Rocky Mountain high

Time to head east. The normal route east across Colorado is Highway 70 - but it's had some major mudslides and is closed. Highway 50, going east out of Montrose also had some mudslides and is closed during weekdays. They have it open on weekends, so we decided to stay at Heath and Alyssa's one more night and leave on Saturday. Don and Kim recommended a side road over the Cottonwood Pass. We follow their advice whenever possible, so here we go.

A drive over a stunning 12,000 foot mountain pass, camping in a beautiful national forest campground with a nice walk along a creek and a real wood campfire. Then finish it off with a soak in a natural mountain hot springs. That was our last 24 hours

Jim was very happy with the ease at which our Roadtrek climed this pass

This is the Collegiate Peaks national forest campground. We snagged one of the last spots.

It was cool enough to have a fire. Where are the marshmallows?

Collegiate Peaks and Chris' history

This is an area in the Colorado Rocky mountains where there are several mountains, including Mt. Harvard and Mt. Yale, that are over 14,000 feet. Too bad none of them can call themselves the highest point in the continental US because that honor goes to Mt. Whitney in California at 14,495. A looooong time ago, when I (Chris) was a hippie hiker/backpacker I climbed the mountaineer route to the top of Mt. Whitney with my boyfriend, Bob. One summer we also took a trip thru Colorado and did some backpacking in the Collegiate peaks area. I can't remember exactly where, but I found this photo of me on the balcony of a cabin in these mountains. It had a sign in the window to the effect that backpackers were welcome to use the cabin rather than pitch a tent. Cool.

Chris - circa 1975 hiking in the Collegiate Peaks

Jasper - the dog (left) and Bob

Bonus

We found a hot springs! Just down the road from our campground. Cottonwood Hot Springs They had several pools, ranging in temperature from 98 to 106 - that's hot! They also promoted the fact that these hot springs were not sulphur, that means they don't stink! They are mineral - mostly Lithium.

Faywood Hot Springs

Having Facebook friends who travel is great for getting ideas. Sometime last year I noticed a post from friends about Faywood Hot Springs in New Mexico and they liked it. We love hot springs and I knew that Faywood would be somewhere near our route headed from the west coast back to Florida so I put it on our list.
We made it!

Faywood Hot Springs in New Mexico

They had a full service RV park right there at the hot springs. All we had to do was wrap a towel around us and walk past a couple of sites to these pools. You could also call them the Goldilocks tubs: the one on the left is too HOT, the one in the middle is too cold, and the last one is just right! Actually we spent most of our time in the HOT one!

We figured on one night here because Sunday was the next day and we needed to be in a good Internet area to do our webcast show. Lo and behold, there was a Verizon tower within line of sight of the hot springs! We stayed 3 nights!  Here's the show we did that week - it was an especially good one I think! We demonstrated Google Now.


Then, since we had time to spare, we visited a local winery and a State Park called City of Rocks.

There is an RV park here also, but it's too far from the Verizon tower. If we had decided to stay here, we would have had to move on.

Fantastic day! It was a snapshot of what this lifestyle is all about. Work all morning, present our webinar on smartphones and tablets, then soak in hot spring pool in campground where we're staying. Icing on the cake, take a drive to attraction City of Rocks, then a nearby winery (Esperanzas) then dinner at a wonderful cafe Diane's in a historic town (Silver City, NM), back home, one more soak before bed.

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New Years 2015 starts out Hot and Cold

We were supposed to leave Palm Creek in Casa Grande on Dec 31, but the day dawned windy, rainy, and freezing cold so we made arrangements to stay another night. That suited me fine since I had to get our newsletter done. Our monthly Geeks on Tour newsletter has turned out to be a month in review piece, so my deadline is the last day of the month. Here is the December 2014 newsletter.

By New Year's Day, the weather had cleared - there was no wind, and we were ready to go. One month in one parking place is a long time for us! It felt great to be on the road again. Arizona scenery is so interesting with the Saguaro cactus, the flat land and the abrupt mountains.

We didn't plan to go very far, we were headed to Quartzsite, but we didn't need to be there for another 10 days. Our favorite hot springs, El Dorado hot springs was just about half way - sounds great!

We pulled in and parked at a designated RV site with 50 amp electric, and made arrangements for a soak in one of their private tubs that night and again the next morning. The deal is $55 for the site and 2 hours of soaking. In the past, we've happily paid $30 for one hour soak, so I figure we're paying for the soak and the RV site is thrown in. A great deal and lots of ambience. Check out the wildlife:

When we woke up the next morning, there was ice on the ground! What?! Weather reports said there was snow in Havasu City ... the first time ever recorded! And we're about to go outside and take our clothes off??!! Man! What we'll do for a good soak in hot springs!

That's frost on the bicycle seat!

Ahhhhhh ... hot water.

We've been here before, even as recent as 3 months ago, and I thought I recalled there being good Verizon signal here. Boy was I wrong. Only 2 bars of 3G. We could barely check email, let alone get any real work done. So, we had to leave. We're only 35 miles west of Phoenix, so we figured we'd drive that way until we hit the outskirts of civilization. There's bound to be good Verizon signal a bit closer to the city.

