Grand Junction & Fruita

Just over the Utah border, are Fruita and Grand Junction, Colorado.  Best known for the  Colorado National Monument, but Fruita has always been on my list as a MTB destination.  Unfortunately, I'm not strong enough yet to take the MTB out, but we did enjoy hiking on some of the MTB trails.

We also went on two motorcycle adventures.  Since dogs aren't allowed in any National Monuments, we explored Colorado National Monument on two wheels.  Unfortunately, it was cold and raining, so not all that picture-friendly (especially because I kept forgetting to wipe the raindrops from the camera lens).

Click on over to You Tube to see a video of the ride here:

The really spectacular ride we did was down to Gateway, Colorado, which is just across the state border from Moab.  Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe this part of the country, and the video just doesn't capture the magnificence of the landscape.  But take a look anyway:




Of course, we explored the local breweries, but they get their own post.  Bottom line:  we'd definitely stop in the Grand Junction/Fruita area again, but wouldn't necessarily make it a destination in-and-of itself.  It's definitely worth a few days stay on the way to somewhere else.

Moab

Although we were here for a whole week, we only had 2 days without rain.  One day, we took the motorcycles up Highway 128, which snakes along the Colorado River; the other day, we hiked into Grandstaff Canyon.  The rest of the time, we sat inside the RV and stayed dry (hence the flurry of catch-up blog posts!)

The story of Moab is best told through pictures.  This first set is from our motorcycle ride.

Note all the mature male deer - all in the same herd.

These pictures are from our hikes into Grandstaff Canyon.

Moab is really known for its mountain bike and ATV trails, and of course, watersports along the Colorado River.  We spent a week here in 2008 mountain biking, but didn't even get the bikes out of the garage this time.  Moab is not the place to test one's lapsed mountain bike skills, and the non-stop rain gave us another good excuse.  Maybe next time.

We did celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary (12 years together) yesterday with dinner at the Atomic Lounge, which was conveniently located right next door to the campground.  When you live in an RV together, "date night" simply means leaving all of the animals at home.  😄💕

This concludes our time in Moab, and in Utah.  Tomorrow:  Grand Junction, Colorado!

Oregon, Part II

We are in love with Oregon.  Originally a state that we planned to just pass through en route to somewhere more exciting, we ended up staying in place for much longer than we ever thought we could stay in one place ... and we're still here.

Wouldn't you stay here, too, if you had a choice?

After Canada, we headed back to Klamath Falls for the next installment of The Great American RV Repair Challenge (unfortunately, there's no million-dollar prize at the end, just an RV that works as advertised).  Since we had to drive through Bend to get there, we decided to stay there a few days since we loved it so much the first time. 

It just so happened that we were there during the Bend Brewfest, so of course, we went. 

That right there is a man on a mission!

No crowds, beautiful weather, and beer made us smile!

I was only able to get one small hike in, and it was really more of a recon of the MTB trails in Redmond.  I was hoping to get the MTBs out for our first singletrack of this adventure, but it just wasn't in the cards for me.  After the walk, I ended up in bed for a few days (same old post-chemo ickiness - nothing major), so the MTBs stayed tucked away in the back of the RV.  😭

Sigh ... this would have been such a good MTB trail.

We did manage to go on a short MC ride to a fantastic farmer's market and two new breweries, so all was not lost. 

Garden at Smith Rock Brewing Co.

Once the RV repair shop assured us they had received all the parts they needed to fix our slide, we drove back down to Klamath Falls, rented a house on Airbnb (because when your house-on-wheels is in the shop, you are effectively homeless), and left our homestead in the repair shop's hands.  The good news is that we rented an awesome house, with a dock on the Sprague River and lots of space for the punks to run around. 

Sunrise over the river in a very smoky sky (from several area forest fires).

Mornings were so chilly, Sunday actually welcomed Mookie snuggles!

Four days of belly flops made for a very water logged pup.

Mookie enjoyed her bird's eye view of the birds.

I managed to go for one substantial hike with Sunday in the Sky Lakes Wilderness, which was beautiful, albeit very smoky.  More about that adventure here. 

Smoky views in the Sky Lakes Wilderness.

The bad news (you knew that was coming, right?):  the RV repair shop actually didn't have all the parts they needed, so the slide is still stuck in.  But, a little glitch like that wasn't going to keep us from adventuring!!  We shook off the bad news, packed up the RV and headed west to Medford, OR (or, as the Boston in me keeps calling it, "Medfed"). 

It took us less than a day to fall in love with this area!  Mountains, trails, tall pine trees, and more blackberries than you could eat in an entire lifetime.  And did I mention it was wine country?  I never thought of Southern Oregon as a wine region (Willamette gets all the attention) but good god, the Applegate Valley is amazing!  Lots of small little vineyards, where the winemaker him/herself sits down and talks you through the tasting; lush perennial gardens to explore; friendly vineyard dogs announcing your arrival, and none of the tacky commercialism that keeps me away from most wineries.  More on the specific vineyards on our brewery reviews page (hey, we're equal opportunity drinkers), but here are a few photos:

Gardens at Schmidt Family Vineyards

Gardens at Troon Vineyard

Doug makes friends with the winery dog at Plaisance Ranch.

