10-21-08 Tuesday (Wading to Ellis Island)

This morning I received an email from our ex-personal-trainer, Wade Ellis. Apparently he read the blog. He said, "Hey ladies, no velveeta shells and cheese on my watch. " Well, if it helps any, it's the 2% milk variety. Really. It's a good thing I haven't mentioned all the junk food we buy when we stop at gas stations. Cheetos, icecream sandwiches, Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies, mmmmmm. Allow me to advertise Wade for a minute. He's a licensed Realtor, http://activerain.com/wadegene will give you his bio and his mug shot. I'm glad to see he referred to his partner as a business partner. One day while working out, I heard him mention "me and my partner", when he returned his attention to moi, I told him that sounds gay and to say "business partner". Nice job Wade. Secondly, Wade is a Fitness Trainer with the Omni Club. It's great having him demonstrate an exercise involving weights. After he slides on the big ole 10 pounds, he acts like it's very heavy (so I won't feel like a wimp), and proceeds to make a constipated face while doing so. Gotta love the face. We only pick on Wade because he's one of THOSE people. You know, younger, in shape, and employed.

Jim is busy creating a plumbing nightmare at the water connections. He's added braided water lines to the fresh water. I think with all the connections, we can now go from Utah to Florida without ever disconnecting. He's much like his Grandfather, and won't stop until he views it as perfection. I bet Wade's plumbing skills consist of flushing the toilet in the dark, which he's still perfecting since he keeps missing, eh Lady? Try sitting on the bowl, it's worked for women for a long time. We love you Wade!

In other news... Our itinerary has been updated. Click on the link from the left sidebar to view it. Yes, your left.


At this campground, Cadillac Ranch, they have some horses, donkeys, and 2 emu. We finally walked over to the "petting zoo" with Dasher. Here's our visit:

Jim offers the horsey a cigarette.

More horses and donkeys.

I think this one was smiling.

An emu which growled, but the owner said is very friendly.

Off to Valley of the Gods we went. It was OK. It's more rocks. Pretty soon the rocks are going to have to light up and play music to get my attention. I enjoyed the off-roading that was necessary to get there.

On the way back home, we saw a mountainous, treacherous looking road to drive up. It was Highway 261. We had to do it.

Here's the sign to Highway 261

Here's what the GPS showed.

The view which included the road we drove on.

The view that made it all worth while.

Hey, Laurie, can you imagine working in swales and being told to work on this beauty?

We dropped Dasher off at home, and drove to the grocery store. No, not Wal-Mart. It had gotten pretty windy throughout the day. We saw several more tumbleweeds blow by.

Tomorrow we leave nothingness (Bluff, UT) to go to (Diddly-Squat) Torrey, UT. Where's Torrey, UT, hell if I know, grab an Atlas, I can't do everything for you. I'm not your guide to "Miles of No Where".

In just moments from now, I'll be making my famous chicken dish. I call it "Garret ala Shake and Bake". And no, you can't have the recipe. Where's that Atlas?

Here's a sign in Bluff, UT. We so wanted our free bandana and then shop for western decor at our wanna-be favorite steakhouse.

OK, another point. Being a New Yawka city boy, I didn't know what these were. Jim told me what they were for. We'd see many signs saying "Cattle Guard" but I never saw anyone. One day, I finally connected the 2 together, not knowing that the grate is called a cattle guard. Oh, and for the other city-folk, these prevent cattle from going onto roads but yet are safe for vehicles to drive over.

10-20-08 Monday (The Darkside)

Am I the only one who thinks softened water is creepy? It would seem that the park here treats it or perhaps the city here does. Maybe it's over softened? I feel like I can't get the soap off. I think it wastes water in a way. I rinse my hands for way too long. Have you ever gotten fabric softener on your hands? You know the feeling.

I'm glad I was able to get that out into the open. I've been keeping it bottled up inside for days now... ready to explode like a bottle of Calgon Water Softener that reached a 6,000 foot elevation.

We actually got moving today and out of the RV by 10am. It was wondrous. Well, maybe more like tiring. We loaded up the dog and away we went. We were going to consider boarding Dasher but guilt kept us from pursuing that avenue.

