November 2, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

Pioche, Slot Canyons, and Steve’s Birthday

We always have a great time when we are with Deb and Steve and this visit was no exception. Since they love old mining towns we took a trip to Pioche one evening and explored the old mining equipment (all over the town), a wild west era cemetery, and ate at a local bar. The cemetery in particular was very interesting because they had an entire row of graves who were people killed in gunfights or were shot for their claims. As romanticized as the west is in many movies, you forget how brutal it could be and this cemetery really showed that.

The Million Dollar courthouse, so called because that’s how much it ultimately cost to build

These mining carts still hanging all over town are really cool and in surprisingly good shape for their age. See the bullet holes!

The absolute coolest thing we did though was explore the slot canyons in Cathedral Gorge. We all love slot canyons and although these are relatively shallow there were tons of them. We spent a couple of hours exploring them and got the most beautiful pictures. The coolest thing is you really can’t tell from far away they are all there, so we walked along the rock border and explored most of them.

The best time we had though was celebrating Steve’s birthday with him. Over the years we have been able to celebrate birthdays with most of our friends, but Steve is usually with family on his. Over two nights we have a couple of great meals, a campfire, and some huckleberry margaritas…yum. So very glad we got to spend time with them and we all promised it would not be three years before we met again.

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October 29, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at Beaver Dam State Park

Our next state park visit was to Beaver Dam. According to the state park map Beaver Dam was on a loop going off of 319. I thought it would be fun to drive the whole loop so we turned on 319 and headed that way.

The road started off pretty decent but then it really disintegrated and before we knew it we were in the middle of Dixie National Forest on a deeply rutted forest road. It was bizarre how isolated we were and there were odd signs of former habitation in the National Forest. There was also a huge boondocking area with several RV’s (right across the border into Utah) that appeared to have been there for awhile. There was zero cell service so we just followed our GPS and breathed a sigh of elief when we finally saw a sign to Beaver Dam.

We finally reached the State Park entrance and I was shocked by how narrow and steep the entry was. There were NO signs warning that big rigs might have trouble but there definitely should have been. I would never take a larger rig down this road and even if you did there were only a few camp sites that would fit the RVs. There is also no ATT cell service down in the campground and it is a pretty wild place.

I know these pictures might not look that bad so I got out and took one of the steep drop off on the side of the road. Gave me a little vertigo. It didn’t help that the sides of the road were crumbling in places and we turned one corner and there was a large boulder in the road itself.

Mostly this area has four wheeler roads but there is a trailhead for Waterfall Trail at the very edge of the park I wanted to see. Unfortunately the signage is pretty terrible and we made a right instead of a left at the trail entrance and ended up at the edge of the park. A neighbors cow had broken through the fence and Jack was very excited as he chased it around a little.

Thankfully we stumbled across the right entrance across the creek and learned that this was a favorite trail of the Civilian Conservation Corps because there are hot springs along it. We walked for a while but I got pretty nervous because it wasn’t well marked and eventually we turned back around without seeing the springs. Still it was nice to get out and stretch our legs a little and Jack had a great time.

To be honest this was my least favorite of all the parks we visited and it really bugged me they didn’t have any warning signs for RVers. Still the ride back on Beaver Dam Road was MUCH more pleasant and we were lucky enough to see a herd of wild horses along the way. Lee got some great closeup shots of them.

Next up exploring the slot canyons with Steve and Deb and Steve celebrates a special day

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October 27, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at Kershaw-Ryan State Park

There are five Nevada State Parks in close proximity to Cathedral Gorge and while we were in the area we wanted to check them all out. You can read reviews on parks from a variety of sources but when cell coverage is a must nothing beats driving to the location and checking it out in person. Turns out that ALL of these parks are really cool and have unique features although not all of them are appropriate for us to stay in.

