Dinosaur National Monument, Green River Campground

Thursday August 6, 2015     Day 9        Jenson, Utah   
Dinosaur National Monument, Green River Campground, site 1     

189 miles

We got up at 05:00 to the din of sheep making sheep noises.  There’s the baby sheep noises, and the macho sheep noises.  In between is the dogs barking and the horse making horse noises.  It was just getting light when I lit a fire in the pit.  It was cold outside, 50^o, that we wore fleece and some gloves sitting outside with our coffee.  This campground is at 8,500 ft. elevation (2,591 meters).

 

I know . . . another coffee by the fire picture.  But there's nothing like

a good fire and a good wife to have your coffee in the morning with.

 

 

A good coffee mug and some nice cream in

your coffee is the frosting on the cake.

 



Left the site at 08:00 headed for Dinosaur National Monument Visitor Center in Dinosaur, CO.  We no sooner got out of the campground and encountered the entire herd of sheep lined up on the access road for about 300 ft.  The left side of the road was a very steep hill and the right side a drop off and in front of me were all these sheep with nowhere to go.  I very slowly pushed through and they started going around me and climbed up the steep hill like mountain goats.  Some almost had to be nudged by the bumper before they would move.  We slowly made our way through.  A few of the dogs came and herded them up the slope.  They were amazingly agile.  There must have been hundreds of sheep in this herd.

 

A few sheep blocking the road

 



Had a beautiful early morning drive down the Flat River valley to US-40 westbound.  We were leaving the mountains behind and entered the Yama River valley.  Typical western valley, flat in the middle, and low mountain ranges and ridges on the sides.  The further west we got, it got more dry and desert-like, with sagebrush and cottonwoods.  As we approached the Colorado-Utah border, there was more and more rock formations of all colors and types.

We got to the Canyonlands Visitor Center near Dinosaur CO at around noon.  We didn’t even go in the door.  We took a map from the display just outside the door and realized that the Green River Campground, our distination, was in the Quarry Section of the Dinosaur Monument, which is in Jenson, Utah, 25 miles away.  So we went there.  Pulled into main gate, got in for free, and headed to the campground.  It was $12 per night, but we paid $6 per night, for 2 nights.  My America the Beautiful Senior Pass gets me in free to all national parks, national monuments, national forest recreation areas, and other federal units.  Campground fees are half the normal rates.  The whole pass is $10 and it’s good for life.  One of the best deals ever.  But you have to reach the ripe old age of 62 to get one. 

 

Here's some pictures from our campsite at Green River Campground:

 

The ridge in the background is Split Mountain.  It is stunning in person.  This

picture doesn't do it justice.  It is across the Green River from our campsite.



Let’s talk about beer, now.  I noticed when we first camped in Colorado, at Sterling State Park, there was a sign that said only 3.2% alcohol beer could be consumed there.  I thought that was weird.  But ignored it and drank the beer I had bought in Nebraska.  Later we got beer in Sterling at the grocery store.  I was disappointed in the selection.  They only had two brands of craft beer.  And just one type.  One was an IPA and the other an amber.  A few days later at another location I was in a Walmart and noticed the same lack of choice among craft beers.  Bought what they had.  At Mountain Park campground, I was drinking an IPA that had on the label “Does not exceed 3.2% alcohol by weight”.  That explains why I thought I was drinking $9 six packs that tasted like watered down beer.  I had to get to the bottom of this so I called out my research department.  Marsha got on it right away.  In Colorado, supermarkets can only sell 3.2% beer and liquor stores can only sell full strength beer.  So I quit buying supermarket beer and went to a liquor store in Craig, Colorado on the way here.  Yes!  Lots of selection of real beer.  They also gave me a free bag of ice.  I have never lived in a state with 3.2% beer so I was unfamiliar with it.   I have no idea what the situation is in Utah, with all the Mormons and such.  But I’ll let you know.

Going from 8,500 ft. to 4,695 ft. helped my gas milage.  I got the best towing milage of the trip at 12.5 mpg.  Compare that with 10 mpg crossing Iowa and Nebraska.  The gas in Nebraska was about $2.89/gal.  In Colorado it is over $3.00/gal.  Back home, regular gas is 87 octane, mid-grade 89, and premium is 91.  Out here, regular is 85, mid-grade is 87, and premium is 89.  I’ve been paying extra for the mid-grade, just to keep it the same as it’s always been.  Most of my miles are towing 5000 lbs. I think 85 grade would not be good.  Unless, the lower barometric pressure requires a lower grade.  When I was at Hahn’s Peak, the barometric pressure was 23” Hg. 

