Along Highway 58 in Oregon

Well, new floor is in, carpet, tile, and mold are out!  We didn't know we had mold, but as soaked as we got last December, we should have suspected!  Anyway, we're very happy with this!
Numerous other repairs were performed during the last 10 days, including hopefully fixing the slide leaks.
Today we left La Pine, Oregon to work our way over to Junction City, OR to get a computer desk built & installed for Hubby.
It was a gorgeous drive this morning.
I had forgotten how lush Oregon is. I think they're still in early spring, weather-wise, because there are still many wildflowers alongside the road, as well as ferns growing out of cliffs, and wild rhododendrons.
We dropped down from 5,000 ft to 400 ft today.  A little blurry, but this was a pretty cool tunnel.
Lots of water moving along the highway.
But the most beautiful views we saw today, ran for miles against Hwy 58. I think it's called Fall Creek Lake. That's my best guess.
There were signs everywhere warning of elk. Yeah, I could see how they would like it there!

Leaving Utah

Picture #1
What do you notice about these photos?
Picture #2
It's kind of like that game for kids, What's Wrong with this Picture!
And here's a clue...
Snow on the ground...but not on the mountains!
The man on the snow is walking around in shorts!
It's not snow...it's salt!
The Bonneville Salt Flats! And the salt in a huge pile is the Morton Salt Company.

Imagine a place so flat you seem to see the curvature of the planet, so barren not even the simplest life forms can exist. Imagine the passing thunder of strange vehicles hurtling by on a vast dazzling white plain. This is not an alien world far from earth; it is Utah's famous Bonneville Salt Flats.
The Bonneville Salt Flats is one of the most unique natural features in Utah. Stretching over 30,000 acres, the Bonneville Salt Flats is a fragile resource administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It is located along I-80 near the Utah-Nevada border. Wendover is the closest city.

In the 1960's, jet powered vehicles and names like Craig Breedlove (600.6 mph) and Art Arfons (576.55 mph) captured the imagination of millions. In 1970, Gary Gabolich's rocket car, "Blue Flame", attained a spectacular 622.4 miles per hour.
Since the first speed record attempts in 1914, hundreds of records have been set and broken in a variety of automotive and motorcycle classes.

To read more about the Bonneville Salt Flats go here!

Another piece of trivia about Utah, all of the highway signs around Salt Lake City have a picture of a beehive on them with the highway number on top of that.  No, I didn't get a picture of that but, according to my brother-in-law, it has nothing to do with bee keeping.  It represents the teamwork, family, and a community all pulling together in the same direction.  Nice.

Another bit of information that I heard, when the Mormons came to Salt Lake City and began to homestead the land, planting crops, they were inundated with locusts which started to desimate the only food source they had.  They prayed and pretty soon here come the seagulls from the west coast (a long way), eating all of the locusts. A Mormon miracle!

If there is any error in these stories, they are my errors, I assure you!
Just a few more pictures of our way out of Utah.

Art on the edge of the salt flats.
An abstract artistic sculpture called Metaphor: The Tree of Utah. Swedish artist Karl Momen created the 87-foot high tree between 1982-1986. He financed the project himself to bring bold color and beauty to the stark, flat, salty landscape. The sculpture is made of 225 tons of cement, almost 2,000 ceramic tiles and five tons of welding rod, and tons of minerals and rocks native to Utah.

Easy to become "road hypnotized" out here!
At another rest stop...

Fabulous Utah!

Utah is another one of those states that appear "brown" on the map.  This was my second trip to Utah, and I have to say that it is one Beautiful State!

Coming in from Wyoming, we drove into this:
This is a rest area, not long after crossing the Utah state line.
Full-time rest area inhabitants...
There were gobs of these guys around!
And they were not overly shy!
There was an overabundance of running water,
and a flood warning for all of the unmelted snow still on the mountain.

Again, spring has just arrived as far as the wildflowers are concerned.
Mmmmm, beautiful!
Gorgeous! Does every town have a Bridal Veil Falls?
Another shot of snowmelt running down in to Provo.
Hopefully, tomorrow we'll go in to western Utah. Our time here in Orem has been wonderful. This family greets us with open arms and heaps of love.

I would just like to add that, for some reason, I am unable to comment on anyone elses blog!  Dang it!  I have had problems with my email for a couple of weeks, but that seems to have resolved itself.   Except for the comments.  I'll keep trying to figure it out, but please know that I'm checking you out, even if you don't "hear" my silly comments!

Home on the Range

I apologize for all of my photos taken through the windshield being all geehawky (and through a dirty windshield, no less), but moving down the road makes for a shaky, wonky picture!
I always thought of Wyoming as one of those brown states on the map.  In school I don't remember much taught about Wyoming.  Could be I just wasn't paying attention!  Ha! 
Well, I was wrong.  I don't know if it's just because we're going through in the spring, but it is really a beautiful state!  And we always thought Yellowstone Nat'l Park was in Montana.  Nope.  Most of it is in Wyoming.  And the Tetons, although we did not go that far north.
Not having lived in an area that receives tremendous amounts of snow, we assumed that these were snow fences, meant to keep the snow from drifting onto Interstate 80.
Wild flowers are still in bloom in Wyoming. Temps in the high 60's.
Lots of wind in Wyoming.
There was a very nice rest stop at the summit of interstate 80, elevation 8640.
<><>The monument at the rest stop. So here, home on the range, we didn't see any deer, but we did see some antelope(pronghorn).
And although they were not playing, they seemed to be pretty happy!

Leaving Denver

I had problems downloading photos for about a week now.  No matter which card reader I used, no luck.  Not sure what I did differently this morning but, voila!
Leaving Denver...

Denver is a beautiful city, but the traffic is atrocious! I kept trying to picture it covered in a blanket of snow.
While there, we visited an old friend who works at the Comcast Media Center.
Since Hubby and I both worked in cable years ago, he knew we would want a tour of the inside of the building. This is the place where all of the newest technology is created. Some fantastic stuff coming! Many of the programs that we all watch originate from that building. Security is very high in the building. We were very impressed with the brain power that goes in to putting all of that together.
The place we stayed in the area, was Cherry Creek State Park; a very big reservoir (can't find my pix). The campground itself was like a big park with lots of trees and green grass. It's a very popular park for bicycling and picnics, both in the park and along the lake.
The Magpie was the bird we saw the most.
I know this next pic is blurry, but I wanted to show the pattern on their back when in flight.
They're not particularly shy, except when they see that camera come out. I've seen pictures of them in my audobon book, but I was so excited to actually see them in person!
We had a great time there, visiting some family and friends. Didn't have time to see everyone we wanted to, but we'll be back.

UM...

ARE THOSE BULLET HOLES???  Yes, yes they are!
That was taken yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. From Amarillo, TX, we traveled to Raton, NM, working our way in to Colorado. Not much going on in Raton. The RV park we stayed at was clean, but nothing special. But it was just for the night, so, no big deal.
When we got up in the morning, the skies were heavy with clouds and threatening thunderstorms, so we got in to gear early and headed out.
To get to this point, we had to drive over a mountain. It was beautiful, for sure...
But we were glad to get off that mountain. Many signs to watch out for wildlife on the roadway. Elk, bear, deer.  Please, no!
More about coming in to Denver, next time!