Kershaw-Ryan is one of those parks that was donated land. Samuel and Hannah Kershaw first moved to the nearby Meadow Valley Wash in 1873 and over time they built a lush oasis in a canyon with natural springs. Like many other places in this part of Nevada it looks deceptively barren but as you travel into the park it was the most startling place. Truly I was blown away by what we saw but let me show you.

The we headed a short ways back into the park and just wow. There were grapevines all along the canyon cliffs and ultimately the road dead ended into a beautiful oasis.

I’ve never seen anything quite like this

What a lovely setting for a wedding and the shelter/picnic area was really nice.

As we continued to walk the path we came to an area with huge grapevines. I mean they were monster big covering large oak trees. Here’s a picture with Lee for scale.

The history of this place is fascinating. The land was bought by James Ryan who kept it safe and ultimately donated it to the State of Nevada. In 1935, the civilian corps of engineers built the original picnic tables and facilities and it became one of Nevada’s first four state parks.

The oasis portion is a relatively small area (although packed with vegetation) and as you climb the hill the landscape once again becomes very sparse. The hike up the hill is pretty short, but wear good shoes because the path is rugged.

Lee can’t resist climbing to the highest spot

If you are in this area I absolutely would make this a stop. The campground is pretty utilitarian and the ATT signal was just so-so but if you are staying in Cathedral Gorge make the trip and see this wondrous oasis.

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October 25, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Cathedral Gorge

After Great Basin we headed south to a Nevada State Park called Cathedral Gorge. This park was recommended to us by our friends Deb and Steve and we were also going to meet up with them there. It has been three years since we have seen Deb and Steve in person and since our last meeting we have all survived COVID and become grandparents!! We first met them back in 2014 at the RV Dreams rally and have been lucky enough to spend lots of time with them over the years.

As I said, Deb always finds the coolest places and I wasn’t disappointed when we pulled into the park. These state parks are all first come first serve (that’s changing in 2023) and since we came on a Saturday it wasn’t surprising that they were full. Thankfully though there was room in overflow and Lee and I picked a spot and stayed hitched up so we could have our choice of open spots in the morning.

The next morning we started walking the campground early and ended up grabbing a spot around 8:30am. These are VERY popular campgrounds and limited spots would work for our 40 footer. We grabbed a great spot though and were moved in and set up by around 10am. The campground was totally full a few hours later so we were really glad we chose the strategy we did.

One thing I should mention is they don’t mess around with paying here. There are several fines posted that say it is the campers responsibility to know the rules and we saw a couple who slipped into overflow without paying get hit with a $250 fine. They tried to play it off like they forgot in the morning and just pay the $20 overflow fee but the rangers were having none of it and wrote them the ticket. The husband was super pissed about it but it truly was clearly posted everywhere.

The campground itself has 50 amp electric and the cost per night is $20 + $10 for electric. We had heard about the Nevada annual parks pass so after unhitching we went up to the visitors center to ask about it. Turns out for $250 you can get unlimited camping in Nevada Parks for no additional charge, and for electric sites only have to pay $10 a night. You also get free entrance to all the parks (another $10 for out of state day use) so after doing the math and figuring out 14 days would better than break even we bought the pass.

The visitors center here is for all 6 parks that are in close proximity to this location and we picked up information for all of them. I wanted to check them all out (more of that in later posts) for future visits. Cell coverage is a little iffy here, although our spot has 3 bars, and I was glad to see they also have a satellite backup you can pay for. That is a very nice feature for those of us who work and although I haven’t had to use it yet it’s nice to know its available in a pinch.

We see rangers every morning checking to see if people paid

After getting paid up we decided to head into the town of Caliente which is 15 miles away. The southeast part of Nevada is VERY remote and the small towns here are super small. Caliente is pretty nice though all things considering and we had a great lunch at a restaurant called the Side Track which I really loved.

I was pleased to see there was a medical clinic in Caliente (something I always keep an eye out for in remote areas) and this actually came up a few days later when I had an issue. Woke up with a lot of pain and went to the medical clinic. They squeezed me in, I got excellent care, and they were even able to do a CT Scan same day. Turns out I had kidney stones (my first time) and I couldn’t be more pleased by how easy the experience was. I have had some terrible medical experiences in far larger towns and this was first rate start to finish.