After arriving at the campground, we had a 3G signal and I took advantage of it to get some blogging done.  Worked a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday’s posts which finally went out last night and this morning.  Had some barbeque pork chops and salad.  Had to hurry, because we wanted to watch the Republican debates.  But it was on the Fox News Channel and I don’t have cable at this campground or a satellite dish.  Can’t stream it because we didn’t have good enough internet, and, we would have to watch it on small computer screen and use too much of our data allowance for the month.  So we sat in the truck from 19:00-21:00 Mountain Time and listened to it on Sirius-XM Fox News Channel 114.

We plan to spend tomorrow at this campground and do some site seeing in the area.

We will be in the Flaming Gorge Recreational Area on Saturday.

 

Hahn's Peak Lake

Wednesday, August 5, 2015       Day 8        Routt National Forest, Hahns Peak Lake N.F.C.G. site 10

155 miles

This was the day we were to go to Jack’s Gulch N.F.C.G. about 15 miles away and spend the day there relaxing.  Marsha was concerned about hauling the Oliver up the mountain over the unpaved curvy roads with steep drop-offs.  I wasn’t worried about it, but I didn’t want Marsha to worry so we decided to go about half way to Dinosaur National Monument, which puts us in the Steamboat Springs area.  Sitting out at the fire this morning, we both used a national forest directory (I have lots of books like that) and we looked for a quiet place to stay where I might be able to fish.  We both came up with the same answer, Hahns Peak Lake campground. It was on C .R. 129, 30 miles north of Steamboat Springs.  C.R. 129 follows the Flat River valley and is full of hay fields and ranches, surrounded by mountains on each side.  If the campground didn’t turn out, there were two state parks nearby.

The campground did turnout OK and we got a beautiful site. 

After arriving at the sign for the campground turnoff, we followed a winding, narrow, dirt road through a forest of jack pine for 2 miles to the campground.  Along the way we came across a half dozen sheep in the road (livestock sheep, not wild sheep).  We weren’t too shocked.  There is a lot of free range out here and cattle in the road is not uncommon, especially on back roads.  But sheep in the road was new to us. 

Anyway, we continued on and found a nice pull through open at site 10.  It was the only site in that loop available, and it was probably the best.  All the others were pretty much out in the open with no trees.  Right after we got onto the site, it started raining, out of nowhere.  Marsha grabbed her umbrella and I grabbed a raincoat.  We were trying to spot the trailer on the site so it aligned with the picnic table and was on a level spot.  Marsha is my spotter so she has to stand outside in the rain while I get to sit in the truck with the windows open and raining in.  I have to be able to hear Marsha yell “STOP!”  After about 5 minutes of rain, it stopped and the weather was a nice sunny day. 

The site was pretty level front to back, but side to side was off.  By the time I got the stabilizers down, and level, the curb side wheels were off the ground.  Once we set up, we noticed we could hear sheep noises on the mountainside across the lake.  It got louder and louder.  We could see them through the trees and it looked like a giant herd moving through the trees, all in the same direction.  Basically, it was like a cattle drive, but with sheep.  We got out the Nikon Monarch 3 10X40s and saw hundreds of sheep and a black one slowly making their way across and up the mountain.  There was even a shepherd on horseback and 3 sheepdogs herding them.  The sheep were extremely noisy until after dark, when they somewhat quieted down.  It was really quite a thing to see and experience.

 

There was no cell or internet at this location.  So blogs can’t be posted.  I try to get ahead by using Word to compose them and paste them later when I get a signal.  We’ve gone 3 days without internet now.

Our ride today took us along CO-14 and then onto US-40.  We went through several mountain passes and just before getting to Steamboat Springs, we crossed the continental divide.  Some of these passes were long, hard climbs, with those "Use low gear" signs on the other side.  Some of the downhill were 7 miles long.  I think some of the uphill were too.  The truck jumped out of cruise control quite a few times because it couldn't maintain speed up some of the hills.  And it had nothing to do with being a Ford, for you Chevy and Dodge people.

