August 2015, Virginia City, Nevada

 With our interests in history and historic buildings, we throughly enjoyed visiting the old mining town of Virginia City. I remember our family (back in the day) watching Bonanza, an old western show that was centered around Virginia City. There remains an old saloon by the name of Bonanza in town, (I was hoping Hoss, Little Joe and the others would come riding into town, but it didn't happen.) Aside from the TV series, there is so much history here from the mining days. The Gold Canyon area had many operating gold and silver mines and several little towns, the largest and most prosperous being Virginia City. This is a very picturesque town with old west saloons, many of the buildings and interiors being original, boardwalks and 19th century victorian era houses, all very awesome.

I loved all the old colorful lights hanging from the ceiling inside this western saloon.

Not the greatest picture, but I thought this 15-foot tall portrait of Lady Luck was amazing. Her dress is made of 3,261 silver dollars minted in Nevada. Her belt is made from 28 twenty-dollar gold pieces, her choker and bracelets minted from dimes. She is located in the original Silver Dollar Saloon as a tribute to the mining era. (If you're wondering about her security, the portrait is located next to the busy bar and covered with glass.)

Main Street Virginia City - "The Comstock Lode, as the wide spread gold and silver bonanza was called, turned Virginia City into the first truly industrial city in the West in the years following the 1857 discovery; the population soared from 4,000 in 1862 to 25,000 in 1874.  $500 million (billions in today’s economy) attracted all kinds, mostly males, Europeans, and Chinese."  

An interesting side note, Samuel Clemens worked for the newspaper in town and this is where he first took on the pen name of Mark Twain. The museum in the left was the newspaper office where he worked. 

In the hills around Va City we saw several bands of wild horses. Some in the distance and others eating grass by the side of the road. There are road signs posted to watch for wild horses just like the deer warning signs we had back home. 

We continue to work our way north, heading for the Columbia River in Oregon. 

Colorado over the 4th of July, 2015

We love Colorado and the mountains. On this day we went wheeling on the Ophir Pass, found a little snow at the pass, elevation 11,789 ft. The views in every direction are just spectacular.  

Wild flowers blooming in the mountain meadows. 

After camping in Ouray for a couple nights we moved to Ridgeway State Park about 20 miles from Ouray. Ridgeway is also a beautiful area, this photo was taken at sunset from a trail behind the Visitor Center in the Park.

Back in Winslow AZ, we've seen some amazing sunsets here, (no photo editing). 

Grand Canyon North Rim

We liked the north rim of the Grand Canyon much better than the south. I think mostly because it is way less crowded and touristy. You can walk around and find places to sit and look at the canyon and be alone (for the most part). We drove out to several points (above) and were the only people there.

Waiting for a sunset that never really materialized because of the clouds, none the less the Grand Canyon is ever changing with the clouds and light of the day, it's a magical place. 

Raining in the canyon.
The clouds and little rain showers that popped up added to the show. 

June 2015 - Leaving Taos NM, heading for Arizona.

This is probably my favorite of all the missions we visited, I like the simple lines and adobe construction. 

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church is in a historic district of Taos. After several years of construction, the mission was completed in 1815. The Taos Chamber of Commerce claims it is one of the most photographed and painted churches in the world. Photographer Ansel Adams and painter Georgia O'Keeffe to name a few of the artists. 

The mission was the center of a fortified plaza. Plazas were enclosed with thick walls which offered protection against Indian (Comanche in this case) attackers. The plazas also served as gathering places for the community. 

 Flagstaff AZ, The Great Race. 

We learned the Great Race was coming to Flagstaff and decided to check it out, so glad we did, it's such an amazing event which we knew nothing about, until now.

The Great Race is a world famous old car rally that's been in existence for 33 years. It's a 9 day race that covers over 2,000 miles in vehicles 1972 or older. This year the race started in MO and ended in CA, traveling over sections of old Route 66 which brought the rally thru Falgstaff. The cars each have a driver and a navigator. They're given precise instructions everyday that detail every move down to the second. It's not a race of speed but of time. They are scored throughout the day at checkpoints.  Following the precise instructions is key and the primary job of the navigator.

People lined the streets and cheered as the cars pulled into Flagstaff. 