Anyway, we explored locally and then a couple days later Steve and Deb arrived. We coordinated with them and grabbed an open spot first thing in the morning so when they rolled in around 2pm they were all set. It was so great seeing them and seeing Hurley who has gotten older but is still a sweetie. Lee made them a chili dinner for arrival and the conversation picked up just as if no time had passed. There is something special about this lifestyle where you can see people after long stretches and the relationship is still there.

Steve is on vacation this week but I am working 5am – 2pm everyday so they explored in the daytime and then we met for a quick hike and dinner in the evenings. Deb is an excellent cook so I just fed her my raw materials and she worked her magic. I had a tri-tip of grass fed beed from Wyoming that was awesome and Steve had a pork loin another day and we threw together the sides. Eating with friends is really fun and Deb never makes a bad meal.

The hikes were really great too…Cathedral Gorge is really beautiful and Deb kept them reasonable since I had the kidney stones. Deb is famous for getting people to go on long hikes but she gave me a break this time!

Its nice to have someone take pictures of us

It’s a beautiful park and the stars at night are spectacular. I actually think we are going to stay here for two weeks we like it so much but more on that later.

FYI this is not color corrected in any way. Just looks like this 🙂

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October 23, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

Great Basin – Snake Creek Rd

Great Basin is one of those National Parks where the main road actually covers very little of the park. We wanted to see some of the lesser explored areas so we went to the main Visitors Center and asked a park ranger what they recommended. The “dotted line” roads on the maps are always a mixed bag (especially because we don’t have four wheel drive), and we make a point to ask a ranger what they recommend before driving on them.

The road in red is the Wheeler Mountain Drive

Snake Creek Road goes into the middle of the park

Lee loved this real 1873 Winchester in the main visitors center said it was the only one he had ever seen

Before we went to Snake Creek Rd we stopped in the small (and I mean tiny) town of Baker. It is the tiniest little town but has an Inn and a food truck stand.

After Baker we drove a little bit more eastward and then turned on Snake Creek Rd. This road is a graded dirt road that goes into the National Forest. There are actually two entrances, we turned at the first one with a sign that says Fish Rearing Station. The road was really good and once we entered Great Basin National Park we saw some gorgeous campsites. They are not big rig friendly but so nice and clean and along the creek.

For the 100th anniversary I think the park got a refresh because the Pit Toilets all seemed brand new. We also saw an historic outhouse which said these campsites have been in use since the 1930’s. VERY cool.

The road eventually dead-ends into a trailhead but again we had Jack with us and didn’t take a hike. Great Basin doesn’t have a lot of rules but no pets on trails is one of them. The foliage was absolutely gorgeous though and we probably spent two hours exploring this 12 mile stretch of road. Totally worth the drive. Again I can’t say enough about the fall foliage and absolutely recommend visiting this park in October.

Next up we explore some Nevada State Parks and meet up with our friends Deb and Steve.

We very much appreciate your support of our blog

You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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October 20, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

Great Basin – Wheeler Peak Drive

Between working through our power issues and my crazy work schedule we actually were in the park for three days before I did more than walk up and down road in the campground. So I was excited when I actually finished work at a normal time one day and we headed down to the Visitor Center. There are actually two Visitors center, one right outside the park and a second inside, and since we were interested in going on the Wheeler Peak Drive we stopped at the Lehman Cavern Visitor Center first.

I love that through sheer dumb luck we were here on the 100th birthday!

The Lehman Cavern Visitors Center is really nice for its size, with some cool information about the caves and a cool little café next door. We came back another day and had some lunch there and it was really yummy.

