On The Road Again (Part 1) - Southwestern Roadtrip

Day 1 and Day 2

It takes two days to drive to Denver....it's almost 1200 miles.  The first day we drove from home to Richfield, Utah.  There's a lot of "wide-open spaces".  After Bakersfield, you climb over Tehachapi Pass where there are fields of windmills "harvesting" the wind for electricity.  On to Mojave, then a long stretch of nothing until you get to Barstow.  Along that stretch you pass Edwards Airforce Base, where many of the pilots that later became astronauts trained.  And the little wide spot of Boron - famous for the "20-mule team". 

Past Barstow you hook up with Interstate 15 which heads on out of California into Nevada.  Primm, Nevada sits on the border and is a mini Las Vegas with casinos, restaurants, motels and golf courses straddling the Interstate. 

Then on into Las Vegas - I-15 goes right through the famous "Strip" and since we hit a traffic jam, I took a few photos of the huge casinos while sitting in the car. 

The Luxor

New York, New York

On through Vegas still on I-15 cutting through Nevada, and a little part of Arizona before entering Utah.  Through St. George, Utah heading north passing through Cedar City, catching I-70 and finally stopping for the night at Richfield, Utah.  About 680 miles for the day!  And 4 states!

Day 2 we head out of Richfield and take a scenic loop on Highway 24 that takes us through Capitol Reef National Park, hooking back up with I-70 near Green River, Utah.

Back on I-70 we head east into Colorado - crossing the Colorado River as we pass Grand Junction and head for Glenwood Springs.  We discover that we're about a week late for aspen viewing, but the scenery is beautiful, just the same.  Eastward we drive through the Rocky Mountains, passing the ski towns of Vail and Copper Mountain. 

We drive through the Eisenhower Tunnel, dropping down past Georgetown and Idaho Springs, and finally spy Denver sprawled out below us.  Into Denver to meet up with my daughter, Kristen at one of our favorite pizza places - Bonnie Brae.  Another long day - we're ready for bed. 

3 Days in Denver next.

Plenty O' Pumpkins

Nothing says October like bright orange pumpkins!  And a great place to pick out your pumpkins is at the Chesebrough Farm east of Templeton.  They always have such a colorful and artistic display of pumpkins of all sizes, shapes, and colors.  They specialize in carving a family or business name on a pumpkin when it's still growing in the field for a personalized pumpkin!  Here's how to get there....go east on Vinyard over the Salinas River, pass the turn off to Templeton Road (that goes to Atascadero), go a little bit further until you come to Moss Lane.  Turn right onto Moss Lane - it's a bumpy narrow dirt road so drive slowly and enjoy the shady oak lined road with a vineyard on the left, and fields on the right.  In a couple of miles, you'll come up a little hill, and there is the farm.  Enjoy strolling around a looking at all the pumpkins and displays and pick out the perfect pumpkin for your holiday decorating (or pie!)

Now, wasn't that more fun than picking up your pumpkin at Albertsons or Safeway!!!

Tee-Shirt Quilt

 I've been stashing old tee-shirts for some time now with the intention of using them in a quilt.  So when our local quilt shop offered a class on "Tee-Shirt Quilts", I signed up.  I now have my top pieced, using 9 tee-shirts.  I think it turned out better than I expected.  Evidently Casey agrees.

Super Deluxe

Seen outside the Moonstone Beach Grill on Sunday!  Those Woody's always turn my head!  What do you think about the color?  Can't say that I would have chosen brown, but it's a handsome car in any color, don't you think?

When I was a kid my parents had one of the first "station wagons" in town.  It was a baby blue Buick with wood sides and back.  My dad would sand and varnish the wood every year.  It was beautiful and my favorite car ever!  It looked kind of like this.  We took a lot of great trips in that car!  It looked just like the car that was in the movie "Julie and Julia" - the one that Julia Child and her husband drove around Paris! 

KSBY Contest

I have entered this collage on the KSBY Sunset/Sunrise contest.  Your vote would be appreciated!

End of the Summer in the Garden

My garden is not very pretty now.....but the birds do love it! They hang from the sunflowers stripping the seeds from the heads, and flit about the cosmos and coreopsis getting the small seeds. 

And there are a few colorful cosmos left.

Every season has it's beauty!

Stalking the Reclusive Roadrunner

This afternoon, my two photographic assistants and avian aficionados, Casey

and Owen

helped me stalk the wily roadrunner who had wandered into our yard.

In a feeble attempt to escape, he hopped into the nearest oak tree, where he tried to blend into the foliage.

Ha!  He thinks he's camoflaged.

But we sat in the grass and kept him view for quite awhile.

Owen volunteered to make sure he didn't leave the tree.

And that was our afternoon's excitement here at Spanish Lakes!

Pismo Beach

Some photos taken at Pismo Beach yesterday. 

The Pier at Pismo Beach with Point Sal and the Guadalupe Dunes in the background.

Looking South toward Pismo Beach

Lots of birds on the rocks

An interesting sky