Home for the Winter

We made it to Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort, our winter home here in Casa Grande, Arizona on September 15 and were greeted with 110 degree temperatures. Oh boy, what a welcome! The park is still pretty empty except for the folks who live here full time in the park models and village homes. I kind of like it this way. Very quiet, and peaceful.

We went right to work on extending our patio area, a project we've been planning since last year. We must be insane to have done the work in this heat, but now it's completed and we can enjoy it for the next several months.

This is "before"

And this is "after"

Golf here is free for residents until at least the middle of October, so Tom has been going out every morning around 7:00 am with a group of his buddies from here in the park. Even at 7:00 am it's still too hot for me to try golfing, and it's too early besides. But Tom is loving it, and the camaraderie with all "the guys."

One of the benefits though of waking up so early is seeing sunrises like this. Tom took this picture a couple of mornings ago.

The temps are still 100+ every day so we're spending most afternoons floating in the pool trying to stay cool. Hard work, but someone's got to do it.

Zion Nat'l Park - Shuttle Road

Friday we went back to Zion, taking the shuttle road deeper into the park. The shuttle stops at several view points and trail heads along the way and we got off to explore at almost every stop. Because our dogs were still back at the RV, we knew we could only spend about six hours in the park, so we didn't take any of the longer trails. But we did hike most of the shorter ones as well as going part way on some of the longer ones. By the end of the day, my neck was sore from continually looking straight up.

At one of the view points, we were able to watch some rock climbers going up the sheer face of "Angel's Landing." In the full view photo, I've circled their location. I can't even imagine attempting something like that.




We again took over 100 pictures, and these are some of the best. But even these don't do justice to the beauty of the place.



We relaxed at home over the weekend, catching up with chores like laundry and enjoying the first games of the new NFL season. Sadly my team lost today. We'll see what happens with Tom's team later tonight. But I digress...

Tomorrow our plan is to drive along the public road that goes through the park to it's eastern end, so I'm sure our camera will be getting another workout.

Zion Nat'l Park - Kolob Terrace Road

Today we went to the Zion National Park visitor's center to get some info on how to best spend our time while exploring the park. We learned there is a scenic road, accessible only by park shuttle, that takes you deeper into the park and has several stopping off points where you can hike trails and get a better look at all the wonders of the park. We decided to do that tomorrow when we'd have more time, but asked the Ranger what we could see in just a couple of hours today. He suggested we take a ride up Kolob Terrace Road which follows along the western edge of the park and brings you to Lava Point Lookout where you can see out over much of the park. We took his advice and we're so glad we did. Every twist and turn in the road revealed a new and amazing view. These are just a few of the 100+ pictures we took along the way.

Hurricane, Utah

Early this morning, after surviving a night of high winds that rocked the motorhome, we were back on the interstate headed even further south. Our destination: Hurricane, Utah where we planned to spend the next few days and hopefully do some exploring around Zion National Park. We arrived here around 1:00 and immediately decided to extend our stay to a week. This area is just beautiful and the weather is perfect! We are staying at one of the parks in our membership network, so it's a free stay and as we all know, free is good! This is the view from our "front yard".

Time to Move On

For the last two mornings we woke up to frost on the ground. So even though we've really enjoyed our time in Montana, it was definitely time to move on. We got everything ready to go last night and pulled out of our campsite early this morning. Tom drove about 360 miles to get us to Lehi, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. We are spending the night in the parking lot of the Cabela's store here. I'm warm again and we have a fabulous view! What more can we ask for?

Montana Trout Fishing In August/September

(by Tom)

I came into southwestern Montana thinking that I knew pretty much everything there was to know about flyfishing. However, I found out that trout in the streams around Dillon, Montana, are smarter than your average flyfisherman. This place is the "church of trout" and you better be baptized with knowledge of the bugs that they eat and how to toss 'em!

First thing that I found out was that I swung the flyrod like a caveman's club, so I went through rigorous training in the water as to how to get the fly out there without scaring the fish to the end of the river.

Our fishing friends who told us about this place have been coming here every summer for seven years. Rick and Mickey had a lot of patience teaching me the correct techniques of flycasting. Rick also taught me how to tie the flies that the trout will bite on during different times of the season. These flies match the bugs in the river that the trout feed on. I had to match the hatch. There are different bugs on different days that emerge from the bottom of the river and we had to find the fly that looked like these certain bugs of the day. I am proud to say that I was able to trick the trout into biting my flies that I tied. Rick taught me well. I was able to catch my largest rainbow trout of the month the day before I left which measured at 21 inches. My average catch size was between 18 and 20 inches with some 10 to 12 inchers in between.

I must say that Rick and Mickey are probably glad that I'm gone now because we fished everyday for a month and missed maybe 5 days due to weather or sightseeing/shopping, including one day at a fly fishing seminar.

I finally wore out my old waders and bought a new pair. I also ended up buying a new flyrod because my old one just wasn't up to the job of bringing these large trout into the net.

I lost many more trout than I brought in but I was told that if I brought 1 into the net out of 10, I was doing very well. These trout are "fish of a lifetime" and I am blessed with the fact that I was able to bring many to the net during the month. I'm very glad that I didn't have to pay a fishing guide to do this because it would have cost me thousands!

I want to express my appreciation to Rick and Mickey for their patience in teaching me the art of catching these Montana trout and being there with me daily and for taking pictures of the big ones that didn't get away. You made me a happy fisherman with trophy pictures to remember my time there on the river catching and releasing those fighters for somebody else to enjoy, maybe even me again. Yup, I believe in "catch and release" for conservation of our fine fish. I used to keep every fish that I caught when I was younger, but now I just don't eat as much fish unless it's from the store. I just enjoy tricking them and catching them. This was the longest sustained fishing trip that I ever had and I thank my wonderful wife Jo for having to go without tv, telephone, etc. for a month to let me do it.

I hope you enjoy the slide show with a lot of the fish that I caught.

Anniversary

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. It's been a fabulous 17 years and I wouldn't change a thing. We celebrated by going out to dinner with Mick and Rick to a steak restaurant close-by. The atmosphere was typical Montana. Very casual dress by patrons and staff alike, what looked sort of like card tables and folding chairs in the "dining room", booths in the bar, and stuffed animal heads covering every wall. But the food was great and we enjoyed our evening out. We topped the evening off back at home with champagne and strawberries with cream for dessert. I can't wait to see what the next 17 years has in store for us.