Driving through a town in Utah called Montezuma Creek was eerie. The High School had no signs of life, so I confirmed the time and thought "is it a holiday?" Everything looked abandoned. 2 dogs on the side of the road tried to eat at the Cherokee as we passed them. It's as if we were in some Stephen King movie. You know, like the 2 dogs are all that's left of the town, and if we stop, we'll never be able to leave. I'd call it, "Don't Stop In The Eerie Town, Because You May Not Be Able To Leave, So Don't Stop." Crafty, eh? I'll run it by my agent and see what he thinks. Anyway, as we hit the end of the town (it was 5 blocks long), finally I saw 1 person. There was no blood on his face, no screaming, I guess he was OK.

Through the next section of Utah, fields of oil pumps were o'plenty. Reminiscent of that time we lived in New Mexico. OK, not lived, stopped by.

Finally we crossed the border into Colorado (yes again). I guess I should tell you where the hell we were going. We went to Mesa Verde National Park. This park was full of cliff dwellings that were more spectacular than the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. We were able to walk through a set of cliff dwellings but had to leave Dasher in the Cherokee. Some others could only be seen from across the canyon, while others only on a guided tour. We didn't do the tours because we couldn't leave Dasher in the Cherokee that long. We saw plenty without the tours anyway. There were several areas to walk through and see Pithouses (earliest form of buildings), and many Pueblos. An awesome park all in all. I'll just slideshow the slew of photos I have.

After the park, we stopped at Wal-Mart. Jim stayed in the car to call his Mom, while I had the ultimate power to shop. The power, it was strong. I felt light headed; I had to come to terms with the power. I knew I needed to use the power for good. I couldn't resist the darkside and picked up a box of Velvetta Cheese and Shells. I knew it wasn't on the list, but I did it anyways. Ummmmm, yeah.

I'm glad you asked about gas prices. Gas was $2.90 a gallon! Woo-who! It was so nice for a change. In a couple of days we'll be filling up the rig.






Another question? Yes, you, in the pink bunny slippers. Oh, yes, how'd the Garbanzo Bean soup come out? Not even close to Aunt Patty's. I didn't look like it or taste like it. It was flavorful, a little spicy which was probably from the Chiritzo. I'll make it again, but I'll play with the ingredients a little more. Maybe Aunt Patty will realize my unspoken cries for help, and uhhhhh help.












A nice end to the evening was the ever-amazing full bright sky of stars right over the campground. I snapped photos but they came out like black boxes, with a white dot. I'll spare you the photos. We then started dinner. We had a precooked meatloaf that was frozen. It had been thawing in the fridge since yesterday and it was still solid. We shoved it in the oven. Eternity passed. Still frozen. More eternity (silly, huh) passed, still frozen. Jim nuked it. He then nuked it some more. I took it out, prepared the side dishes. He asked if I had checked it's temperature. I told him "no, I don't care if it's still frozen, it's 10 o'clock". It was hot.

10-19-08 Sunday (Cushion Testing Facility)

I've started following several blogs lately. Jim and I spent about 5 hours between last night and today catching up on "Why Women Hate Men". It's written by a very humorous guy who takes men's personal ads and makes fun of them. Some of the photos are disgusting, some x-rated. It's an adult blog with many sophomoric adjectives used to describe anatomy. OK, it's downright crude. (I know that gets the attention of most of you). Visit it for some laughs, stay away if the language and photos will offend. This guy is so descriptive-funny, I can only hope that one day, I can make the creative analogies he comes up with. How did I stumble on this blog? I visited The Blogger's Choice Awards. There's so many great blogs out there, of course keep reading mine, but by all means venture out and subscribe to another feed. Here at the Blogger's Choice Awards webpage, the winning blogs are categorized. I never bothered to pester all off you for votes on this blog, but perhaps I'll start now for the 2009 awards. Vote!

Another reason I bring up this other blog is I noticed that many blog authors do respond to comments within the blog. While I had thought comments were just plain comments with no reply necessary, I think it's time I started doing so. Perhaps not every comment warrants a reply, but I'll do my best.