 

We passed through Steamboat Springs on US-40 on the way in.  Steamboat is a pretty large town and ski resort.  Lots of touristy stuff.  Very nice town.  Not dumpy, run down, like many of the small ones we pass through.  Reminds me of typical towns in California.  We stopped at a Safeway for some groceries, including some nice steaks for the grill tonight.  Got gas in a gas station I could barely drive through, blocking the driveway with my trailer.  Was glad to get out of the crowded city of Steamboat Springs and onto the peaceful county road to Hahn's Peak Lake.

 After cooking the steaks and baked potatoes, walked down to the trout filled lake and was able to land a 12” rainbow trout. 

There was a family down by lake watching me fish and I put on a good show for them.  They were impressed by how graceful fly casting is.  They were also impressed by how beautiful trout are.  It was a lot of fun and I almost wanted to stay another night, but we decided to move on for other adventures tomorrow.

 

  

Mountain Park 2nd Night

Tuesday August 4, 2015              Day 7                   Mountain Park N.F.C.G., site 42     2^nd night

It’s been a week on the road now and 5 more weeks to go.  It seems we did a lot in a week.  We haven’t had a bad time yet.  The only moment of concern and disappointment was the engine starting crisis on day 2 because of the canister purge valve issue.  It hasn’t cropped up since and the CHECK ENGINE symbol has not come on since we’ve reached the Rockies.  My truck likes elevation.  I get better gas mileage at elevation, too.  

The camp site we have at Mountain Park campground is one of the best we have ever stayed at.  I can say the same for the campground and people who camp there.  It is right on the beautiful Cache la Poudre River.  (we found out today, it is pronounced pooder.  go figure).

We had coffee and a fire, as is the Ed and Marsha camping tradition.  And on non-drive travel days, it’s spiked with Carolin’s Irish Crème.  We are at 6500 ft. or thereabouts, so the mornings are low 50’s and a fire with the morning coffee is nice.  There is always a morning coffee, but not always a morning fire. 

 

Part way through the morning fire, Marsha went into the trailer and came out with her cast iron skillet, some bacon, and some eggs and told me to put another log on the fire.  Boy, we have fun camping.

 

The closest “town” is Rustic, eight miles west.  We needed a bag of ice and wanted to find a cell signal somewhere, so we took a ride there.  On the way, we turned off a road called Pingree Park Road to see the burnt out fire region of a 2013 fire we heard about.  It was a typical mountain unpaved road going up switchbacks and offering good views over the non-guard rail turnoffs.  We came to an intersection and one way pointed to Jack’s Gulch National Forest Campground and we decided to go look at it.  What a beautiful campground it was, way in the middle of nowhere, up a mountain.  It even had electric sites and there were some RV’s camping up there.  It was so nice we decided to spend tomorrow night up there after we check out of Mountain Park.

This road was one of many roads passing through free range areas. 

You have to look out for cows on the road.

Came back down and continued our journey through the Poudre Canyon to Rustic, where there was a general store.  We also had 1 bar on the cell phone until I turned on the booster and we then had 3 bars with 3G data).  We’ve been contacting Oliver about an issue with our LED lights over the kitchen and dinette failing.  Being out of internet and cell phone coverage for a few days is difficult in today’s world.  Oliver would send us replacements if we hung out somewhere for a few days, but we told them to send them to our house.  They had a bad batch and will pay to have them replaced.

There was a resort in Rustic that operated a General Store with tourist stuff, groceries, ice, propane, and fishing stuff.  We bought some ice and some trout flies.
Next we continued west so I could case out some fishing spots.  We drove about 8 more miles to a fish hatchery and turned around.  My Colorado Flyfishing book talks about fishing below the fish hatchery and it looked like a good spot.  There also is a lot of turnoffs all the way back to the campground that access the river.  I went back to the campground to drop off Marsha and then went back up the road to fish.  Every turnoff had one or two cars and I started thinking the really good spot is going to be too crowded, as cars were arriving when we left.  So I took the first unoccupied turnoff I found and fished there for about 2 hours.  No luck.  It is a very difficult river to fish and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t raise any.  I was outdone by this river.  I usually do well in western rivers, but this one got me.