They had Solar viewing at the visitors center

Nice picnic area behind the visitors center near Cave Entrance

The cave tours (which go year round) were doing a brisk business, but ultimately Lee and I decided to give it a pass. I am claustrophobic so most caves are not my favorite and Lee wasn’t interested because he wasn’t allowed to take a tripod in. Still from what we hear they are pretty cool and the $12 tour fee is pretty reasonable for a 1-1/2 hour tour.

We decided to head up the Wheeler Peak road though and I have to say the foliage was spectacular. We saw some color from Baker’s Creek Campground but driving up this road was amazing! My pictures don’t come close to capturing it but I did the best I could. We also check out the Upper and Lower Lehman campgrounds and I am happy to say I like ours the best, The cell coverage was a little iffy in both of those and I am getting a solid three bars up in Baker Creek Campground. They were all very nice though.

After you pass the campgrounds, the road has an 8% grade and is definitely not big rig friendly. It climbs to 10,000 feet and the views were spectacular. Let me just show you.

The tree lined road was wonderful and so much prettier than I could capture

When you reach the top of the mountain there are some hikes, but dogs are unfortunately not allowed on the trails. They are also at 10,000 feet which is pretty high altitude and ultimately we decided to not make one of the treks. They look great though and our friends Deb and Steve did the hikes on an earlier visit (and also so the caves), so if you are interested please check out their blog post.

So if we didn’t do the caves or the hikes what did we do?? Well we ended up driving over to Grey Cliffs and went down into that area. There are a couple of large group camp areas down near the cliffs and a road that drives along some caves. Turns out the caves have petroglyphs inside but unfortunately they are currently closed. We are rule followers so we just stood at the entrance and peered in.

Since the road continued past the trailhead we kept going and eventually found ourselves leaving the National Park. I started to get a little nervous as the road got worse and worse, but we kept going until bang we ran right into a ranch gate. At that point the road was terrible so I asked Lee to turn around and take us back but it was cool seeing a little of the edges of the park.

This sign was at the dividing line. Lots of OHI trails right outside the National Park

That drive whetted our appetite for more off the beaten track exploring in other areas of the park but more on that in my next post.

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You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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October 18, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Boondocking with a Remote Job

It’s been a long time since we have camped without power and several things have changed for us since then. First and foremost I am working fulltime as a remote worker now and since I am on zoom video calls most of the day I need to be somewhat presentable for work. A second big factor is we now own a residential fridge and although many people upgrade to six batteries at this point we chose to keep it at four AGM batteries. In retrospect I am not sure why we made that choice when we were with friends who could help us upgrade but we did and this is where we are at.

Because we knew there would be some downsides we decided to stack the deck in our favor and pick a gorgeous spot in a National Park for our first attempt. Despite the difficulty in getting into the site (tight turns and unlevel site) as of this writing we are in a gorgeous spot in Grand Basin National Park at 7500 feet elevation. The weather is practically perfect and the campground is quiet and the site is beautiful. It’s exactly the sort of space we imagined ourselves in when we started this journey in 2014 and one that, through choice, we rarely have been able to experience.

All that being said at this particular moment I have to say I am not feeling it is worth it. Aside from the stress of getting into the site, even pulling in with full batteries left us with minimal juice at all at 4am. I had to get up at 4 am because I am working eastern time even though I am in Nevada and I have an all day meeting starting in about 45 minutes. The propane furnace is working well so we are warm enough and a quick shower is in my near future but we don’t have enough power for even a light strip and my computer battery says I have 1 hour and 47 seconds remaining. The good news is I am not presenting in this scenario so I can use my work phone as a backup until we hit 8am and the generator hours start. I hate to run a generator in this beautiful spot so early in the morning but although the fridge will probably keep until we get power I have to have enough to charge my laptop.

In all fairness to Lee he wanted to do a practice run while we were in West Yellowstone, but I fiddle dee dee’d the idea and here is where we are at. We were smart enough to pick a place with full hookup campgrounds relatively close by, but it was no small feat getting ourselves in this spot and I don’t want to leave unless we absolutely have to. For those who are curious by the way the fridge was pulling roughly 12 amps at rest and it would pop up a bit when the ice machine was running…off to take a navy shower.

