June 5, 2013 Telluride,Co. the town & Mountaian Village

Today we're going on another drive, & much to Otis' surprise, he's NOT going & much to my surprise we didn't pack a picnic lunch!!!!

After our usual breakfast routine, Otis walked, the A/C on for him we set out for the historic town of Telluride. It's about a 70 mile car ride. It's a much different ride than yesterday! Where in yesterday's drive we saw mile after mile of vast desert terrain. Today we're seeing rolling green countryside, forests of evergreens & snow topped mountains!

Telluride is Old West & New West. A historic town that has gone from a booming mine camp to a bustling ski town. Much of the town still looks the way it did back in the 1800s.

Connected to Telluride is the town Mountain village. Mountain village is surrounded by some of the highest peaks in the San Juan mountain range.Incorporated in 1995, the town's design combines European-alpine architecture with the rustic traditions of the Rockies.You can reach both Telluride & Mountain village by the highway. Once you visit one, you can't resist visiting the other thanks to the FREE gondola ride between the two!!!

We weren't even scared riding in the gondola car!

We were going to have lunch in Mountain Village but Lennie kept remembering a lunch special he read while we were walking around Telluride, soooooo back on the gondola we go for the 15 minute ride!

We wound up at the Brown Dog Saloon & restaurant. It was a sports bar, but we were there for the food!

             & the special that caught Len's eye was: a salad, a slice of pizza,
                             & a drink for $6.00  you can't beat that!!!

After lunch we walked around a bit more enjoying the ambiance of the town before we headed back. Len kept saying "Otis called" I'm not leaving the cell phone with that dog anymore!!!!

The drive back to Cortez was just as beautiful!

Of course, since we left Otis back at the RV, the guilt factor kicked in for Lennie & we had to stop at McDonald's to get Otis his McDouble!

   & he couldn't resist teasing Otis with the treat

before actually giving it to him!

Tonight dinner was real light after our pizza lunch. Lennie went outside to grill hot dogs while Otis looked on patiently!!!!

Tomorrow is our big day, we are going back to Mesa Verde National Park,without Otis, to tour one of the cliff dwellings!!!!

June 4,2013 Spreading our Horizon!?!

To start, I always use the RV park's Wifi unless the signal is too weak then I use our own......June 3rd, both the Park's Wifi & our own was too weak to use. I was not able able to post the June 3rd blog until the morning of June 5th. The morning of June 4th after breakfast & everything else, Len drove up to a nearby Verizon store to see if possible there was something wrong with our Wifi. Always when I can't get a park signal I can get on with our Wifi??? I made our picnic lunch while Len went to Verizon. When he returned the issue was with Verizon, changing from 3G to 4G or something along that line? All I know is we weren't the only ones suffering from little to no service!

Today we are driving along scenic Byway 160 & 163. It's a long drive.Most of what we see today will be on land owned by the Navajo Indians. We are also touching back into Utah!

                                  Our scenery is vast miles of desert.

Our first stop is Four Corners, USA

This is the only place in the entire US where a person can stand in 4 states at once. The corners of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah meet here.

We continued our drive with more miles & miles of dessert land before reaching the formations called Monument Valley!

                                                 wanna see more?

More???

Of course there's a lot more pictures on my camera, but we have to move on!
We saw no picnic areas, but we had packed a picnic??? Finally driving through a town, we saw a city park & that was our picnic grounds for today!

      & while I was taking this picture......my potato chips blew off my plate!!!
      Back on the drive along we come to the Rock Formation called Mexican Hat.

& then, the town of Mexican Hat, but don't blink driving through the town!                       
    We came across this abandoned business. Sadly we've seen a lot of      businesses by the wayside in our travels.....

Time to finish our drive,we are still viewing desert scenery.....

but soon enough we see the Colorado State Line

& we've made a complete loop. We go back to the RV park where Lennie has requested spaghetti for dinner. He says there's an unwritten rule that people should have spaghetti once a week!  After dinner, since we have no Internet service I throw a small load in at the park's laundry.
        Time to chill before bed. OOPS.....looks like "someone" is already chilling!?!

                                   NO he doesn't sleep with us, unless...........

                                  There's a storm , or it's cold out!!!!!!

June 3, 2013 Mesa Verde National Park.....with Otis!

This morning after our regular breakfast routine we just knew we were going to go see "something"! After we packed our picnic lunch walked Otis we got in the car for our "auto" tour of Mesa Verde National park!
We didn't have to drive far, 7 miles from our RV park before we were at the park.

We like National Parks! $$$$$

The Scenery is different that what we were seeing in Utah, but it's still beautiful in it's own way. I think each state has it's own natural beauty, you just have to look for it!