I was very relaxed.  😀  

I loved all the farmstands in the area, too.  Most advertised "no sprays" (because obtaining a "USDA Organic" label is just too expensive for little family farms); some were just little tables at the end of people's driveways (reminding me of growing up in the Catskills); and none of them were overpriced like you find at city farmer's markets.  Just good old fashioned vegetables and fruit, grown sustainably, and incredibly delicious.  I think I ate my weight in corn, tomatoes, and blackberries this week!

Blackberries I picked myself from the bushes outside our RV.
 

Farmstands and vineyards make for a very full motorcycle trunk!

Of course, there were breweries, too.  And a small hike for the pups and me. 

Looking into the Applegate Valley from the Hart Trail.

There's a reason why Oregon is famous for its logging industry!

But the really big news from our Oregon Adventures, Part II is that Doug got himself a new motorcycle!!!  We are fully embracing this "we might be dead tomorrow" thing, and who the heck wants to die with a big clunky GoldWing?  He's been dreaming of a BMW 1200RT since the late 90s, and considering the amount of time we spend riding these days, it seemed like the right time to bite the bullet. 

We upgraded from the GoldWing (a/k/a "The Beast" or "The Cadillac") to.....

.... this sleek machine.

In the first week of ownership, he rode over 800 miles!!! I had to give up my "Princess Seat" (the sofa that doubles as a passenger seat on a GoldWing), but who needs such lavish comfort when you have your own bike?  There is much to be said for German engineering - my first ride as a passenger, I kept asking him why he was only doing 45 m.p.h. in a 60 m.p.h. zone.  He informed me he was doing 65.  The BMW just hugs the corners and shifts like buttah.  Oh, and its about 300 lbs lighter than the GoldWing, which is really good news for our RV.  On another note, if you know anyone looking for a slightly used 2016 GoldWing, ours is for sale at Automania in Grants Pass, Oregon and can be shipped anywhere in the US.

Oh, and I got myself a new haircut.  No more silly Army requirements for my hair to be "conservative" or "age appropriate".  (I did resist the stylist's suggestion that I dye it purple, however ... there are limits to my wild side).

All in all, it was an eventful couple of weeks in Medford.  Tomorrow, we're off to Portland!

Motorcycle Ride US to CA to US

Someone Is Behind In Their Blogging!!!! This is a "guest" post! I will let the primary blogger explain her absence from this blog for over 3 weeks.

The week that Jen was gone the Pups/Cat and I stayed in Lynden, WA trying to stay cool in the heat.  At the end of the week I took the pups to a kennel for their stay while we were away in CA, and Mookie prepared and setup for our local cat watcher.  We had one of the young women from the campground go to the RV everyday and love and pet Mookie so that she would not cut our throats for leaving her alone for 5 days.

On Saturday Patrick and Peter came up from Seattle area on their motorcycles and picked me up for our adventure up into CA.  Pete took us into town to one of the local Dutch restaurants in Lynden (Dutch heritage).  We then took off for the border, immigration and then into CA, east of Vancouver.  It just so happened that it was British Columbia Day weekend and the major road was packed.  We finally got off and headed North toward the mountains and had a good ride up to Lillooet.  Pete found us a fine outstanding 1 star hotel in the town, who apparently could only give us one room (for 3 of us) although 2 were reserved.  They had a rush of people staying overnight due to one of the major roads was shut down for fire and smoke. Luckily I had earplugs!

 

Next day was off to Whistler to the South and into the tourist areas.  We got into town and linked up with Jen, parked our bikes, settled into the condo and off to quench our thirst at a brewery.

We stayed one night, and left for Squamish BC (south of Whistler toward Vancouver).  Had a great Condo, just me Jen, Patrick, James and Peter.  All others had to go back to Seattle / work.  The next day we left for the ferry docks to catch a ferry across the bay to one of the peninsulas on the Straits of Georgia.  Good riding there, albeit some traffic, and ended at a brewery prior to heading back across the water on the ferry that afternoon.  Then back to Squamish.

Peter left the next day, as did James and Patrick, I and Jen just hung out at the condo all day.  The next day we left on bikes through Vancouver to the border crossing near Lynden, WA.  Got back home, made up with Mookie and Pat and Jen went and sprung the pups from the kennel.  Pat stayed the night with us and took off the next day back home.

Great ride, even if we could not get the intercoms to work so that we could all enjoy Peter while riding, but it was still great views and roads.  Hard to believe that it was 3 years prior that we did the Banff / Kamloops ride in Alberta.

 

 

 

Longer YouTube video