Ok I am back. That was refreshing. A navy shower by the way is when you run the water a little to wet your hair and body, turn the water off to soap and shampoo up, and then turn the water back on to rinse off. I absolutely hate them, but it’s part of stretching water and since the alternative is wetted hair and wet wipes I try the best I can to keep them short. I’ve always been able to take a quick shower but these are accomplished in less than 5 minutes although Lee can do it even quicker than that. The good news is I am clean and we still have enough power to run our 12 volt lights which is good since it is pitch black outside and I have killer AT&T service.

My next thought is breakfast which usually consists of two egg whites and two pieces of precooked bacon which requires 2 minutes in the microwave. I can decide to fry them in a pan, skip them and have cold cereal, or wait until 8am (roughly 2 hours from now) and eat then. Decisions, decisions. My six hour conference call starts in about 15 minutes so for now I think I will hold off. I’ll pop back into this post as events warrant. It’s been a while since I have written a stream of consciousness post, but I think it’s the best way to capture the reality of this experience.

Overall by the way I am feeling pretty calm. I generally don’t get too upset when my own choices put me in a situation and we made the choices that put us here. Just need to play out the day and see what we can do to improve it. At least the coffee is hot! We have carried a stovetop percolator for just such occasions for years and it’s working just fine on the propane stove. Oh, one quick point. When we think about boondocking or remote camping we often think of it as free. The reality is nothing is really free. Every time we run the propane burners or furnace or propane water heater, it costs money. When we turn the generator on that costs money as well and these particular spots are $20 a night. All together it is less expensive than many full hookup campsites but really it’s all about the views.

Ok I’m back and the good news its a super clear day and our solar is really cooking. Bad news is I lost battery in my laptop prior to the 8am generator time so had to use my phone during the last 40 minutes. This only worked because I wasn’t presenting so definitely not a solution. The refrigerator also was up to 60 degrees ( freezer at 13 degrees) which again is not great because it is cold here. The good news is now that the solar is going the refrigerator is back on and working. Obviously this is not great so Lee has decided to drive 2 hours (each way) to St. George and pick up a Honda generator.

When we chose a generator with the RV buildout we picked propane because we wouldn’t need a separate energy source. What we didn’t know was that cost for running a propane generator is much higher than a diesel one (conventional wisdom at the time was it was a wash) and we didn’t really understand that the small hand held generators were an option. For years we have talked about buying one but $1K for something we rarely would use seemed excessive. Well we are definitely here now and we are going to purchase one and see what kind of difference that makes. We hear good things about them from people we know but we will see.

Ok back to work and thankfully I have power because I have a big meeting with an executive in a couple of hours. Oh and I ended up frying a few eggs for breakfast. That worked out ok.

So things were going very well until the clouds rolled in and now we are not generating enough solar to keep up with the refrigerator and my laptop…nothing else is on. At noon the batteries are only at 57% and to be clear in our system things cut off when the batteries hit 50%. It’s also fair to say its only a lightly cloudy day so we are getting some intermittent light. To be clear this was rarely an issue when we didn’t have the fridge because we could sit with no output until the sun came back. It wasn’t pleasant but we could do it. I have to believe if we had 6 batteries, like most people with a fridge, this would be less of an issue but I don’t really know.

Lee ended up getting home around 5pm (it was three hours each way) and brought a handheld Honda 2200 generator. We have seen many people use handheld generators in our travels but the price of $1100 always slowed us down. Lee plugged it directly into our power supply using a 30 amp convertor and then 15 amp convertor from there and put oil in it and filled it with gas. Initially the generator belched a surprising amount of smoke but then eventually it calmed down. We ran it for roughly 1-1/2 hours and the battery went from 50% to 67%. We had to stop running it at 8pm when generator hours stopped and to be honest I felt bad for our neighbors. It was louder than expected and the gas smell was pretty strong all things considered.