As Jim and I rested our out-of-shape bodies during our little hike yesterday, my mind started wandering about the blog as a whole. I thought about a blog "Olga The Traveling Bra", and while on a cruise someone took a traveling Gnome with them, and how Laurie and Pearl have Balance Turtle in their pictures. I should have done something similar. While I don't own a bra (what a relief to my parents), or a Gnome (best suited to garden watching), or a Balance Turtle (one of a kind), I guess I'll just have to be happy without an inanimate traveling object.

This is Balance Turtle at the Monte Carlo in Vegas (He's certainly got high style):

Now you've all met Balance Turtle, Laurie and Pearl's travel companion. You can wave at him (is it a him?) but don't expect him to wave back.... he's pretty shy.

It's a pretty laid back Sunday. It's almost noon and Jim and I are still reading other people's blogs. Well, he is, I'm typing ours. In between all this exhausting work, I'm making the attempt at duplicating Aunt Patty's Garbanzo Bean Soup. I'm wingin' it. I threw a bunch of ingredients we spotted (Where's Al with his unique and often amusing ability to identify food ingredients when I need him?) into a crock pot and we'll see what happens. Or I guess taste what happens. Looking back, maybe we needed Aunt P to write it down or something.

I've noticed, we're up to 10 followers-of-de-blog. Thanks! I know all of your lives, people have told you to be a leader and not a follower. Google's Blogger refers to it that way, so ignore that advice in the world of blogging. Our latest follower is Sonia, who still works for Jim's former employer, CitiFinancial. She got to keep her job, while we got stuck having to tour this terribly ugly country from a home on wheels. AND NO Sonia, we don't want to trade. We'd never put you through the visual atrocities we go through daily. I mean, look at the view at our campground. Don't the mountains in the background look dusty? Speaking of the mountains, they totally block my view of the sky not to mention a poor choice of colors for rocks. Sheesh.

So Sonia, please don't be selfish, your view at home is so creative. Faux (ask Tim about this word) painting on the walls, beautiful weaved basket and I'm loving the splash of red in the picture. Your answer to recycling shows in this environmentally friendly lawn. A nice touch!




It's almost 1 pm, and Jim has had an exhausting 2 hours of awake time reading blogs, so he's off to a nap. I know, I know, I'm thinking the same thing, what would I do for a Klondike bar?

It might just be the perfect time for me to handle some projects I've been meaning to do. Like see which side of the couch is more comfy. After that, I might check if the marbleized laminate on the dinette table is a repeating pattern or not. Depending on the time I have left for the day, maybe I'll finally get to synchronize the clocks in the RV. I just don't know why I've been putting these off.

Typically, I don't mind the days of nothing. They seem to be infrequent with us. Who would have thought that being a traveling bum would be time consuming? I can only imagine the other 8 trillion rock formations in Utah we haven't yet seen. Jim's side of the dinette table is littered with his laptop, an atlas, local maps and other assorted papers and writing implements. It's like his sightseeing workshop. He drives, and plans, I blog and do laundry (almost everyday).

I've noticed that I've provided a lot of links within this entry. As a reminder for my technically challenged friends and family (ie, the Cozzolino family, my mom's side of the family), you can click on the links (bold underline wording, usually blue) which will take you to a different website Most often I use them as a link to a previous blog post so that you can read more about it. If you left click on it, the new website will open. Right-clicking and then select "open in new window" will preserve the page you are currently reading. Got it?

Wow the Garbanzo Bean Soup is smelling pretty damn good.....

Many of you know about my mom (JoAnn) through zany stories. This is why I explain how to navigate web pages in hopes that some day, she'll be able to start up the computer on her own, visit the blog and even figure out how to leave a comment, without my father (Gary) worrying about her breaking the computer. At the same time, I'm hopeful that Ann and Morgan (Jim's mom and stepdad) will someday upgrade from a dial-up AOL connection (the 90's called and want their phone line back) and have some Internet speed to see the blog videos and slideshows. C'mon guys, even Jim's Grandmother (Betty Ann) has it down to a science!

While Seinfeld was a show about nothing, this blog entry seems to be on the same track. Maybe I'm taking too long testing cushion softness. If I had a better cell phone signal at this campground, I guess I'd be on the phone yacking away to anyone who'll listen to me. I have one of those odd signals here. If I stand on one leg, with a #2 pencil in my right ear, and a can of creamed corn on my head (for Pearl), I might just get a signal. It's a possibility that ever since Mike broke my phone, it doesn't work as well.

