Texas benches

Apparently San Antonio likes to put benches everywhere! There were some standard nice wooden ones, unique wooden ones, and very Texasidized ones. Yes, I made up a word, but how else would you describe benches with the state shape in them?

Unexpected showers

Greetings from Texas! :) 83 degrees today :)

I do not know how many of you have spend any time in new RV's, but we have learned some very valuable lessons.

One of the funniest ones happened the day before we left for Texas. The unit came winterized from the factory, which means they drain the water out of the lines and add some antifreeze. The day before we left, we decided to de-winterize it. The goal being to add water and let the antifreeze run out through the faucets.

After the boy realized he did not have a hose to reach the RV, he used a hair tie around the sink sprayer to put in the hole of our 6 gallon water containers used for long camping trips. He would haul one out to dump in the RV tank while the other one filled. He filled and carried out the water jugs about 6 times.

Once the water was in the tank he turned on the pump and we turned on the faucets. The boy turned on the shower and no water came out the head of the shower. It sprayed out around the handles instead of the shower head. He turned off the water and started taking off faucet covers to find the problem. (He had fixed many minor issues already found in the new RV). The problem, according to the boy, "was the factory had improperly winterized the unit and due to Colorado's wonderfully cold weather, the mixing valve had froze and cracked." Upon inspecting the valve more closely he accidently pulled it out of the wall, causing freezing cold pressurized water to spray all over him the bathroom, and even hit me in the bedroom. We both screamed like girls, and I burst out laughing upon seeing the boy soaked from head to toe. Upon calling a repair shop, the boy took the RV to town to try to get the part to fix the problem. I went into the house to finish cleaning up. I walked to the sink to start dishes, turned on the faucet and the sprayer lifted out of the sink and I also ended up with an unexpected shower thanks to the hair tie still on the sprayer.

However, the days of packing up the RV where filled with recreation time. I took my first trip up Pike's Peak. It is unlike most tourists, as I went up at night. Colorado Springs has a tradition of setting off fireworks from the peak on New Years. The Adaman Club hikes up Pikes Peak and does the fireworks. Several Colorado four wheel drive clubs come together and get permission to go to the top of the peak and bring down the hikers after the fireworks. Tradionally, the boy has done it for eight years with his family. This year he took me. I have been told very few people can go up at night, because the road is always closed at night. It was amazing, the night was crystal clear, and we could see the lights of Denver, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and all the little mountain communities. It was 18 degrees with, 40 mph sustained winds, with gusts 80 mph. So with the winds, the wind chill was about -14. I got my new years kiss on a 14110 foot mountain with fireworks super close. I would love to do it again. It was so much fun!

Lastly, as you might have noticed the blog title has changed. It is all your fault as you have encouraged the boy. He got some comments on one of the photos that he took, and it went to his head. So he asked that he be added to the blog. Since we are to be married here really soon, I agreed. The nickname of "Mr. Man" comes from my friend ASH!

The Plan

It has been a while since a post. We have brought two puppies who are quite demanding into our lives. We bought this truck to pull a 5th wheel trailer we also recently purchased. It will be coming to us within the month. "THE PLAN" has come together surprisingly well.
The plan is to pack up what we need in the RV and take off with my job to travel the USA and see things we haven't seen, and go places we haven't been.
Yes, we plan to live full time in an RV!
The plan was to start this adventure in May, however due to various circumstances we are moving up the time frame a bit. We now plan to start traveling in December.
I am buying my first home, granted it is a bit unconventional in nature. It will take me where I want to go.
The wedding plans are still in place and also going well. We are so close to having invitations done!

The puppies are growing so fast and demanding more and more time and attention. They have come into their own and we were so wrong about them. We initially thought Molly would be the lover and friendly one, she turned out to be more aloof and wanting attention on her terms. Baxter has to be the center of attention...literally. He gets mad if you pay attention to things other than him. We are working on getting him out of that habit.

Don't we look happy.....

WE SHOULD BECAUSE WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!