Here's where I fished this afternoon:

Got back from fishing at 4:00.  It was pizza night.  Pizza! Camping?  How do you do that?  We use this flatbread called Flatout Flatbread Pizza.  We get it at the Meijer’s deli counter.  I heat it up on the grill, just a little.  Then we use pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni (tastes just like real pepperoni without the calories and fat), onion, green pepper, mushrooms, and shredded mozzarella cheese.  Then “bake” it in the Weber Q until the cheese melts and the flatbread is crisp and viola.  Thin crust pizza.  Homemade.  While camping.

While it was cooking, a couple from Iowa came by to admire our trailer.  They have a 1995 25 ft. Holiday Rambler Alumalite and want to replace it.  They been looking for 5 years and they haven’t found anything they liked . . . until they saw ours.  While we were giving them the grand tour, four women (two couples) showed up and also wanted a tour.  We spent the next hour showing our trailer and all its features to six very enthusiastic people.  We gave them all brochures and web information and our names.  If they buy one, we get $200 for showing it.

We had an evening campfire, and went to bed after putting everything away for the evening.

 .

Mountain Park

Monday August 3, 2015      Day 6             Roosevelt National Forest, Mountain Park N.F.C.G., site 42

148 Miles

We left a nearly empty campground at Sterling State Park at 08:00.  But we didn’t leave yet.   We stopped at the dump station on the way out to dump tanks and take on water.  We have a flushing connection on the black water tank that squirts water out of nozzles to help flush stuff out.  If no one is in line behind us we’ll take the time to refill it to 60% and dump again, twice.  We also topped off the fresh water tank.  So it was 08:30 before we hit the road. 

But, we still had to go to Walmart again.  We got home with our groceries last night and found out we didn’t have the Miracle Whip, milk, and sunscreen we bought.  Must have left a bag at the store.  They believed our story (which was true and we had a receipt) and they let us replenish those items with no hassle.  Now it’s 09:00.

Backtracked the same road, CO-14, we came home on last night.  Across the Pawnee National Grassland, through the same one lane construction that went on for miles, and the same congestion through Ft. Collins.  Got to the campground at 12:30.  Got a couple of pictures of the grassland.

 

 Tried to take a nice photo of the truck

antenna but the stupid sign got in the background

 

Miles and miles of this

 

 

 

Followed by miles and miles of this

 

We drove through the Poudre Canyon and what scenery and rock formations there were.  The Cache la Poudre river follows the road, or vice versa (the river was there first).  Got a couple of pictures of the canyon, on the way in.

 

 

Here’s a picture of a sign.  I know you missed not having one for a few days.

 

 



Here’s our campsite right on the river. 

 

 

I can walk down to the water and fish.  (Not necessarily catch them).  It is a beautiful site.   There are four loops here.  Two on the water, and two along the mountain behind us.  The water sites are non-electric, the other two loops are.  We chose this beautiful water site.  It was a double site which means you pay the equivilent of two sites.  Each site is $20 so we paid $40/night.  It is worth it.  I don’t get the geezer park pass discount on this either.  But we love this site and will pay $80 to stay here for two nights.

Here’s a picture of a bird we saw flying and hopping around our campsite.  I looked it up.  It is a Steller’s Jay, related to blue jays, but lives in the Rockys and west.  I have a bird app. on my computer that helps me identify birds.  It even plays their songs.

 

 

 



We have no data or cell connection here so you are reading this a few days after I wrote it.  Here is a picture of my office as is currently set up. 



I tried fishing.  No luck.  I went up the road to several spots and turnoffs and tried my luck from standing on the rocks on shore.  I was gone about 1.5 hours.  This river is fast and difficult to get a good, drag free drift, which is very important in flyfishing.  I will spend more time tomorrow honing my skills at this fine sport.

Time for a campfire.

 

A Relax Day at Sterling State Park

Sunday August 2, 2015          Day 6    Sterling State Park, Sterling CO, site 23,  3^rd night

 We got back to the campsite late last night after our long day adventuring in the Rocky Mountain National Park area.  We have a destination in mind at one of those three national forest campgrounds we checked out yesterday, but getting in late, we decided to take an extra day at the state park to get some things done and not rush over there first thing in the morning.  It also will let everyone leave both there and here, so things will quiet down and we can be more assured of a site we like at our new destination. 

We had our first cooked breakfast since leaving home and had our first campfire this morning with our coffee and Irish Cream.  It was at 07:00 and it was almost 70^o by the time we got up at 06:30.  (We sleep in sometimes when we’re camping).  So we didn’t hang out long or put more wood on the fire.  It got to 96^o here today.  It was 94^o yesterday.  It goes to the low 60s at night.  There is always a breeze here and the humidity is only 30%.   Where we are going tomorrow has highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 50s due to elevation differences from here.