The other issues was the generator was running and the output kept changing. We weren’t intentionally changing what was happening inside (can’t really control what the fridge does) but it was variable. We knew 67% wouldn’t get us through the night, it didn’t, and at some point when it hit 50% the fridge turned itself off. We learned in the morning that there was a change we needed to make on our solar control panel (changing the charge rate) and if that doesn’t work we may need to turn off the fridge when we are charging our batteries. Thanks Bill for giving us some ideas!

I think my point here is that you can’t just buy a generator and plug it in. You may need an adaptor, you will need to see what load it can handle, and if you have solar and an invertor you have to take that into account as well. It’s complicated and a bit of trial and error so keep that in mind when trying new things. Our biggest mistake was probably doing this so far from a city where we could easily get additional equipment as needed.

Location also matters because we seem to be in a little pocket where clouds gather. We will see what happens today but this would definitely be easier to test out if we were on full sun. Thankfully today has been mostly full sun and the combination of that and the generator running has moved us from 37% battery to 80% charge in 2-1/2 hours. That’s promising. The goal is to get us back to 100% and then see if we can make it through the night without hitting 50% and the fridge turning off. It really is all about experimentation. Update: When we turn the fridge off we only use 9% overnight. Huge difference. Can’t always do that depending on temperatures but nice to know its an option.

Well we figured it out. We went to bed with 91% and woke up with 62% so the refrigerator didn’t cut off. Hooray. To achieve this we had a nice full sun day and used the generator in the evening to top off and watch TV for a couple of hours. Lee felt a huge sense of relief that we have a workable solution and I did as well but I still feel kind of bad about running the generator so much. The good news though is it is very fuel efficient and if we put it in the back it is quieter in the RV. So win/win. If we were in a place where we had no neighbors it wouldn’t bother me at all so I am glad we bought the generator and figured this out. Next up we can actually explore Grand Basin which is what we came here for 🙂

We very much appreciate your support of our blog

You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes

October 16, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

The Alpine Loop, Sundance, and Park City

On Saturday, before we left Salt Lake, I was excited to take a drive up into the mountains. This area is famous for its ski towns and beautiful environment and we definitely wanted to experience it. Plus we hit the area at the perfect time for fall colors which was really exciting. We miss the New England fall weather and this was a great chance to see some Aspens in full foliage.

The Alpine Loop is essentially a big circle but we added a trip to Park City as well.

As soon as we got into the hills it was really pretty and right after we entered the Unita National Forest there was a fee station. If you drive through it is free but if you want to hike or climb there is a cost. We bypassed the fee station and headed right in. The road is extremely well maintained but it is narrow. There are lots of little pullouts but at 9:30am on a Saturday most of those were full. We did find a few places to pull over though and got some really great pictures.

When we got to the end of the Alpine Loop we knew we were near the Sundance Resort but the GPS couldn’t find it. We ended up going up back roads by beautiful houses but just couldn’t see the entrance to the resort. Finally, through sheer luck, we stumbled across the entrance and the parking lot was already pretty full. The Sundance resort is where the Sundance film festival is held (along with Park City) and in the summer and fall they have ski lift tours of the mountains. We had Jack with us so we gave it a pass but I was still glad we got to see the outside of it.

A couple miles from there on 189 was Bridal Veil Falls. This site has a huge parking lot area, great bike and hiking paths and the falls themselves were majestic. We walked around a bit (I would love to see it in the spring) but headed out because it was pretty crowded. I totally get why on such a beautiful day so many people would be out in nature but people were somewhat aggressive. Lots bikes and walkers in big groups that were in the middle of the path. It’s hard to protect Jack in those situations even if I keep him close.

Even though it was a longish drive I really wanted to see Park City because it is an Olympic town and many Olympic skiers train there. We love seeing Former Olympic sites in our travels and Park City was pretty cool. As a general rule I am not a huge fan of ski towns because they are narrow and hilly so we didn’t get out and walk but we did get to drive through and see the various Olympic emblems.

