was blowing pretty hard but it was a nice tail wind. It blew us all the way up to I-40 but I knew when we headed East, we were going to have problems, as it would be a direct side wind. Plus, by that time, it was blowing 30-40mph and wind advisories were out for I-40 and especially East of Flagstaff. That is a trouble area that is always prone to serious wind and dust storms. We limped into Flagstaff but along the way we nearly lost one of the Fantastic fan covers. We stopped and I dug out our good old “DUCK TAPE” and taped it down as best I could. We're lucky we didn't lose the whole cover. When we arrived at Flagstaff, we knew we couldn't go any further!! WOW, 166 miles. For some RV’ers, that’s a days drive but not us,. However, that was it for today…… better conditions tomorrow, we hope.
Monday, Memorial Day, we were up and out on the Interstate by 7:30 again with another pleasant morning. We stopped at the Flying J in Winslow, AZ and filled with diesel. Even Flying J is quiet at that time of the morning and we were feeling good when the price of fuel was only $3.819. Yeah....ONLY!!!
We continued East and soon turned North on AZ 191 and proceeded on to Chinle and spent some time at the Canyon De Chelly National Monument. We didn't get to go through the whole thing because we didn't want to hang around until the wind started blowing again. It's a beautiful place and we'll get back there one day.
We ended up at Echo Basin Ranch RV Resort, near Mancos, Co, about half way between Cortez and Durango. Now, we lost an hour when we crossed into Colorado, so we arrived right at.....you guessed it "HAPPY HOUR"!!!!
Ms. Megabyte2 was also happy to arrive so she could check out the new area. It was a great travel day and we put 375 miles under our belts that day.
Yesterday, we decided to tour the Durango area and check out the Million Dollar Highway. We drove all the way up Hwy 550 to Silverton, then through Ouray and on up to Ridgway. We turned at Ridgway and made a loop back towards Cortez, going through the Telluride Ski Area and on home to Mancos. What a wonderful, beautiful trip. We went a total of 245 miles through some of the most beautiful country in the world. The weather was again outstanding and you don’t see country this pretty that often.!! I love this Mountain Time zone, as "Happy Hour" comes an hour earlier! Hip, Hip, Hurray!!!
Above are a few of the pictures of the Million Dollar highway and our Campground.
It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!
Tomorrow we will continue on our trip and head up to Grand Junction, CO, where we will stop for a short visit with my favorite cousin, Shirley. She recently had some major surgery and we need to stop by to see how she's doing. Then, we'll continue on North up to Rawlins, WY and from there to Custer. We are anxious to get home to our Beautiful Black Hills and our "little piece of Heaven". We continue to thank our Father for all he has provided us.
Travel Safe and God Bless you all…
Sunday’s Blog may well come to you from Custer. Please stop back!
Mike
This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..
12 comments:
Travel safe my friends... wish we were going too!!!
Have fun
Donna
I'm one of those 166 mile people. Certainly not 375! :)
God bless, safe travels.
Cheers!
Looks like you are enjoying the trip, and the happy hours, Be safe out there, it won't be long before you are in Custer. Sam & Donna.
the million dollar campground has 'million dollar views'!!..safe travels as you continue on your journey!
Thanks for the tour around the Million Dollar Highway. We made that trip a few hundred years ago or so, and we are anxious to get back to Colorado as RVers!
Gorgeous scenery and your camera does it justice! Safe travels back to the Black Hills.
What beautiful scenery Safe travels.
Love the slide show.....beautiful area!!
You guys travel safely and enjoy the journey (as I KNOW you will).
Nice little slide show there Mike. Not sure how you put it in there but I liked it better than the slide show Live Writer offers. So nice to be back on the road for a bit again eh. As nice as our home bases are it's always great to get out & see some new scenery. Our 7 month stay here in Ontario every summer is just waaaaaaay to long to be stuck in one spot without moving. You are one lucky guy....10-4:))
What found memories you bring up of workamping in the Ouray area last summer! We loved the rest of the journey to Custer based on your recommended route last year. It gives me goose bumps! Thanks.
Allan and I stayed at Echo Basin Ranch apparently a few days before you arrived. Sorry we missed you. We stayed 5 days there in the snow. We are in Cedaredge, Co. working at a church camp as one of our volunteer projects for this year. Enjoy South Dakota.
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