We spent a lot of the morning unloading pictures from our cameras, sorting them to the appropriate folders, writing our blogs, and uploading the pictures.  We couldn’t have done it without the cell booster we bought last year to kick up the weak cell signals in the middle of nowhere.  We use our phones as hot spots, but you need a data connection for this.  It’s because of investment in the cell booster last year that you readers have the joy of being able to get postings from me out here.  I take my blogging seriously and do what I can to get it to you.  I also enjoy it.

We also took a walk around the campground to watch people pack up and leave and let us have the north end of the campground to ourselves.  We had to go check-in pay to stay for another night.  There is a visitor center here and we walked to that.  I bought a non-resident 5-day Colorado fishing license to start tomorrow.  $21 plus $!0 for a habitat stamp.

We went into Sterling today, 15 miles away by county roads (although they are paved).  Sterling, CO has a population of 14,000, a little larger than my home town of Grand Haven MI.  Sterling is the biggest town in Logan county.  We went to Walmart for some groceries.  Got the gas tank topped off so I wouldn’t have to do it with the trailer in the morning, although it isn’t a problem, just easier to maneuver without it.

The breezes really whipped up this afternoon and blew out my grill hallway through making burgers.  Had to turn it certain ways and use my propane stove as a wind shield.  Finally got it going.  Had to put the chairs away because they kept blowing over.  There were some thunder storms in the distance.  You can see them for miles.  There are no trees to block wind or views of the sky.  The fizzled out before they made it here.

So here we are.  Our first day of no travel at all.  Tomorrow will only be a 3 or 4 hour travel day.

Since there are no pictures for today, I’ll put some from a couple of days ago that I forgot to send.  Here’s the boring straight roads of Iowa or maybe Nebraska, I lost track.

 

Grain elevator.  Every 10 or 15 miles

 

Same road, no grain elevator

 

And here is one of the many ethanol plants we see dotted every 50 miles or so in the corn country.  Note the tanker rail cars.

 

Newsflash:    My check engine light went off yesterday.  That was when we were high up in the rockies.  The low barometric pressure may have affected it.  I hate driving around with that light on, telling my my engine has a problem.. I intend on getting the canister purge valve replaced when I get to a big town again, like maybe Vernal, Utah or Bozeman, MT.  The truck has been starting perfectly and the problem I described the other day has not returned.  Partly because I don’t shut off the engine when refueling.  I did some more research on the internet and a not working purge valve causes starting problems after refueling in a lot of cars, not just F-150s of a certain vintage.  Mazdas and Audis were mentioned in the article, too.  It’s a simple fix and unlikely to cause someone to be stranded.  It’s a $61 part available at any auto parts store.  I raised the hood and looked for it.  I couldn’t identify it.  I think it may be hidden under the air intake ducting.

Something else I forgot to mention, when we were on US-34 going toward Loveland and Estes Park and when we were returning on CO-14, we saw those oil pump things scattered around the fields.  We saw yards were fracking machinery and equipment was stored.  I never knew that Colorado had oil.  We saw some triples and doubles.  I never knew what those reciprocating pumps were called, so I looked them up on Wikipedia:

A pumpjack (also called oil horse, donkey pumper, nodding donkey, pumping unit, horsehead pump, rocking horse, beam pump, dinosaur, grasshopper pump, Big Texan, thirsty bird, or jack pump) is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well.

They were sparsely scattered and I saw no new drill rigs anywhere.  This is not a Williston, ND I described last year.  However, all but a few were pumping.  So even though I didn’t have much adventuring to talk about today, I still gave you some tidbits of knowledge.

More tomorrow (if I get a signal).  Otherwise, you may have to wait a couple of days.

 

Rocky Mountain National Park

Saturday August 1, 2015              Day 4               Sterling State Park, Sterling CO, site 23 (2nd night)

471 miles (disconnected from Oliver)

 What an excellent day we had.  Took a day trip (471 miles total) to check out Rocky Mountain N.P.  On a weekend, in the middle of summer, near a large metropolitan area (Denver, Boulder, Loveland, Ft. Collins).  So there were lots of people.

