Corn on the cob...

Buster is already putting his microscopic teeth to work on this grilled corn on the cob. In other news, he has learned to scream. Loud. Hopefully next week's inaugural flight(s) will not showcase this new talent.

Dinosaur National Monument...

We put the camper to the test yesterday with an excursion into the back roads of Dinosaur National Monument. The campground was 12 miles down a gravel road that had some rather frightening switchbacks and some great canyon scenery along the way. This picture is the road back to the 25 mile paved road that led back to US 40. We saw lots of stars last night an I put my hatchet to good use in chopping some firewood from the fallen trees in our campsite. Were it not for the militant bees that took a liking to our dinner, the evening would have been great!

Rocky Mountain Adventure...

On Monday, we left Ft. Collins and finally took real advantage of the fact that we not only have a camper, but we have a camper that can go lots of places. This picture is of our evening adventure hike near our campsite which was about 12 miles down a gravel road in the Roosevelt National Forest, on the northern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park. Later in the hike we saw a couple of moose too! Korin got the pictures of those, as my phone camera wasn't really up to the task. Then it was back to the camper as the temperature began to dip lower than we have yet experienced in our travels for some hot soup. The camper also has a heater, which kicked in several times during the night.

West Fest Weekend!

As luck would have it, we are in Ft. Collins on West Fest weekend. There is a petting zoo, there are pony rides, and Charli seems to have overcome her fear riding ponies! Our travels through the Wild West have paid off!

"Roughing It" in the morning...

When we camp somewhere with electrical hookups (as we are here in Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in Utah) the ideal morning for me, before everyone wakes up, looks like this picture. iPad, plunge pot full of coffee with water that I just heated in that electric hot pot doodad at the edge of the table. The camper, unfortunately, had to be parked in such a way as to obstruct my view of the reservoir that sits behind it, but that'll have to do...

Trying the tent again tonight...

Tonight we are camping at an actual campground without hookups, with some good scenery and a place to put our tent. There is some thunder but we are still going to try to sleep outside without the tent fly and do some star gazing. And when I say "we," I mean all four of us! We'll see how Buster does at sleeping outside. The day was hot today - we saw up to 110 degrees on the car thermometer, but the sun has dipped behind the mountain to our west and the breeze has picked up a bit, for the time being the weather is perfect. AND we have cell phone coverage so I can post this blog entry! Life is good.

Except that somehow Charli keeps on injuring Korin. It's really weird. Just now she stepped on her finger. Earlier in the day she kicked her in the head. Well, hopefully nothing too serious will come of it...

Death Valley detritus...

What is it about deserts that seems to attract old dilapidated contraptions whose functions are difficult to discern from just looking at them. Here is one such device that was sitting at the gas station just outside the park. Gas here cost like $5.60/gallon or something and even though we had more than half a tank we thought it prudent to go into Death Valley with a full tank, you know, just in case. Now we are in the synthetic, air conditioned comfort of Treasure Island in Las Vegas. The good news is I haven't lost any money yet. Te bad news is that after 15 hours here I haven't gambled once.