& every time I get out to take a picture I have to "fight" with Otis to get my seat back!

                         But one thing we don't fight over is the picnic!

                               "Did you pack something for me mom!?!"

After our lunch we continue our drive through the park. Within the park you will find Ancient Ruins of the Ancestral Puebloan people. This archaeological preserve is the nation's largest & features 4,000 known archaeological sites,

 including 600 cliff dwelling

You can take Ranger Guided tours of some of the Cliff Dwellings, we plan to do this on Thursday when Otis is taking a Time-Out at the RV!?!

Today we were standing at the platform where the tour meets. We wanted to watch the people's reaction as they returned from the tour, to see if they were sweating bullets & huffing & puffing!?! I think we might be "too old" for this tour??? I'm going to count the steps, if I survive!

Time to head back to the RV. After dinner we're going to see another attraction in town (Cortez) I'm not sure if pictures are allowed or not?????

We went to the Cortez Cultural Center where Monday through Saturday you can watch Native American Indians perform their Native dances.

The mural on the center's wall was painted by a 70 yr old retired  former history teacher. Tonight's performance was the Naatsiiliid Dancers a Navajo dance group. The dancers performed traditional dances including, the Ribbon Sash , the Basket & the Indian 2-step!?!

At the end of their performance, the dancers selected people from the audience to join in performing the Indian 2-step!

I am soooooo glad NOT to be chosen! Otis was allowed at the & he seemed to enjoy the performance!?!

                                               I know we did!
At the end of the performance, the audience was encouraged to come talk & take pictures of the dancers. I wanted to take a picture of "Madison" the newest member of the dance team!

                                                It was a good day!

June 2, 2013 Cortez,Colorado on a Sunday!?!

We had no plans for today, after breakfast we were just going to see what happens!?!
We all take a bath & every once in awhile no matter how much he hates it....Otis has to take a bath too!

Already Otis wasn't liking the way his day started!?!

Since the Dish Tailgater, took so much of our afternoon & evening yesterday, we decided to go & check out the town of Cortez. Remember the days when all the businesses, carlots, restaurants & stores were closed on Sundays???? Well Cortez, Colorado still practices that old tradition! We did find the Welcome Center open & Lennie got several brochures on points of interest in the surrounding area.The rest of the week looks promising!!! The next town, Delores, Co. is only 10 miles down the road, it's a historic old town so we drive there only to discover......IT'S CLOSED ON SUNDAYS TOO!!!!

                     The only thing I have to show for today is our dinner!

 After dinner & the dishes were done I went to tackle my favorite job! I should have done this while Lennie was dealing with the Dish Techs!?!

We took Otis for a walk while the load was washing. Lennie said he & Otis would help me with the laundry......yeah, they were  a real big help!?!

Tomorrow we're going to check out some of the parks...

June 1,2013 Good-bye Utah-----Hello Colorado!

This morning we said "Good-bye" to Moab,Utah. We didn't have to get an early start, we're not going that far down the road, only to Cortez, Colorado. A matter of just a couple hours drive!

 We had a leisurely breakfast before putting everything away preparing the RV for take off. Otis was ready to go, he couldn't wait to start racking up more "Lap Miles"!?!

We're off! Now this was DEFINITELY a point A to B drive!!!! I couldn't believe how quickly the terrain changed. I was missing Utah's natural beauty already. But pretty soon rolling plains & grassy mesas came into view & I could see mountains in the background. Colorado might not be so bad after all!?!

Soon enough we got to our destination, La Mesa RV Park in Cortez, Colorado.

                            It's a very small RV park but nice & real clean.

It didn't take us long long to get set up.

Just in time for lunch. It seems we always arrive at an RV Park just in time for a meal.!?! Even tho our drive today was only a couple of hours, it still wore Lennie out!?!                          After lunch he wound up like this!!!!

Before we left Florida, Lennie bought a Tailgater from Camping World.

You never know how your TV reception is going to be as you travel around??? After his "nap" he said he was going to set up the Tailgater & then we'd go into Cortez & check out the town.Well....this was no easy task!?! The easiest part was connecting the cables to the unit. Then came the phone part, talking to soooo many different people, getting so many different answers. We had dinner late & still the System was far from a go???  After dinner & dishes were done.....I took Otis for a walk by myself leaving Lennie to argue with the Dish TV techs???          Walking back to our RV site I caught this sunset!

I could tell by Lennie's tone of voice when I got in, that he was finally talking to a Tech that knew what he was talking about!?! Soon enough we had both satellite & local channels & all was well!
                                         I hope tomorrow is more productive!?!