All in all the surrounding area is gorgeous and Salt Lake itself has a lot to recommend it. Trying not to let a couple of bad service experiences (which frankly could happen anywhere) tarnish my visit. Next up we head to Grand Basin National Park and we are going to try out boondocking while I am working a remote job. That should be interesting 🙂

We very much appreciate your support of our blog

You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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October 14, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

First Time (Really) Seeing Salt Lake City

As I mentioned before we have passed through Salt Lake several times but we have never really explored it. Since we had some open time on our schedule we decided to stay for at least a week and Lee immediately looked for a place to get the truck brakes and other lingering issues worked on. While he was working that out I was excited about running lots of errands and going to stores we haven’t had access to for 5 months. Mod Pizza is a great example of a place I wouldn’t go out of my way for but when I saw it I thought oh I missed that.

Our big goal with food though was Chinese buffets (Salt Lake has 2) and the Chuck-O-Rama which is a yummy farm cooking buffet that we ate at once before while passing through. Not only was it great to have so much variety but the prices were WAY lower than Yellowstone, so we splurged a little.

One of the interesting things about the Salt Lake area is it is actually many cities all along one valley corridor. From almost every one you get glimpses of the beautiful mountains and it is a clean and friendly area. Clean and friendly are a big deal to me when judging a new place and I cemented that opinion by going and getting a hair cut. Getting a haircut and the grocery store are the best ways in my opinion to learn about a town. In this case I had my haircut by a wonderful young woman who grew up in this area and really loved living here. She was a great ambassador for the area and gave me a great hair cut so I handed her a $20 tip in cash on a $19 haircut. When she hesitated and asked me if I was sure I knew I was in the right kind of place.

Here are some pictures of the small towns in the area. Because the mountain runoff provides 60% of the local water most of these towns are nestled up against the base of the mountains. Beautiful.

As you can see in these pictures there are lots of beautiful Churches of the Latter Day Saints but there were a few other denominations as well. The vast majority though were Mormon churches or historical sites. While we were here I only saw one Jehovah’s Witness church, one Lutheran, one Baptist, and one Synagogue. I am sure there are more but the lack of diversities on churches certainly stood out. Also when we went downtown we saw that an entire huge section was dedicated to Temple Square. Unfortunately they were working on the main church and had it closed off but we got to see the administration buildings which were huge and beautiful. It reminded me quite a bit of sections of DC and this area was definitely the focal point of the downtown area. Salt Lake is also the capital so we did get to add another capital building to the list of those we have seen.

Overall I was really enjoying the city and thinking this might be a spot to retire to when we ran into a couple of not so great issues. First Lee took the truck into a Ford dealer to get the brakes fixed and he asked for a list of everything that needed fixed. We were totally shocked when the price tag came back at $9K. The truck at this point (2014 with 170K miles) only has a blue book of $25K so we were in a quandary. We have been talking about replacing the truck for a while now with Lee firmly for and myself firmly against taking on the debt. We have existed in this stalemate but the sticker shock of the quote put it back on the table. I won’t bore you with the details but after some discussion we decided to see what was available. Turns out not much because thousands of trucks are sitting back east waiting for the Ford symbol plate on the front grill before they can be shipped. Yes folks you can’t make this stuff up.

Ultimately we found a lightly used model for around $75K but it didn’t have most of the upgraded features we wanted. Plus we could order exactly what we wanted for $10K less just needed to wait until it arrived. During all this there was pressure to at least get the brakes done, which Lee approved but ended up costing $3K. Yes I know that is totally ridiculous but they replaced the entire brake assemblies instead of just the pads and rotors. Turns out the dealers are making their money on their service departments because they can’t get new vehicles to sell and frankly I think we got ripped off. They had their documentation all in a row though and since we approved a NTE of $3K there wasn’t much we could do.

