June 2012 Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado

It was early on Monday morning June 25, the shadows were still on the mountains when we headed north to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
We left the Alpen Rose RV Park and headed north on Highway 550 to Montrose, Co.  A little over 2 hours and we were at the Black Canyon National Park, with its soaring cliffs and the roaring rapids
below.  The Black Canyon, as a geographic feature, is 48 miles in length and 2,700 feet deep.  To describe the canyon as dramatic is an understatement!  It has been carved into the earth by the powerful Gunnison River.  Its depth alone is amazing, along with the pine forests at the rim to the plunging gorges and shady vertical walls.  No other canyon in North America combines such a wide
range of narrow openings and startling depths.
The Canyon has been a mighty barrier to humans from the beginning of time.  Only its rims, never the gorge, show evidence of human occupation - not even the Ute Indians living in the area since written history began.  No Spanish explorers to the Southwest reported seeing the canyon.  The first written record came from the Hayden Expedition of 1873-74  The Hayden and, later, Denver & Rio Grande Railroad survey parties deemed Black Canyon inaccessible.  The canyon is so deep and narrow that very little sunlight can penetrate it.  Early travelers found the shadow-shrouded and foreboding.
In just 48 miles in the Black Canyon, the Gunnison River loses more in elevation that the 1,500 mile Mississippi River does from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.  The river drops an average of 96 feet per mile in the national park.  It drops 480 feet in one two mile
stretch.  Fast, debris-laden water carving hard rock has made the canyon walls so steep.  The Colorado River in Grand Canyon averages seven feet per mile.  Only the Yellowstone River in Wyoming has a steeper gradient.

One attraction that is hard to miss is the Painted Wall (second from the bottom photo).  The Painted Wall is the highest cliff in Colorado, standing at 2,250 feet above the river ( that's 1,000 feet taller than the Empire State Building).  The pink and white pegmatite stripes lace through the rock almost like lattice which seems to hold the wall in place.

The national park hosts wild life ranging from the trout that live in the river to the weasel and badger to cougar and bear, along with the many birds that live in the canyon.

The Black Canyon was originally designated a national monument in 1933.  However, in 1999, it was renamed a national park, placing it in the same league as other renowned treasures like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.

What a treasure!  Another fun adventure.

See what we discover next.

Until then,

Candy and Johnny on the road.

2012 June Durango, CO.

 Sunday, June 10 dawned another warm morning with no rain in sight.  We headed North toward Colorado, leaving New Mexico behind.  As you enter Colorado, the sky seems bluer, the hills greener.
We arrived in Durango ad began to set up what will be our home for the next five weeks.  What a glorious place.  The skies are so blue and the mountains green.  There is so much to do in this area and the weather here seems perfect! The days are really quite warm although dry! Along with the winds the daytime temperature is comfortable.  The nights cool off for very nice sleeping!!  The town of Durango is not big but there is a lot of things to
see and do here.  There is the Silverton Railroad, which we have taken, is a wonderful ride back in time to the silver mining town of Silverton up in the mountains.  The Animas River runs through town and rafting is a popular thing. (Although with the lack of snow this past winter the water levels are rather low).  Mountain biking and off road jeeping is also on the list of things to do.  If fishing is your thing, there is plenty of that here also.

There have been wildfires in northern Colorado, but we had not seen any here until the other day.  A wild fire sprang up several mountains over.  There has not been any rain here for quite a while.  Open fires
 and fireworks have been baned.  Last evening on the way home from dinner we could see the smoke coming over the hill toward the valley where we are located.  We have been informed that there is not danger here for the present time. (The last several photos show the smoke on the horizon).

We are here with two other couples, so we have been having a great time sharing happy hour and dinners!

We have not been doing much sight seeing, just taking it easy and fixing things on the coach.  Thank goodness they are mostly little things, but they do need to be attended to so they don't become
larger items.
We will be here until July 15th or so, and we will keep you posted on our outings.

Hope all is well with everyone,
Until later, love from the road,
Candy and Johnny

June 2012 New Mexico

Saturday, June 9, there was a thin overcast and the temperature was 63* when we left Amarillo and headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  It was not long and the temperature began to climb, another hot day!!!  John is not fond of the state of New Mexico as he says that everything is brown!

It was only about a five hour drove and we pulled into the Roadrunner RV Park and met up with our friends, Sharon and Fred.  They had been there for several days sight seeing in the area.  We set up our home and Fred and Sharon suggested that we go to lunch.  They had been out sight seeing the day before we arrived and 
had stopped in the little town of Chimayo, NM  and had a great lunch.  We thought was a wonderful place to go.  Have to admit that the food was wonderful and the margaritas were some of the best we have had!!!

After lunch Fred took us to the Santuario de Chimayo.  The Santuario was built between 1813 and 1816, on the spot were the crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found in 1810 by Don Bernardo Abeyto.
There is no written testimony concerning as apparition of Our Lord in the Chimayo area.
What is known is tradition passed from one
to another by the people of El Potrero.
One tradition recalls that during Holy Week on the night of Good Friday in 1810, Don Bernardo Abeyta, was performing the customary penances.