OK, so how's this?!

The prettiest sight for Geeks' eyes - a nearby cell tower. We get 5 bars of 4G XLTE here!

While we were checking in, we exclaimed over the great Verizon signal provided by the tower right IN the park! Five Bars! and someone told a story of a customer who overheard a conversation about there being Five Bars at this RV park and wondered if that meant that all the local drunks congregated here. They'd never heard of an RV park having even one Bar, let alone 5!

For those of you who look at speed numbers, feast your eyes on this test:

We'll definitely stay here thru Sunday because we do our weekly show live over the Internet on Sundays. We might even stay thru next Sunday to be sure we can get two good shows done! We start our seminars in Quartzsite next Monday.

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Hot Springs!

Other than scuba diving, soaking in a hot tub is probably our favorite thing! We seek out Hot Springs, but we haven't found more than a handful along our route and with RV parking nearby. One of those is in Tonopah, Arizona and it's called El Dorado Hot Springs. Desert Funky - is how I'd describe it. This is the third time we've been here in our travels and it's only gotten better. We had a 50Amp RV site, we were the only RV there. And, they've added new, private, tubs since we were there last.

In the evening, we used the Sunset Tub - and true to its name, we were able to watch the desert sunset while soaking.  Ahhhhhh

The following morning, we chose the Desert View tub. Can you tell why it's called that?

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Recipe for Relaxation

First of all, we were exhausted … exhilarated, but exhausted … after 5 rallies in a row, 20+ seminars and one 2-day hands on class.  We left Gillette mid-day on July 4.  July 4 is our anniversary and we wanted to repeat our first anniversary during our full-time RVing life.  In 2004 we discovered a fabulous hot springs in Thermopolis, WY and that’s where we spent our anniversary.  What a gorgeous drive it was over the Powder River Pass thru the Bighorn mountains and south to Thermopolis.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the Fountain of Youth RV park about 5 o’clock, already feeling relaxed and renewed.  Filled with the beauty of the Wyoming mountains.  After we got parked, we quickly changed into bathing suits and went straight to the hot springs.

 

 

They’ve added a new barrier in the pool since we were here last.  Now you have the choice to stay in the north third of the pool which is about 100 degrees, or climb into the middle section at 102-104.  The third, southernmost section is too hot for people … sane people anyway.  The little volcano at the southern end is where the hot springs is coming into the pool at about 128 degrees.

 

 

After our first soak, we went back to the RV and made a home cooked meal for what seems like the first time in weeks.  We even set the dining room table and ate like civilized folks rather than at our computers!  There’s little or no Verizon signal here, and the free Wi-Fi is in and out.  There’s also no TV.  OMG, we were forced to look at each other and talk!  All we could talk about is how lucky we are and what a wonderful life we have.  What a great thing we did 15 years ago by getting married!   Then we went back at night to soak some more, wait for the fireworks, and listen to live music by the park owner.  Here’s a little video:

 

The next day we started with another soak.

Then we went into town and had breakfast at the Thermopolis Café, then visited the Dinosaur Museum.

Once we were in the tourist mode, we just kept on going.  We had seen a sign back up the road a ways for tours at the Wyoming Whiskey distillery.  Umm … OK!  Hey!  It said Stop … so we did.

By the time we got back home, it was NAP time!    No phone, no Internet.  Started the day with a hot springs soak, then played tourist, tasted Wyoming Whiskey, had lunch at a great hamburger place.  Now THAT’s a recipe for relaxation.  We napped for the rest of the afternoon, then repeated the night before of soaking, swimming, and listening to music. 

Travel Mode

Our next stop is Elkhart, Indiana for the Gypsy Journal rally.  We have no goals for this trip other than to fill in our map by adding North Dakota.  It’s the only state in the lower 48 where we haven’t been in this RV.  We’ll be on highway 90 and plan to stay a couple nights at Teddy Roosevelt Nat’l Park.

We considered popping up to Glacier Nat’l Park, but decided against it.  It would add to much time to our travels, and we couldn’t do it justice in 2 days anyway.  Maybe next summer we’ll be able to make it there.  As we pulled back on the highway out of Spokane, WA, I felt a pang of guilt that we would be traveling so close by where my step-brother Tom lives, but we needed to keep traveling.  I sent him an email (actually an instant message) and, he responded right back that he could drive the hour from his place to the freeway and meet us for lunch at a truck stop!  Perfect!  It even happened to be lunchtime!

Here’s ‘Brother’ Tom:

Thanks Tom for being flexible and making that drive – it was great to see you! 

The last time we saw Tom … also the first time I met him! … was in 2006 (blog post here.)  He was a long-haul truck driver.  We’re complaining about having to make the trip from Oregon to Indiana in 12 days – he says he would drive from Oregon to New York … and BACK in that time! He has since quit truck driving - now he’s a geek too!  He’s realized he can be a lot more comfortable working from home, and with computers, Internet, and Skype, there’s all sorts of jobs he can do.  

