#22 - Casa de Jernigan - Fruita, CO

This is a first on this trip - camping in a subdivision!  We arrive at Andy and Kim's house and take up residence on the side of the street.  It's a quiet street, we have full use of shower facilities and the pups have a fenced in back yard - all is good. We get to meet son Derek and his girlfriend Kelsey and start to plan our activities for the week.

First up is a ride around the Colorado National Monument. David and I don't have fond memories of our last cruise due to the heights and canyon dropoffs on the edge of the road; however on the motorcycle it doesn't seem so bad. 

And David enjoyed revving in the tunnels...

We took tours of Andy and Derek's shop. Derek was kind enough to take a look at David's truck and deemed it fit and worthy to continue on our trip. 

We learned that the Junior College Baseball World Series was in town and since Omaha is on our bucket list we decided to take in a game. 

David's first ever selfie...lol. 

Chatahoochee Valley of Alabama beat Delgado of Louisiana 8-6. The teams are ranked 1-2. Excellent ball game. 

We had planned to ride ATVs on Grand Mesa however the weather looked iffy so we headed to nearby Rabbit Valley. 

We snagged a pretty good rain storm on the way back to the truck but that just made it more memorable. 

Memorial Day included burgers, card games and thanks to our veterans and service men and women who make what we're doing possible. 

We are now Bonanza bound!

 Kelsey and Derek saw a bear! 

#21 - Moab - Ken's Lake and Hittle Bottom

We left Cedar City with a destination in mind - a campsite outside of Moab on the Colorado River. However fate had another plan for us. We checked 30 miles of river campgrounds and found none that could accommodate us. All of the private campgrounds in Moab were full. So we headed south.  We ended up at a BLM campground eight miles south of Moab, nowhere near the river, called Ken's Lake. But there is a happy twist. We were on a reservoir, had view of and a trail to a gorgeous waterfall and had miles of canyon ATV riding at our disposal. 

And beautiful sunsets each night...

But we had to watch for free-range cows...

We were less than 30 minutes from Arches National Park and just a little farther to Canyonlands National Park. Both were motorcycle riding destinations for us.

Canyonlands

Arches

David's brother Andy and his wife Kim joined us on Saturday so we were able to catch up around the campfire. The following day we saddled up the ATVs and hit the trails some which were a tad challenging.  

Our next destination was to be Andy and Kim's house but I really wanted that river front campsite for at least one night so we took another shot at it and this time we were successful - the third campground that we visited and last that had sites that could hold us had a nice pull-through available for us. 

Once we got set up, we decided to explore by truck - another windy day. We drive the 60-mile LaSal Mountain Loop which provided gorgeous vistas - and more snow!

And then David made one of his famous detours and took us down Onion Creek Rd. 

Very fun and just the kind of off-road trail that's just worrisome enough to give you an adrenaline rush without any real danger.

And again beautiful views...

We're having some power minor problems with the camper so city life at Andy and Kim's house for the next week will allow us to regroup and handle some maintenance issues. This adventure is still amazing to us on a daily basis. We still can't wait for what the each next day brings!

 

 We will do this next time...

#20 - Cedar City KOA

We made Utah the day after a huge wet snow storm left tree branches covering muddy ground - not good conditions for winging it on Forest Service or BLM land so we played it safe and pulled into the Cedar City KOA. 

We scoped out the local roads and headed east. What would we find a day after a big snow?  

Luckily we were dressed appropriately so we continued to head up and reach Cedar Breaks National Monument. 

We reached Brian Head Ski Resort before we headed back down a more temperate elevation. 

Our next ride was more ambitious - 80 miles across the mountain to Bryce Canyon National Park. 

Navajo Lake - formed by a volcano

We rode about 250 miles in two days. Now we'll head to Moab and trade scooter riding for ATV riding and trade these cool temps for warm summer weather. Tan time!