Suddenly, he saw a light springing from one of the slopes of the hills near the Santa Cruz river.  Don Bernardo went to the spot and noticed that the shining light was coming from the ground.  He started to dig with his bare hands and there he found a crucifix.  He left it there and called the neighbors to come and see the precious finding.
Father Sebastian Alvarez, in Santa Cruz was notified of the finding and the priest and people set out for Chimayo.  When they arrived at the place where the Crucifix was found, they picked it up and carried it in a joyful procession back to the parish church.The Crucifix was placed in a niche on the main alter.  The next morning, the Crucifix was gone, only to be found in its original location.

A second procession was organized and the Crucifix was again returned to Santa Cruz, but once again it disappeared.  The same thing happened a third time.  By then, it was understood that El Senor de Esquipulas wanted to remain in Chimayo, and so, the El Santuario de Chimayo was built.

El Santuario has been a place of encounter with God from the beginning: a place to pray, to thank, to ask, to meditate and to experience peace of mind as well as of body.  It has also been called the "Lourdes of America."  The reference is,
due to the healings which have been attributed to the
dirt in which was found the crucifix of Our Lord.

In time, the media paid attention to the little shrine in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Newspapers across the nation and several television news organizations have taken it upon themselves to inform the public about the Shrine.

Miracles?  For some a miracle is something supernatural, something above nature.  Others demand something less, and for them anything out of the ordinary is a miracle.  As far as extraordinary happening at El Santuario, officially, the Church has never investigated any of the claims.


The "dirt" found at the room known as the "pocito" (well) is considered holy because in this spot the crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found by Bernardo Abeyta in 1810.  Since then thousands of pilgrims and visitors have come to El Santuario de Chimayo searching for spiritual, emotional and physical healing.

Many written testimonies of favors granted have been received at the Shrine.

What is the "holy dirt"?  Where does it come from?  There are legends about how the dirt in the little well replaces itself in some extraordinary way.  This is not true.  The dirt is brought
from the surrounding hillside and everytime the little well is filled by the custodian, it is blessed by the priest.  In itself the dirt does not have any curative powers.

Knowing this, some may still wonder why people come.  If faith is the sole requirement, people do not need to come to El Santuario.  God is in every place.  The thing to consider is that people not only come when they want something, but also to pray, in thanksgiving and to worship God.  Something about this place helps people experience their God, and that has been true since the days when only Native Americans lived here.

To learn more about the Santuario de Chimayo you can go to www.holychimayo.us

It was a very moving experience to sit in the little chapel and offer a prayer to God.

On thy way back to Santa Fe, Fred noticed another small chapel sitting up on the hillside.  We could not get close to the church as there was a fence around the area, but we did take some photos of the church and surround hillside. 

Tomorrow we are off to Durango, Co. where we plan to stay for five weeks.

More later,

Candy and Johnny on the road again

2012 June 7, Texas

Thursday morning, June 7, the sky was clear and we were off to Terrell, Texas.  Did not want to go through Dallas in the afternoon traffic, better to wait until the morning.  No matter what, getting around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is no fun.

After a restful night at the Blue Bonnet RV park in Terrell we were off to Amarillo.  The morning temperature was already 72, going to be another warm day!  We had stopped at the Welcome Center upon crossing the border into Texas and were told the best way to go through Dallas/Ft. Worth was to take Interstate-20 around the south part of town then take Interstate-35W north through Ft. Worth.

 Although it was morning rush hour we made it through with little trouble.  There was a bit of construction in town, and then right in the middle of the road was a 4X4 about 8 feet long.  Thank goodness we saw it in time and were able to go around it.

It was three PM, we had make it as far as Amarillo, Texas and it was time for us to stop for the evening.  We headed to the Oasis RV Resort along I-40.  As we were about to turn for the Oasis we spotted a sign for the "Cadillac Ranch".  I had seen a story about this on the CBS Sunday morning show awhile back.

The Cadillac Ranch was created in 1974.  It was originally located in a wheat field, but in 1997 was moved to a cow pasture along I-40, further out from the city.  The ranch consists of very old or junked Cadillac cars.  They are buried nose into the ground (see photo above).  The ranch is visible from I-40 and located on private land, however there is a gate and a path that takes you right up to the cars.  Spray painting or writing graffiti on the cars is encouraged.  Very clever!!!!

The Cadillac Ranch was mentioned in the Pixar movie "CARS".  The fictional town of Radiator Springs sits at the edge of an area referenced on a map as the "Cadillac Ranch", and throughout the movie rock formations shaped like the upended cars can be seen as a horizon backdrop.  Much of the films plot deals with the dying towns along Route 66.

It is more of a kids movie, but I love to watch it as it also deals with NASCAR racing although in the movie it is called the "Piston Cup".  Cute movie!

For dinner that evening we went to the Big Texan Steak Ranch.  The will come and pick you up from the RV park in a Limo and bring you back.  The Steak Ranch is advertised all along the highway as the home of the 72oz steak dinner.  If you eat the 72ox steak with the salad, rolls, and potato in less than 1 hour the meal is free! (Not sure what the cost is if you don't finish the steak)  They have a special stage that you sit on while you are eating this meal and a time clock counts down the hour.  There was no one that night that tried the huge meal.  It has been done, the current champ is Joey Chestnut.  In 2008 he ate the whole meal in 8 minutes 52 seconds!  Not sure that I am up to that!! Have to say that we had a rib-eye dinner and it was very goo.