We left at 07:30 for a 2.5 hour trip to the RMNP visitor center.  We took I-76 towards Denver and got off at the US-34 exit to Estes Park, the main entrance city on the east side of the park.  The ride to Estes Park was all open prairie and cattle ranches.  We passed through Estes Park without stopping and went through this gorgeous canyon on the way to the visitor center where we did stop. 

 

We got a park map and left.  It was wall to wall people.  The visitor center is just outside the park boundary.  As we entered the Park, we wanted to play tourist and get a picture of the “Entering Rocky Mountain Nation Park” sign, except there wasn’t one.  Even state parks have “Entering fill in the blank State Park”.  So you won’t get an exciting picture of a sign this time.  If I had one, it would go right here ↓.

But, I do have some more really good pictures to come.  We took the Trail Ridge Road which goes from one end to the other end of the park.  It is really US-34.  It is the Rocky Mountain N.P. equivalent of the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier N.P.  It is curvy, has hairpin turns, no guard rails, long lines of cars, 35 mph speed limit, lots of turn-offs with pretty views, and a visitor center half way along at the highest point.  The scenic turnoffs were all full and it was hard to find parking.  The Alpine Visitor Center at the top was completely full and was as congested as an L.A. freeway.  The highest point of the road was there, at 11,796 ft. (3,595 meters for you readers in the rest of the world outside the United States).  We passed the visitor center without stopping.

We stopped at a few lookout turnoffs and do have some excellent photos.

 

On the west side of the park the road turns south and follows the Colorado River.  It is a little trout stream at this point.  And it was beautiful.  We saw a bunch of cars stopped by the side of the road which usually signals a wildlife sighting.  In this case it was an adult cow moose eating vegetation along the banks of the Colorado.  See below.

 

We then stopped at several picnic areas, but they were so crowded that there was no parking spaces, or picnic tables.  It was around noon at this time.  After seeing the moose, we found another picnic spot with some open tables and parking overlooking a beautiful meadow.  We made sandwiches and had some snacks there.

 

We also checked out one of the national park campgrounds along the way to see if we may want to use it as a base for fishing the Colorado in the next few days.  It was one of the ugliest campgrounds we ever saw.  We had other options to pursue and research.

 

Timber Creek Campground, R.M.N.P.

We left the park with the intent of driving around the outside of the park, through some national forests, and checking out some national forest campgrounds along the Cache la Poudre river for some trout fishing for our next destination.  To do that,  we took CO-125 north to Rand.  From there we went on a gravel county road for 13 miles across a plateau bordered by the Owl mountains on the South to hook up with CO-14.  This state highway is a designated a Scenic Highway and I can understand why.  It goes in and out canyons and follows the beautiful Wild & Scenic River called the Cache la Poudre.  I wanted to check out three national forest campgrounds along here that are on the river.  Our intent was to move over there tomorrow, if we liked them.  Otherwise we would move on to Dinosaur National Monument next.  All three had sites on the river, but were a little crowded.  All three were completely full.  But according to the host campers, will clear out on Sunday and we should be able to get a spot.

Along highway 14 Marsha yelled out “Oh look!”  I slammed on the brakes and backed off the road.  There was about 6 bighorn sheep on the side of the road, and a few up the cliff, nibbling on weeds.  One of them was a ram with the curly horns.  The first bighorn sheep I’ve ever seen.  Got some photos.

The rest of the day was back on flat land with a 3 hour drive back to the camper at North Sterling State Park.  After going through a dumpy section of Ft. Collins, and miles of road construction, we entered a Scenic section of the highway.  It went over a huge prairieland for 60 miles.  Sign said no fuel for 60 miles after we left Ft. Collins.  It went through the Pawnee National Grassland.  Wide open spaces you could see for miles.  The sun was low in the sky as dusk was coming on and it made the numerous formations of clouds beautiful.  There were a few thunder cells in the distance with flashes of lightning and rain, but they were miles away.  It was more beautiful than one would think a flat grassland would be.  We were remiss not getting any pictures.

It was dark when we got back at 21:00.  It gets dark earlier here than back home.  At 05:30 in the morning the sun is up.

We drove 471 miles yesterday in 13.5 hours.  The truck got 20.2 mpg.  That is really good for that truck.  It always gets good milage when I’m out west in drier air and higher altitude. 

The pictures will be pretty good from here on.  If you click on them, you can blow them up.
Enjoy.