The Trip

As it turns out, my trip ended up quite differently than planned. The plan was to go to Canyonlands NP, drive White Rim trail for two days, head up to Glacier NP, and camp for a week in the park and do some hiking. The first two days went as planned, until we arrived in Butte Montana and finally got some news. The weather for Glacier did not look good, they were expecting 2 feet of snow. So we had to change our plans. We thought about heading to Yellowstone, but saw the storm system was going to hit there as well, so we headed west. We decided to go to Crater Lake NP, saw Crater of the Moon NM in Idaho along the way. Once we did the mile of rim road that was open on Crater Lake, we headed north. We drove through the Columbia River Scenic area, on the way to Mt. Saint Helens, then off to Mt. Rainer, and North Cascades NP. On the way back to Glacier, we stopped at the Grand Coulee dam. After a few days in Glacier where the mosquitoes were huge, we did a quick stop at Yellowstone's upper falls, drove through the Grand Tetons at sunrise and headed back to Colorado. Some 4800 miles were added to my Jeep during this trip. It also now had over 100,000 miles. My jeep went up steep dirt hills with rocks, through giant mud puddles, forged flooded roads, ended up with the name of "KD" and preformed beautifully. As you can see, she got really really dirty, and probably traveled 200 miles of dirt roads as an estimate. It was a wonderful time, we saw some great critters along the way. Alan and I were sad to see the trip end. I was sad to have to wash the Jeep, she earned that dirt!

Introducing Alan

This is my amazing boyfriend , Alan!
Tomorrow we are leaving for a major camping expedition!
I will be out of the email and blogworld range for the weekend!
Will try to post as much as possible from the road!
So excited!!

Desert plants

While out enjoying the Paint mines (still saving the best photos for SPS) I took some photos of the surrounding plant life. Here are some of the photos I enjoyed the most. Normally, the place has a small stream running through and is a mecca for wildflowers, there were a few there, but not like years in the past, at least according to my source of information. I went hoping for wildflowers, but got some desert plants instead. I still like the final result.

Chasing Lizards

My boyfriend recently took me to a local park called the Paint Mines, and we explored some great rock formations that will be the subject of the next SPS post. While on the trail to the formations, I would see super fast movement on the ground out of the corner of my eye. The movement turned out to be lizards running around. They were fast little guys and incredibly hard to see in the dirt. I would be able to get them in my viewfinder, but then as I went to zoom in, the little guys would take off and I would lose them in the screen. It was also really windy, which made the super zoom even hard to use. I did manage to get a few good shots before they got too far away. The first photo is a bit distorted when looked at on the big screen, probably due to the wind with the digital zoom, but I still like how it looks in the smaller format.

Great Signs

While in Utah, I got the chance to grab a photo of one of my favorite signs. It is such a unique sign, that I regretted not getting a photo of the first time I was there years ago. Basically, all it says is stay on the trail or else you are killing life.

I am headed to Montana in a few weeks, to Glacier National Park in my week off between contracts. My boyfriend is coming with me, and I cannot wait to share the photos from that trip. I have not been to Glacier before and have been dying to get there for years. If anyone has suggestions, they would be appreciated.

Lying in the grass

The other day, I posted a photo of my cat rubbing up against my camera. I never explained why I was lying the the grass to begin with. I honestly am not sure I can explain it. I was playing with the dog and was trying to get some photos of her without her looking scared. It's hard to do, because she was abused in the past and always looks scared when you look at her. I was trying to get on her level and trying not to intimidate her. While I was on her level, I saw this dramatic sky and pictured this photo in my head before I actually took it. It turned out just like I had imagined, something that rarely happens with me. It is amazing how you can get a great photo and you do not have to go further than your front yard!

Pay Attention to ME!!!

I am posting from my mother's house in Tennessee. I managed to get a week off of work and decided to come back to retrieve a few needed items from storage. I got in about noon, and had to get out the camera this afternoon. We have plenty of animals that I try to get photos of whenever I am here. They tend to be overly friendly at times. You literally cannot go outside without one of them in your face seeming to scream, "PAY ATTENTION TO ME" They decide to follow you and chew on your hair, or your jeans, or stick their noses in frame .