All ages of cars.

All kinds of vehicles.

These proud guys were from Finland. There were also a couple teams from Japan.

I liked the tow truck, who would ever think of entering a tow truck in a road rally.

A rather unusual custom built car.

From looking on their web site, this car was the overall winner. The cars lined the streets for a few hours making for an amazing car show. We talked to a husband/wife team (so interesting) and saw they placed in the top 20...cool. 

If you're interested in entering, save your coins, the entry fee is $5,500.00. The winner is awarded a cool $50,000 in prize money. 

Next year the race will be following the Lincoln Highway, starting in CA and ending in IL. We'd love to see the race again, it's very possible with our moving home. 

Taos, NM, June 2015
A few miles out of Taos we visited a small development where houses are built with recycled and renewable materials. Houses are totally off grid, solar and wind provide  power. Collected rain water, snow melt and condensation provide water. It was fascinating. I admire people who live with such attention to taking care of mother earth. I need to do better, even small things can make a difference. 

Model home/Earth Ship's office. Seminars are held at this location, attendees are university students and people wanting to learn how to build an Earth Ship house. They claim anybody can learn to build one of these amazing houses and can be built in any part of the country. (One is currently being built in Williams AZ, about 30 miles from Flagstaff.) We were able to tour this house, there was signage and a video explaining more about the Earth Ships. We could also see the many systems in operation. It looked complicated but they claim not so much once learned.

Since the house is built into the ground we could walk on top the roof, the roof has a slant which enhances the rain collection, the water runs down the channel into the water system inside the house.

All houses have a greenhouse incorporated into the floor plan used for growing food, we saw some tasty looking veggies. Gray water from sinks and showers is filtered and piped into the greenhouse. The filtered gray water is also used to flush toilets.

House in the construction phase. I wanted to get a closer look but being a construction site and private property, it was understandably off limits. Looks to be a good size house, all the windows to the south will give it tons of passive solar power. Behind this house in the distance are more Earth Ship houses. Again, it's private property and not really a tourist drive. Although at the office they have a listing of one for sale, they also have one house that can be rented for a weekend stay. 

This interesting building is in the same area as the office, it's used for seminars and meetings. The decorative gizmo on top is actually a wind turbine for generating electricity. 

Interesting wall by the office house. The old tires on the bottom are filled with dirt pounded in with huge sledge hammers (by hand), referred to as rammed earth. This provides a good support base as well as a thick wall for insulation. The rammed earth tires are used as the foundation in the houses then covered with an adobe type mud. What a great way to use old tires. Old bottles are often incorporated as a decorative feature. There were so many innovative ideas used in these houses. If you're interested in reading more, check out their website, Earthship.com. 

On our way to AZ we spent several days in northern New Mexico. (June 2015)

Santa Fe is a very beautiful city, rich in history, adobe style buildings, very colorful and clean. 

We spent two evenings just walking around. Celebrated our anniversary here.

Eclectic and artsy.

San Miguel Mission, claims to be the oldest church in the U.S. Built by Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico in the early 1600's. I liked the bird sitting on top the cross.

Regular church services are still held at San Miguel.

St Francis Cathedral, downtown by the historic Santa Fe Plaza. Plazas date back to the town's beginnings, originally and still a center gathering place. The old missions are so beautiful. 

Colorful shops and restaurants abound.

If you like to hike, this is a good one! Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, about 40 miles south of Santa Fe. The tent shaped rocks, also known as hoodoos, are the result of volcanic activity millions of years ago.

This national monument is a scared site to the Cochiti Pueblo Indians. 

 The hike was a 3 mile in and out.

At times it looked like another planet.

Storm moving in, we got sprinkled on towards the end. We don't mind the rain but we've seen  some intense lightening out here and don't care to get caught on a mountain in a thunder storm, so we picked up the pace.

Hiking thru the slot canyon was most amazing!

More of the slot canyon. With the storm brewing, it got very windy in here, sand started blowing around. 

We came across this little  mission on our way to Taos.  

Las Trampas, a small village established as an American-Spanish settlement in 1751. This church remains a community center where religious ceremonies are still observed. Parishioners periodically re-mud the adobe walls which are as much as 6 ft thick, see scaffolding on one side.