In addition to cost of the truck we needed a rental car and Lee had a lot of trouble finding a reasonably priced one. Eventually he used a site called Turo which is like Air BNB for car rental. I have never heard of such a thing and to be honest was pretty weirded out by the idea, but it turned out OK. For $31 a day we rented a basic Ford Fiesta which we picked up and dropped off at a guy’s house. To be clear the car was pretty basic and the brakes squeaked some but it was serviceable and for running around town totally met our needs.

And we definitely needed a vehicle because Lee took our truck cover to an awning place who said for $250 they could had a zippered opening to keep the cover on when we were traveling. This will provide extra protection for the e-bikes when we travel and the price was very reasonable. They needed the whole week though and as soon as the truck was done with the brakes we had to take it there to have the cover installed.

It looked nice and was reasonably priced but when we went to hitch up the hole wasn’t big enough. At this point we had two choices, we could extend our stay in Salt Lake for $50 a night or move on down the road. Lee thought he could widen the hole himself so we decided to keep moving. That’s the problem with life on the road. When you have an issue with a repair more times than not we have discovered we just have to suck it up because the time it would take to get additional work done doesn’t work with our schedule. And yes we have a loose schedule this time around but how much of that do we want to spend sitting here. Jack’s face really sums it all up.

We very much appreciate your support of our blog

You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes

October 10, 2022 by Lee and Tracy

Golden Spike National Historic Park

We have traveled through Salt Lake City many times in our travels but we have never actually stopped and spent time there. This trip we decided to stay for a week and at the top of Lee’s To Do list was the Golden Spike National Historic Park. Located about an hour NW of Salt Lake City this park has been on Lee’s bucket list for years and I was more than happy to take a drive and check it out.

Turns out this park is one of those hidden gems in our National Park system with a great little gift shop, recreation of the trains and historic event, and an auto tour of the surrounding area. We ended up spending quite a bit of time there and and even though it was in a remote location we were joined by several other small groups.

Loved the gift shop . We really splurged.

This location is VERY remote and there is no cell coverage so make sure you have good directions in your phone prior to making the attempt. The museum part is pretty small but has some cool stuff and of course the best part is the replica trains outside were amazing. What was really cool was once again one person pushed to have this site declared a national historic park. We have seen this happen so many times and in this case it was Bernice Gibbs who began campaigning in the 1920’s. My only note is that although the Chinese contribution is acknowledged the harsh conditions and racism they faced was pretty watered down in the displays. Also please note the Golden Spike itself is not here. It is in a university in California.

The very best part was being able to stand on the exact site where the spike was put in. There are times when we get to stand in historical places (the Oregon Trail and where the Lewis and Clark trail ended are a couple that come to mind) and you literally get goosebumps. For me this was just such a spot and I wasn’t alone. Lots of grown people there were a little giddy!

The trains were really great re-creations and they even move them every night along the track. We missed that but they were running and occasionally steam would belch from one of them which scared me at one point. It was LOUD but very cool. I am not a huge train person (Lee definitely is) but even so the historical importance of this meeting made the whole site very special. Definitely worth the drive.

My only complaint about the site was the auto tour was a little confusing. We kept looking for a trestle bridge (we love those), but ultimately we learned it no longer existed. Plus the drive is divided into two different sections and the map they provided wasn’t very clear. It was neat though driving along through the places they blasted out the rock and the Chinese Arch was worth the stop to take a few pictures.

There are National Park sites in this country that you definitely have to work at to visit (Very Large Array is our all time favorite) but they are almost always totally worth it. This site was definitely remote but we loved visiting it.

We very much appreciate your support of our blog

You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes

Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Author: Lee and Tracy

Pioche, Slot Canyons, and Steve’s Birthday

First Time at Beaver Dam State Park

First Time at Kershaw-Ryan State Park

First Time in Cathedral Gorge

Great Basin – Snake Creek Rd

Great Basin – Wheeler Peak Drive

First Time Boondocking with a Remote Job

The Alpine Loop, Sundance, and Park City

Golden Spike National Historic Park