"Why are you lying in the grass? You must want me to make an appearance, here let me rub against the camera for you"

"I wanna be Tina Turner, I have the hair for it...see"

"I see you trying to take that other horse's picture...not while I am here!"

The things I get myself into....

This was the sign. I walked half a mile to find this sign. What you cannot see are the trails below the sign. One off to the right, which leads to the first overlook, and if you look in the background of the photo you can see trail markers on the giant rock. The second trail is off to the left, and it looked like there was another trail splitting off of it. It turns out that it was not a trail. I saw this sign and went left seeing the arrow associated with the first overlook. I didn't even notice the arrow on the right part of the sign pointing up or the trail markers in the distance...the 150 foot distance!

This is looking up the trail I ended up going down, after climbing up another giant rock face......it looks pretty steep right? Going down was fine.....

However, going back up was going to be pain.... That's George and Sue who I met along the way, they were as lost as I was and had the same issue with the sign. They are walking up the trail in this photo. HMMMMM....now I have to get up the rock face. Oh crap, now it is snowing and raining....making the rock slippery and I still have to get back.

I am not afraid of heights. I am however afraid of falling off of giant rocks. It happened once already. Independence Rock in Wyoming. I was exploring and got into a place I could not get out of and when I tried, I fell and managed to not break anything...but had some serious bruises and edema...and a rock implanted in my shin that I dug out several hours later.

I had to climb back up and walk out. I was alone at this point, and knew if I fell, I wouldn't get help. So I admit at a few points where it was too large a step to take safely, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled. At one point, I was crawling up this rock and laughing hysterically due to the predicament I would myself in.

All for photos of Upheaval Dome. It was rather neat. My best photos actually came from the first overlook...all that work to get to the second and nothing of importance to show of it.

Upheaval Dome in Cayonlands National Park. They have a theory that a meteor struck this spot 60 million years ago, and the subsequent erosion left this odd geological feature. It is rather odd looking, and totally worth the trip.

I am back at my home base, 6 days, 2562 miles, 8 national parks/monuments and 1 state park later.

As Seen from the Road

I found myself driving 10 miles an hour following two semi trucks going down an icy slippery slope of a mountain pass. So what else can I do, but snap a few photos along the way?

Mirror shots

For whatever reason, I recently took these photos in the side mirror. I did this once before with a sunset photo. I haven't tried it since until this past week. The first is taken from Skyline drive, a very pretty, very little road with no guardrails! The second is from Great Sand Dunes NP. The second one also shows the amount of dirt I collected there, my jeep may never be the same, but the toilet paper from GH is still there! Gotta love my weekend crew...Jerks! Just kidding guys!

something you don't see everyday

No photo today. I had planned to do a "something you don't see every day" for February 29th, since you don't see it every year. However, my plans changed when I woke up this morning. I went to bed last night with my suitcase, bookbag, and computer bag on the second bed in my hotel room. I woke up this morning with those things lined neatly up against a wall. I have no idea how this happened. I am not a sleep walker, certainly not a sleep OCD clean freak. I am pretty certain I did not leave my bed once I fell asleep. So I cannot explain it. I am little disturbed to say the least.
Well, I guess this fits into the "something you don't see everyday" category.

the day

It has been a long day, very long. I left my house at 8 am this morning. I drove for 12 hours today. I saw very interesting things today. I saw a grove of trees completely destroyed by the tornadoes in the South. There were probably hundreds of trees broken in half with sharp jagged edges shooting up from the trunk. The area must have been the site of a tornado touch down. I also saw a lot of hawks, at least I think they were hawks in Arkansas. Arkansas also showed me several dive bombing planes. Okay, they were crop dusters, but they swooped down over the highway really low, did a sharp u-turn and returned to the field. At first, I thought it was going to crash into the tractor trailer ahead of me. Then I saw 5 more while making my way across Arkansas.