Saturday and we will be off to Santa Fe, New Mexico.   More on that later.

Until then happy trails,

Candy and Johnny

June 2012 Louisiana

Tuesday, June 4, and we were once again on I-10  heading west.  We passed very quickly from Alabama to Mississippi.  A little over an hour later and we found ourselves in Louisiana, known as "America's wetlands".  As we continued on I-10 we stayed north around Lake Pontchartrain, deciding not to go through New Orleans but to continued through to Baton Rouge, the Capitol of Louisiana.

We crossed to the Atchafalaya ( pronounced "UN-CHA-fuh-lie-uh , an American Indian word meaning "long river") National Heritage Area.  The Atchafalaya River splits off from the Mississippi River near Simmesport, LA. on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the flowing lifeline of the nation's largest river swamp.  The basin is 20 miles in width and 150 miles in length, covering 595,000 acres.  The basin is home to some of Louisiana's signature wildlife - alligators, roseate spoonbills, water moccasins and craw fish, to name a few.  Interstate 10 crosses the basin on elevated pillars on a continuous 18.2 mile bridge.  It wasn't long and we were in our RV Park in Duson, La.  We went to dinner that night at one of our favorite places to eat, called Shucks.... they have GREAT Cajun food... John was in heaven!

Wednesday, June 5, we took a day off from our traveling and decided to head to the town of
St. Martinville.  St. Martinville was settled in 1765, and incorporated in 1817.  It is the sixth
oldest city in Louisiana.  Situated between the Bayou Teche and Highway 31.  St. Martinville is the Birthplace of Acadiana and made famous for the Evangeline Oak Tree that inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Evangeline, published in 1847.  The statue of Evangeline is in the courtyard of Saint Martin of Tour Catholic Church.

Research shows that Longfellow was inspired to write Evangeline after conversations with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Rev. H.L. Connolly, a friend of Hawthorn's.  Connolly told Longfellow the tale heard from a parishioner of a betrothed couple separated by the exile of the Acadian's from the region of Nova Scotia.  After "Evangeline's" publication, Connolly identified his parishioner as Mrs. George Mordaunt Haliburton, A French-Canadian woman who told the tale from Acadian oral tradition. This source for the poem is documented in the diaries and correspondence of Longfellow, Hawthorne and Connolly.

In Evangeline, a betrothed Acadian couple, Evangeline and Gabriel, are separated when forced out of their homeland.  Evangeline's long and meandering search for Gabriel brings her to the Atchafalaya Basin, where at one point, the lover's boats unwittingly glide past one another.  Arriving in the area of the present day St. Martinville, Evangeline is reunited with Gabriel's father, only to learn of Gabriel's recent departure.  After following his trail for many years, Evangeline finally despairs of ever finding her fiance.  She enters a convent and devotes the rest of her life to charitable service.  In a Philadelphia hospital, she unexpectedly meets Gabriel on his deathbed, and ends her quest of many years with thanks to God for having seen him one last time.

Tomorrow we head west again.
That is all for today, although it is still very HOT here with the temperatures hovering around 100.  Thanks to those that sent us notes after the first entry for the 2010 RV travel season.

Until later,
Candy and Johnny on the road again.

Summer 2012 RV Trip

 Summer is here once again and the thermometer reads in the 90's.  That means that it is once again time for the Badger's to load up the RV and head out of Florida!!!  The temperature was hot while we were loading our clothes and food but John was looking forward to leaving the hot/humid weather behind.

We left home on Monday morning, June 3, and headed north on I-95 to Jacksonville, turning left on I-10 and heading west.  It took us almost 9 hours to leave the great state of Florida.... seems almost impossible that the state is almost as wide as it is long.  How many
know that Florida is in both the East and Central
 time zones?

After almost 9 hours and 438 miles we found ourselves in Robertsdale, Alabama.  We stopped at the Azalea Acres RV Park for the night.  It was a small but clean park and not very full, although the kids are still in school in most states.

Tuesday morning we were up and on the road again. It did not take long and we were passing through the city Mobile, Al. not far from where John grew up.

Along Mobile Bay, sits the battleship USS Alabama. Have to say that it is quite an impressive site.

It did not take more than an hour to transit Alabama and we were in Mississippi.  In another hour we were in Louisiana, heading to Duson for a couple of days......

More on Louisiana later.  Until then we are on the road and blogging once again...

Love to all,

Candy and Johnny

2012 April in California

In January, 2012, son John along with wife, Aimee, John (age 9) and Morgan (age 7) moved from Shenzhen, China back to the U. S.  We could not get away for a visit at that time however in April we flew out to John Wayne County Airport for a weekend visit.
We had seen Aimee and the kids last summer when they were back in the US for a visit.  In July,  my John flew over to China to visit with son John.

It is nice to have back closer so we can see them more often.

Until later,   Candy and Johnny