After leaving Tom, we continued on Highway 90 towards Butte, Montana.  They’re not kidding that this is big sky country! 

I studied my Trailer Life catalog, searched for campgrounds on my Streets and Trips program and decided on one park.  When we reached there, Jim wasn’t tired enough yet, so we kept going.  More computer research, more flipping pages in the book … then I saw a sign that said “Hot Springs” and it had a little campground sign below it on the same post.  I said … “Turn Here!”  Sometimes you just have to be flexible.  What a great spot this was!  I had seen the Fairmont Hot Springs in the books, but it was a hotel and resort, I didn’t think you could stay at an RV park and go to the hot springs.  I was wrong.  It was a delightful little walk from the nice Fairmont RV Park (with good Wi-Fi) to the even Nicer Fairmont Hot Springs resort.  $4.75 each admitted us to the hot springs *and water slide*! 

What a nice day!  And, what a great place this would be for a small rally or conference.  Make a note!  We had dinner in the comfy bar and lounge after soaking in the hot springs and taking a ride on the water slide.  Warm water slide!  Most of the water was about 93 degrees, then the hot pool was about 103.  Just delightful.

Saratoga, Wyoming – Hot Springs

Thank you Microsoft Streets & Trips and the data files from Discovery Owners!  We used the pushpin set to look for hot springs and found a delightful little town at 7,000 feet in Wyoming – just 20 miles off Highway 80.  And the hot springs is … Hot!

Here’s that portion of our map.  Every little red marker represents a hot springs, then we use Streets ‘Find Nearby Places’ to find an RV park.  The number 6 represents our night’s stop: Deer Haven RV Park.

The *free* ‘Hobo Pool’ at Saratoga Hot Springs.  The water is minimum 108 degrees! 

And here’s where it flows into the stream outside the walls.

The hot water is held in by the piles of rocks and/or sandbags, but it mixes with the cold water from the stream to provide whatever temperature you want.  AAAAaaaahhhhhhhhh

And, the air temperature overnight is in the low 60s.  We visited the hot springs twice, once at night, once in morning.  Just delightful.

And, to top it off, there’s a fish hatchery just a couple miles away.  Back in my 30s, I made a point to visit fish hatcheries – I found that they were almost always in beautiful wilderness areas and had friendly staff more than happy to show you around.  When Jim and I started our current journey, we were thwarted in our efforts to visit Fish Hatcheries and gave up.  But, this hatchery has revived my interest in seeking them out.  Check out this view:

Jim is taking video here.  Once we get it edited, we’ll add it to this post.

Then, back at the campground, after watching the deer walk thru camp and the bald eagles fly overhead, we sat behind our rig on the banks of the North Platte river and watched the sunset.  OMG

Believe it or not, we actually were working most of the time we were here (the park has Wi-Fi – no Verizon data here.)  When you get to stay in the midst of such beauty, all you need is an hour or two break to be able to enjoy it.  I love my job!

We’re on our way to Redmond, Oregon where we’ll be presenting 8 seminars at the FMCA Convention.  Anyone can attend our Picasa seminar because they’ll be doing a live Webcast of it – mark your calendars for August 11.  Click here for times and details.

The Rio Grande

We are here at Big Bend National park, and we planned to take a hike to the hot springs that are a few miles upriver from our campground. Oh Boy! Hot Springs. My favorite! First a couple photos from yesterday. There's a great little nature trail right from the campground, to views of the river. On coming back to camp we interrupted dinner for these Javelinas. They are distantly related to pigs, and they can be pretty aggressive. There are all sorts of warnings about not leaving food out, and keeping a tight hold on your pets. As we were settling in to our campsite last night, I noticed a fifth wheel pulling in that looked familiar. Sure enough when they turned the corner, I saw the sign on the back that said "CoolJourney.net". That's the website for Bill and Susan who we met in Utah last year. What a treat to run into them again. Since we were all settled in, we decided to go over and bug them while they went thru their setup procedures. They graciously gave us some wine while we yakked away and were generally being nosey about all their stuff! Don't they know, if they give us wine, we'll never leave? Anyway, we agreed to get together this morning for the hike to the hotsprings. It was wonderful. This is Jim and Susan hiking. I guess you'll have to go to their website to see pictures of them because the only photo we took of them was with their camera. We really enjoyed the conversation along the trail, and, what a treat to have someone along to take a picture of the two of us. Quite a few cactus flowers along the way. It was a hot, dry hike, but the views were worth it. And, here's the hot springs. The trail from the camground is 3.3 miles, but there is also a road that comes in from another direction. So, there were a few people at the springs. The temperature was about 100, it was wonderful. And, you could sit on top of the retaining wall and get in the Rio Grande to cool off. Just, hold on to the wall cuz the current was pretty swift. Here are some views on the way back. Everything you see here is in Big Bend National Park - it's huge. The mountains in the distance of this photo are the Sierra Del Carmen. They're on the other side of the river, thus, in Mexico.