I was innocently looking for the above phone pic and stumbled on this toy. It even takes batteries. I will make no further comments on it:

This huge RV pulled up in a spot beside us. The basements even have drawers. One has a large drawer to accommodate a tool box. I hope Jim doesn't see it, he'll want the RV just for the tool storage capacity. Maybe, I'll need to walk the dog past his coach a few times and scope it out. I'm not sure what he's fixing, but one would think that as much as his rig cost, it would come with a leprechaun to help out. Maybe he's not Irish.

It's after 4pm and perhaps I need to wake Jim up? I guess there's also a point when it's time to end a blog entry and just post the darn thing. If anything shocking occurs after this post, I'll include it in tomorrows. See ya!

10-18-08 Saturday (It's Not Far, I Promise)

In yesterday's blog entry I forgot to mention the stars. Not Jim and Garret, the stars, I'm talkin' the celestial kind. Mike had suggested that we find a dark road somewhere away from the city (THAT ISN'T HARD HERE). On our way home from Needles Overlook, we stopped off on the side of the highway and star gazed for a little bit. It was beautiful. The sky was so bright and sparkly. It was pitched black except for the moon and stars.

Today, Jim, myself and Dasher went to Hovenweep National Park. It's a place of ancient Indian structures. As we drove, there would be a sign indicating Hovenweep 20 miles, then we came to the end of the road, another sign indicated Hovenweep 6 miles, and at the end of that road was another sign Hovenweep 10 miles. Yeah, a run on sentence, kinda like the ongoing signs. We finally make it. For this ancient site, much like the Chaco, they're not really sure why these people left. I had an answer for that, and I have one for this civilization too. Let's see, everytime they tried to go somewhere, it was only 6 miles but then another 10 miles and then another stretch. I think they died off while traveling!

On the first path we took, Dasher decided to crap on the sidewalk. We were prepared with a plastic poop bag but of course there was no trash can so we had to walk back to the visitor center. I sure wasn't gonna carry a bag of crap around.

Back to the Hovenweep....... we walked a trail (I have photos) that was interesting and very difficult at times. The structures were interesting as well. Dasher was a trooper. To commemorate his success, he crapped again.

We returned home for lunch, and dropped off Dasher. Next we headed to Blanding to do some shopping at an Alco. We've seen these stores around here and there, particularly in small towns and wondered what they were about. It was a nice break from ruins and rock formations. Basically, Alco is very similar to Big Lots. Jim shopped their boots section and I suggested repeatedly, the boots pictures below. I hope the flash on the camera didn't bounce off of them.

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Here's some more Hovenweep snapshots:

We walked up and down stuff like this. It was like exercise or something.

Yeah, we walked through there too.

Yep, up there too!

By the way, our GPS tells us how far away something is in what Jim and I call Sky Miles. If it's 8 miles, it means without obstacles, a direct course would be 8 miles. Once you select it and tell it to go, then it gives you an ETA. I bring this up because we found something 8 miles away. After selecting "GO", the ETA was 2 hours later. 2 hours for 8 miles! We decided against it. Damn mountains are always in the way.

10-17-08 Friday (Long Legs Required)

First I have to show you 2 humorous photos that were taken about a block from one another.

The telephone up high was great. I'd like to stick a porta-potty up on a pole with a sign "clean toilet".

Next, you'll see a door way up high. I hope it's not an emergency exit.

Both photos indicate a civilization exists where it's inhabitants are very long legged, or just real stupid.

A 2 hour drive led us to Arches National Park. Similar to yesterdays tour of Natural Bridges, we drove the roads around the park and stopped at the many view points available. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch again. Natural Bridges had 3 formations, Arches National Park had over a dozen to view. It was nice to drive through a touristy town, Moab. On the way home, we drove fast (the sun was setting) to squeeze in another park. This was a viewpoint for Needles of Canyonland. It was hard to see, but the rest of the view was pretty especially with the sun setting.

We didn't get home until about 9pm. I worked on the blog while updating my iPod Shuffle while Jim planned out the next adventure.

JD: Any idea why some of the highway signs have shapes of bee hives behind the road numbers?

Thank you Pearl and JD, the top blog commenters!