I saw the most beautiful sunset ever today in Oklahoma city, and I didn't get a photo. I am so mad. The sun was covered by really fluffy streaky clouds all day, it would peak through now and then, but while setting, it dipped below the clouds. The sky was bright orange with purple and pink hues. The orange light was bouncing off the buildings in the city making them light up with orange fronts. Once the sun was down, it make the sky the coolest purple and pink with clouds that made such a unique pattern. However, it was a really busy roadway, so I couldn't stop.

I saw myself going a little crazy. I got a GPS system recently. It talks to you, telling you when to turn and which exit to take. Its really awesome. However, it does not have common sense. You can't tell it you changed your mind on the route you wish to take. So when you don't follow the assigned route, it says " do a u turn", or when that won't work it says, "recalculating" which means it determines another route because you messed up the original one. I heard it say "recalculating" at least 30 times when I changed my mind and it couldn't cope. I am convinced that it got annoyed and got snotty when saying "recalculating". So I decided that it was time to stop for the night. I landed in Blackwell, Oklahoma.

Tag, I'm It!

The rust on some old horse shoes. Living with horses allows me to get some great shots of horse accessories like the shoe. These were handmade by my brother and used on my mother's horse, Ember. I just like the pattern created in the rust.

I have been Tagged by Scrappy Sue. So now I need to lay out 7 random facts about me.

number 1. I hate shoes, all types all forms. I also hate socks. I love being barefoot. But when I have to wear shoes, I prefer flipflops even in winter.

number 2. I am by nature a very shy introverted person. Most people that know me, think I am i lying when I say this. However, it's true. I have to overcome my shyness everyday.

number 3. I spent 6 weeks in Italy, 5 of which in Sardinia working on an archaeological site. We dug up all kinds of artifacts. The last week was spent in Rome just walking around the city and site seeing. The trip to Italy was my first plane, train, taxi, boat, and scooter rides.

number 4. While I am on the digging topic, I spent 6 weeks of a summer digging up graves for relocation. I helped clean and measure the remains.

number 5. I have a dent in my leg from white water rafting. I fell out, hit a rock and now have a depression in my thigh.

number 6. My first roadtrip was the best. My friend, Amy, came out to Wyoming, and we drove around Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska. We slept in my jeep much of the time. We each took more than 10 rolls of film in a span of 3 weeks. The film processing was more expensive than the trip.

number 7. Every time I see a turtle on the road, I stop, scoop it up and bring it home with me. I think I started a new turtle herd on our old farm from all the ones I brought home. I have been doing this before I could drive. There is just something terrible about looking at dead turtles that have been run over. I also tend to scoop up stray dogs and cats too.

Now if understand this correctly, I get to tag others. Most of the people, whose blogs I have been following have already done this. I do not want to tag them again. hmm.....

The amazing toilet paper from GH

My coworkers decided to saran wrap and toilet paper my car my last day of work which was Saturday. It was rather funny and very hard to get into my car. They helped me take it all off, but there was a bow around the antenna that made it home with me. So I left it on there, it lasted a windy 11 hour drive through 5 states, rain, snow and sun.

statue in snow

It snowed a few days ago, I was dying to get outside and take some photos, but had to work. I work 12 hour shifts, so I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. Today, was my first day off post snow. I had to attend an in-service at work, and then had the rest of the day free. I went to work armed with my camera to stop at a state park on my way home. On a whim, I took a side road that led through part of the Gettysburg Battlefield. There were snow flurries today, so the sky was gray, and all of my photos had this eerie monotone look to them. At first I was not happy, then I looked again and discovered that they had the appearance of a black and white photo even when in color. This monument was just beautiful with the snow on it, and then to my surprise you see just a hint of color. It's a small flag peaking out from under the arm of the soldier.

Funniest sign ever

Somewhere in South Dakota someone felt the need to put up this sign. I think its one of the funniest things I have ever seen next to the side of a road. It is also sad that someone felt the need to tell others to "Please don't run over our puppy!" It makes me wonder how many puppies lost their lives. Once again, I am posting a scanned photo from film so the quality is not the best.