2013 June Baker's Bridge, CO

 Finally, after being sick for about 2 weeks, I am on the mend and able to get out for short drives.  On Tuesday, June 25th, we had to take to coach to the Durango Glass Company as we had a cracked windshield.

As it was a beautiful day, we headed out to find  Baker's Bridge, which is about 13 miles north of Durango.  My friend Shirley had told me about the Bridge, and I thank her for it was truly a lovely place.

It seems that in 1969, the movie 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' was made, which stared the dynamic duo of Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
It was a 20th century Fox film.  The film was about

 the famous outlaw pair and won four Academy Awards, including the best song 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'.
In the movie there is the famous jump scene.  It was filmed here at Baker's Bridge.  The scene looks different from this area as the water was blocked to create the appearance of a more rapid-like river and the jump itself was made to look farther through Camera magic to create the illusion of a much longer fall to the water.

The bridge was named after Captain Charles H. Baker, who discovered Gold in the San Juan's in 1860, he was later killed by Indians.

I am so glad my friend told me go and visit this place.  The Animas River was beautiful here.

Hopefully we will now be able to see more places here before we leave and head West.

Until later,  love to all,

Candy and Johnny

June 2013 Cinnamon Pass, Colorado

 Five days after our arrival in Durango, Co.  I came down with a awful summer cold!!!  Here I am in this beautiful place and I am so sick that I do not feel up to doing anything. 

Another couple of airline friends had also come to Durango, however they were only staying here for a week before heading West.  It was fun to see Gary and Cortney.  As per the custom, we had dinner waiting for them the day that they arrived.

It was the following day that I came down with mt cold, so at least we had one good dinner together.

One day, the three guys decided to take Chris's 4 wheel jeep to Cinnamon Pass.  This is one of Colorado's most scenic drives.  You can drive the loop in any SUV with good clearance, though you may find challenges in some spots.

The trail follows the Gunnison River for some amazing views.  Along the trail you climb switchbacks and steep sections to the top, sometimes the switchbacks are a bit rocky.  I understand that tire placement here is a must!
If you are careful you find yourself at Cinnamon Pass,

 between Cinnamon Mountain and Wood Mountain, a crest marked with a sign, at 12,640 feet.  From there the trail takes you down into the town of Silverton.

Along the way John found a "friend".No, he did not keep him for a pet!!!!

As I was not able to make the trip and the guys seemed to want a "boys" outing, I gave my camera to John, and I think he took some pretty good photos.

Stay tuned for later updates...

Candy and Johnny

June 7, 2013

 Friday morning and we decided not to stay in Albuquerque, NM, so we packed up and headed to Durango, Colorado.  Once again it was a beautiful day and a fairly easy drive.   We left Albuquerque at 10 am and headed North.  Along the way we crossed  the Continental Divide.  We were at 7380 feet.

I love it when you cross into Colorado from New Mexico as the terrain changes from red and brown to green and mountains.

We arrived in Durango at 2:30 pm and were met by our friends Chris and Jan who had arrived the day before, they had dinner ready for us.. Nice to have such nice friends!!! 

We will be here for a month to enjoy the weather and the beautiful scenery.

More later, until then, love to all,

Candy and Johnny

Summer 2013 RV Trip

 Memorial Day has once again come and the summer has begun!!  The Badger's are in our motor coach and on the road again.

We packed up on May 30 and left Palm Coast on May 31 for our summer adventure.  We did have a bit of a slow start as we had to make a stop at Camping World on our way out of town.  It seems that the door handle decided to lock up!!   Could not get into the coach, as the lock had frozen.  John had ordered a new part so we stopped to get it fixed.  It took us much longer than we had thought and after five hours we were told that it was now working, so out we went and.....the latch would not open!!!   Thank goodness that we had left a window
unlocked so that we could get in and open the door
from the inside.  Another two hours and we were

 on our way.  As we had gotten such a late start we only drove as far as Lake City, Florida and stopped at the Lake City Campground.

Saturday morning we were up early and off again.  We headed up to Valdosta, Georgia and headed West on US 84.  It was a nice road through the rolling countryside.  Saturday we made it to Andalusia, Alabama, staying at the Sweet Home Alabama Campground.  We had been watching the weather and did have some heavy rain just prior to arriving at the campground, however it stopped as we pulled into our camping spot.  (Not fun trying to set up in the rain)

Sunday morning, June 2, and we were on the road again.  Today we made it to Vidalia, Louisiana.  Right across the Mississippi River from Natchez, Mississippi.  We stayed overnight at the River view RV Park and watched the barges along the River.  The river was up somewhat, but not as high as in 2011 when the Campground had flooded and was closed.

Monday morning, June 3, and we were headed toward Texas.  Driving along the road we have seem lots of "road kill"  however, we have never seen Alligators killed along the road!!  Today we
saw two alligators along the roadside that had been hit by a vehicle.  These were not small gators!!  They were at least 5 to 6 feet in length.  I am just glad that we were not the one that ran over them... don't think that would have been a good thing!!!
We made our way north of Dallas and pulled into the Destiny Dallas RV Resort in Denton, Texas.  We decided to stay two nights and catch our breath.  We found a great Bar-B-Que joint near the campground and had some great ribs!!!

Wednesday, June 5, on to Lubbock, Texas.  We pulled into the Lubbock RV Park for the night.  Soon after we had set up camp, the weather took a turn for the worse and the notice went out that
 Thunderstorms were approaching the Lubbock area.  We pulled in all the slides on our rig and watched the news.  There were no tornadoes however there were heavy winds, gusting from 70 to 85 miles per hour.  Watching the news (thank goodness we did not lose power) there were power outages all over the city and some damage.  The wind had brought down some lights on a ball field at the local college and the roof was off several buildings, but we were okay!!!!!!
In the morning we received a message from our neighbor at home.... seems that one of the sprinkler heads had come off and there was water running down the yard.  Thank goodness for our neighbors John and Julie!!!!  They managed to take care of the problem....seems like nothing happtens when we are home, however the minute you leave.... something has to break!!!!!  All is well.  THANK YOU John and Julie.
When we went to leave the following morning the underside of the coach was loaded with tumbleweeds that been blown about.  Pulled them free and we were off again.

Thursday, June 6, and we were off to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We pulled into the American RV Park.  What a nice park! It was hot in Albuquerque, but it did cool off very nice at nights for sleeping.  Up in the morning and over to the office building where they had breakfast!!!!!  Not bad.

We have been on the road now for a week, learning once again to live so close together!!!!!  From here we are planning on heading to Durango, Colorado, stopping there for about a month.  It will be nice to get someplace and stay for awhile and get our bearings.

More from along the road later.  Happy trails to all...

Love,   Candy and Johnny

2012 Christmas

Christmas at the Badger's.  I got a new camera and was seeing what the camera would do.. It has a 20 power zoom that I like very much for when we are out in the National Parks.