Friday, October 25, 2013

Oct 24, 2013 - 339km/3,898km– Farmington – Rio Rancho – Santa Fe, NM


We started the day with an all American breakfast based on quantity rather than quality at Sonya’s Cookin’ before heading towards Santa Fe. Most of the drive went through rather uninspiring scenery, so much so, that we had to speed up the time by listening to CBC’s Vinyl CafĂ©. If you don’t know it yet, check out the podcasts! The stories about Dave and Morly are hilarious. Try “Potty-training the cat” or “Dave cooks the turkey”. We couldn’t stop laughing!

Road signs and billboards along the row of Indian reservations were testimonies to some of the local issues: health and alcohol. Too many “Don’t drink and drive” signs in memoriam of somebody…
Right now, we found a private campground (Rancheros of Santa Fe) where we are enjoying a private corner where Chester can roam, dig and play ball, Rolf can nap and I can get started on the blog. We actually decided to stay two nights; First time on this trip, what a luxury! Besides, we were told we need to see the town; and eating some good Mexican food is still on our bucket list.

Stay tuned…

The Nespresso Issue


Rolf and I are spoiled when it comes to coffee, we admit it. Taking our machine from home was out of the question due to its size. So we discussed the issue for quite some time and Rolf eventually bought a Nespresso machine early on on our trip. It came with 16 pods and instructions to buy more in one of the Nespresso boutiques, which you can get from the Nespresso web site. Ha! That web site is something! It has sent us on quite a few wild goose chases, it’s unbelievable how outdated it is! We went all through Salt Lake City (nice city by the way, great buildings) in search of a store, no luck. Still have to find more pods, we are down to two. If you have pods, it makes really good coffee, especially with the milk foamer Rolf got on top of it, but to get pods… Rolf went so far as to try to reuse the pods we have, makes us feel better – karma and environment and such… - but no luck, the machine cannot be tricked. So now we are stuck, haven’t given up yet, but how disappointing… bad Nespresso, bad!!!
Rolf working hard on the Nespresso Pods
Rolf still hopeful

Oct 23, 2013 - 547km/3,559km – just outside Moab, UT – Blanding – Valley of Gods – Gooseneck/San Juan river – Monument Valley - Kajenta, AZ - Farmington, NM Mom & Pop RV Campground


Having only two Nespresso pods left, we decided to have breakfast in Moab. Lucky us, we found the Jailhouse CafĂ©, which offers breakfast and breakfast only. It’s so good “it would be okay if it was your last meal”. The eggs benedict were not quite Shine CafĂ© -standard, but still pretty good!
Moab is a quaint little place with lots of cafes and outfitters, a great place to start any kind of outdoor adventure. Stocked up in a real nice pet store, too. Chester was beside himself when he got a new ball, which lasted about an hour before it was destroyed.

Having internet once again, we found out, that Second Chance 42 has been stuck in Portugal for the past three days due to the weather, but they believe they will be able to continue again soon.

On the way to the Valley of Gods, which has similar rock formations as Monument Valley, we had to drive down a 10% steep gravel road, which was a little scary. Once in the Valley of the Gods, we actually had to turn around and track back as our motorhome was too long for the dips in the road.  The drawbacks of travelling in (relative) comfort. We enjoyed a breathtaking view of the San Juan River at the Gooseneck State Reserve, one of the most striking and impressive examples of an entrenched river meander on the North American continent. The San Juan River twists and turns through the meander, flowing a distance of over six miles while advancing only one and one-half miles west towards Lake Powell. It’s the result of over 300 million years of geologic activity.
Gooseneck State Reserve - San Juan River
After Gooseneck State Reserve, we drove through Monument valley and enjoyed some amazing views. But there is not much to explore, you really only drive through that area. We didn’t stop at the Navajo Jewelry stands, of which most were already deserted for the season anyway.
Monument Valley
Monument Valley
After all the breathtaking sceneries of the past few days, leaving Monument Valley and going through the huge Navajo Reservation around Kajenta was quite depressing, miles and miles of nothingness, so we drove on until way past darkness. We spent a total of about 2 hrs in Arizona, that was it.
At 7:30pm we stopped at our first private campground called Mom & Pop’s, where Chester could run in a small, enclosed dog run (how nice!) and where we admired Pop’s homemade tin figurines and outdoor toy train. 

Oct 22, 2013 - 316km/3,012km – Fruita, UT – Hanksville – I 70 – close to Moab, UT


Got some fresh, homemade pioneer bread, scones and pies at the Gifford Homestead, delicious! The Giffords were the last Mormons to leave the area, I believe some time around 1965.

We spend most of the day driving through scenery that looked like we were on the moon, got quite boring at some point. But we had a destination to look forward to: the Arches National Park. Water and ice, extreme temperatures and underground salt are responsible for the sculptured rock scenery of Arches National Park. Over 2,000 cataloged arches range in size from a three-foot opening (30cm), the minimum to be considered an arch, to the longest, Landscape Arch, measuring 306 feet (about 100m) base to base.
Entrada Sandstone
Total Height 128feet/39m
Boulder Height 55feet/17m
Boulder Weight 3,500tons/over 3 million kg
Tunnel Arch
Dogs were not allowed on any trails, darn. And it is getting warmer, we noticed… At the Landscape Arch, Rolf and I managed to loose each other, so that we were both envisioning having to call the rangers to look for the other person lost in some mountain crevice or something, which luckily didn’t become necessary, we found each other again at the end of the park. Again, breathtaking scenery, pictures can’t really show it…Also visited the “Windows Section”, but had no energy left to walk all the way to the famous “Delicate Arch”, a view from afar had to do. We don’t know what it was that day, could it really been the walk to the Landscape Arch?, but we were so pooped that night, I think lights were out at 8pm.
Landscape Arch

Arch in the "Window Section"

Oct 21, 2013 - 195km/2,696km Scenic Byway 12: Bryce Canyon - Escalante – Boulder, UT – Torry; and then to Capitol Reef National Park, (Fruita), UT


View from Scenic Byway 12
Wow, this was one of the most beautiful drives we’ve ever done! It brought us through such beautiful scenery, we enjoyed every minute of it! The Scenic Byway 12 got us all the way up to almost 10000 Feet/3000m, where we had lunch with Alder forest and a great views around us. Everywhere we saw hunters in their neon-pink outfits. 
View from Scenic Byway 12
As we had been driving lots the past few days, we made an early stop in Fruita at the Capitol Reef National Park. We got a great spot in the sun next to an old Mormon orchard, where we picked some apples. Oh, those are soooo much better than store-bought! Had some fresh homemade pie from the Historic Gifford Homestead. We also watched a group of deer grazing by our spot, which left Chester totally unimpressed, though the deers were very curious about him.
Rolf and Chester enjoying a fresh pie