Since John brought you up on what transpired before we left for our summer travels, we will back track a bit to our visit to Ohio after leaving Virginia. Our objective for the first week of July was to visit our nephew Jason, his wife Christine and their children Colin, Madalyn, Elliot and Zachery. Also we were able to spend the week with his brother, Erik, wife Karen and their children Ethan, Alek and Anderson. What joyous times we had and a busy week going to the zoo, splash park, slip-n-slide at the house, gun range (for the older boys) and pedicures (for the older girls)! A real treat was viewing a puppet show and a recital by some very talented young musicians playing either the piano or the violin (their kids)! At the end of a week to remember, we said our good-byes and headed our separate ways, hopefully to reunite before the children get much older!

The infamous and popular Black Bear Pass – 12,840′ elevation

As previously reported we left Iowa and headed West for Colorado and the Western Slope. Took four days to get to Montrose and Centennial RV Park. The day after we arrived, we were out on the trails of the San Juan Mountains with the Western Slope 4-Wheelers for a work day and good fun and fellowship! The WS4W maintain a number of the trails for the off-road vehicles.

Among the trails done this summer, we did several that we had not done before. Poughkeepsie Gulch, Silver Basin, Black Bear, Alaska Basin, Governor Basin and some others I don’t recall the names.

My handy husband, when he hasn’t been driving or washing the Jeep (lots of trail mud caking the Rubicon. Yes, many of you might say ‘mud’ – what’s that?) has kept

Three new Lifeline AGM 31XT batteries for the coach. The old ones lasted 7 years

busy with several projects such as installing three new house batteries, installing two large solar panels on the roof of the RV (wiring included)! The batteries were 7 years of age (the originals) so we figured it was time to replace them! Hard for us to believe the RV is 7 years old, but I have quite a log book of all our travels that make us realize it!

290 watts of of solar power!!

Another “happening” while we have been here, is John and Jane celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary! We boarded Sassy at Little Paws (we told her it was a B&B) for a couple of nights, and traveled South to Durango on route 550, a beautiful drive itself. We had lunch in Silverton at a favorite restaurant ‘Handlebars‘ and on to Durango where we stayed at the historic Strater Hotel (we had stayed here once before in 1976) when we did the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Train. This train ride is wonderful and we highly recommend it if you are able to do it, or have never done it! Enjoyed just strolling the streets of town and enjoying the ambiance of this historic town. An interesting fact for Western book fans… there is a room in the hotel just above the saloon that is named for Lois L’Amour and his wife…it is said this town, sounds, and sights gave him inspiration for writing his books!

We arrived on July 24th and will leave here on September 4th to head to Moab, Utah to do more 4-Wheeling after a stop in Grand Junction, Colorado to have our generator and the coach engine checked at the Cummins dealer.

As always, we do appreciate y’all traveling along with us, and we value all of our readers! May God bless and keep you.

Jane and John, Sassy (the dog) and Trekkie (the cat)