Las Trampas is such a small little settlement, just a few scattered houses, agriculture seems to be the main source of work, we didn't see any stores, in fact we drove by this mission at first then turned arouund to check it out, glad we did. 

 I just had to snap a picture of this RV.

 At a NM casino campground, nice pull thru sites, very reasonable, perfect for a stop over and an easy walk to the casino for a bite to eat. 

All for now. The RV life is treating us well. Love to our family.

June 2015 - After a 2 month hiatus, we’re back as we begin a new chapter, actually more like a new "book" in our lives. We so throughly enjoyed the RV life last winter that we decided to try this full time. Our house sold right away, no turning back now. We sold and packed up our house in less than 2 months, it was grueling, so many years of accumulating "stuff".

So our new book begins….we dedicate this blog to my mom and our kids. They are all an adventurous lot and have supported us with much enthusiasm. We dearly love them all.

Our first "campground". 

Before leaving the dairy state, we spent a couple nights parked at the home farm where my sister and brother-in-law live. It was very special staying there, many wonderful memories. 

And the "camp hosts" were the best! We got a text in the morning when coffee was ready. My sister takes after my mom, she's the Betty Crocker of the family and treated us to a couple great dinners. 

Our first stop in Sioux Falls, SD.

We loved this beautiful park with the cascading waterfalls (Sioux Falls). We followed the river walk to downtown, and took a short trolly ride with a narrative history of Sioux Falls. Beautiful downtown. 

We enjoyed the many sculptures downtown. This was my favorite. The picture doesn't do it justice, the little boy is holding an ice cream cone and has ice cream on his face. 

Hutchinson Kansas

Another stop on our way to AZ was in Hutchinson Kansas. Two of my hubby’s sisters from Dallas met us there for an evening together and dinner. While there we learned of an Underground Salt Mine and Museum, we decided to check it out. 

The trip down into the mine was on a double-decker industrial elevator, the mine/salt deposit is 650 feet below ground. We were amazed at the huge underground area that has been mined out, the tunnels are wide and clean. Even though the area we toured was not being mined it was easy to see all the salt in the walls. There are over 150 miles of tunnels under this city. The mine continues to be worked in another area. One of their largest customers is the city of Chicago, the salt used for winter roads.

As well as self guided exhibits there is also a tram that goes into mined areas where we saw artifacts left behind by miners over a period of 85 years. Our guide told us what goes down into the mine stays there. We saw a couple old tractors that were hauled down in pieces and reassembled. Miners only took parts down that were necessary for operation, things like fenders not necessary. 

Of all things, I particulary liked the bathrooms, the walls are the original salt walls as in the mine, the bathrooms were well lit and the walls sparkled. These bathrooms were built for the museum and are very modern. The miners didn't have it so nice. 

A huge chunk of salt on display.

Another very interesting facet of this mine....Underground Vault and Storage, a Hutchinson company has built a thriving business in the mined-out sections of the salt mine. The caverns, accessible only by a rumbling mine elevator, are safely beyond the reach of tornadoes and far from any known earthquake fault. Temperature and humidity stay at near ideal conditions for preserving paper and film brought here from around the world.

This display replicates the storage facility that is off limits to visitors. There is a separate elevator to reach the storage area, only people with high security clearance can enter. Warner brothers and Sony Pictures are a couple of their largest customers as well as the U.S. government. The SuperMan suit is an original from a Superman Movie, it's encased in glass in the museum area. The film cases are staged to depict the storage area.

Some interesting things stored here are the original film negative for "The Wizard of Oz." A collection of New York newspapers dating to the assassination of President Lincoln. Secret U.S. government documents. Thousands of medical research biopsies encased in wax.

And much more buried 650 feet beneath the Kansas prairie in a vast underground salt mine warehouse. The storage facility covers over 40 acres. 

Who would've known?? We were amazed.

__________________

Our journey continues...I think we're going to really like this RV life. I'm still trying to organize things in every little nook and cranny and then remember days later where I put that thingy we're looking for. Quite an adjustment going from a spacious house to 300 
square ft. 
When the day ends, we thank God for blessing us with this opportunity.