Trip Update #8 (Seattle, WA to New Orleans, LA)

It’s the middle of September…while in the Seattle area we had a great stay at our friends Dot and Butch (thanks you guys), whom we had met on the bus ride to Hearst Castle, CA back in February at the start of our trip. They graciously offered us the use of their driveway in which to park our land yacht and even gave us an electrical hookup – you couldn’t beat the price. We especially enjoyed the walk around Ballard Locks on a sunny day, watching the pleasure crafts coming in from the Sound and being hydraulically lifted to lake level. We also had a chance to visit with some of Marty’s relatives at Bridget and Derek’s house in Magnolia…it was great seeing everyone again and meeting new faces, too (Giovanna and Nicolas). You are all welcome to catch up with us on our travels any time. While in Seattle, we took our trailer in for some warranty work (a cracked kitchen tank and a cracked wheel rim – ravages of the Alaska trip!), and ordered the replacement parts to be shipped to Grand Junction, Colorado (we were headed that way) so we wouldn’t have to wait around for two weeks. That meant basically traveling without a spare tire, but fortunately everything worked out okay. Also, we finally got set up with Sirius satellite radio, which we wished we would have had since we started our trip…it is awesome! So much variety (almost 200 channels of music, talk, sports, and yes, Howard Stern) and no more listening to the same ‘ol CDs…for the amount of time we spend on the road its well worth the money ($13/month) and makes the driving a whole lot more enjoyable.

While we were in Haines, Alaska, we had signed up for a two-week build with Habitat for Humanity in their Durango, Colorado affiliate beginning early October, so we hit the interstate headed south and east. After one-night stays on the Oregon Trail in Farewell Bend, OR on the Snake River, and Willard Bay State Park in Ogden, UT on the Great Salt Lake, we made it to Moab, UT, where we stayed for about 10 days to soak up the sunshine. We had gorgeous weather most of the time we were there and took advantage of it to do some great hiking, mountain biking, and kayaking in red-rock country. Marty biked the famous Slickrock Trail one more time and at Brian’s urging also biked the Porcupine Rim trail (highly recommended)-Marty decided he’s not coming to Moab again without a full-suspension rig. We made a couple trips to Arches and Canyonlands National Park to hike and take photos, including a memorable hike out to Delicate Arch at sunset. The highlight of our Moab stay was a 55-mile, 4-day flatwater kayak trip through Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons on the Green River through Canyonlands National Park. Marty had dreamed of this trip for a long time and was finally able to check it off his list (you know, the list of things to do and see before you meet your maker). We paid an outfitter to drop us off at Mineral Bottom (about an hour’s drive from Moab) and then pick us up at the Confluence (with the Colorado) and jet boat us back to Moab. The water was relatively low and slow and we averaged about 15 miles a day, with the river flow at about 2 mph…the wildlife was great, too, with many blue herons, Canadian geese, and desert bighorn sheep. We hardly saw any people and camped each night in complete solitude, which added immensely to the whole wilderness experience. There are several ruins to explore along this stretch of river, which is nice because it gives you an opportunity to get off the water and stretch the ‘ol legs. This was our first overnight kayak trip, and the Sea Eagle Paddleski worked out great and held a ton of gear.

After a brief trip to Grand Junction to get our trailer worked on (replaced the kitchen waste tank and wheel rim), and run errands, we headed south again. We had crappy weather in Grand Junction and Fruita, but we both liked the town and surrounding areas and hope to come back and explore more later. We ended up driving through Moab on the way south to Mesa Verde National Park to avoid towing over some of the Colorado mountain passes. This park is a showcase for Anasazi (now referred to as “Ancestral Puebloan”) cliff dwellings and the park service gives some decent guided tours of the two larger and most impressive dwellings – Cliff Palace and Balcony House. While we were on the tour of Balcony House, a major thunderstorm moved in and water was pouring over the cliff face adding some additional drama and giving another perspective on the life of the Anasazi. What was interesting was that in both Cliff Palace and Balcony House there were seeps that exited the cliffs, thereby essentially providing a year-round (except perhaps in years of extreme drought) running water supply. This is courtesy of the local geology, which includes a relatively impermeable shale layer. The soft shale layer is also responsible for providing the alcoves in which the natives built the dwellings.

On we went to Durango to begin our Habitat for Humanity build, where we setup camp along with seven others at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, right next to the rodeo arena. Our “care-a-vanners” group was relatively small by Habitat standards…we ended up with 9 folks from all over (Iowa, Michigan, Maryland, Albuquerque). We worked alongside the future homeowners, who are required to donate a certain amount of hours as part of their terms. We were led by a volunteer/construction manager (Phil), who kept us in line and instructed us how to do certain things. We became pros at installing lap siding, fascia, soffit, windows and insulation and also quite proficient at setting up and tearing down scaffolding. The two-story structure we worked on consisted of four attached townhomes. The Durango Habitat affiliate typically only builds one house per year, so building 4 units at one time was a big step forward. By comparison, the Phoenix Habitat affiliates (west and east) churn out between 50 and 60 houses a year – pretty amazing! They hoped to have the homeowners moved in by Christmas, and hopefully we will have helped them achieve this goal with only a few smashed thumbs to show for it. It felt good to help others that need a hand up and it was nice to feel like productive members of society again (ha ha) after playing tourist for the past 8 months….we also picked up some construction know-how which, who knows, might help when we go to build our own Shangri-la someday.

Courtesy of Phil (thanks for the tix!), we rode the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad while we were in Durango. It is incredible how they notched a railroad bed into a cliff high above the river, especially one section called the “highline”. We also drove the San Juan Skyway, which is a 200-mile (or so) loop that takes you to Telluride and Ouray, CO. The springs in Ouray were closed, so on Deb’s birthday we also drove an hour east of Durango to the town of Pagosa Springs and the site of an amazing hot springs resort (check the photos) located on the banks of the San Juan River. This place was fantastic. Debbie got a massage and we spent the majority of the day soaking our construction-weary bones in 18 pools, all at different temperatures. A couple of the pools are actually situated in the river bed and were flooded (very cold) because of the high water conditions in the river. We met a lot of interesting, relaxed people that day. On the drive in the dark back to Durango, we came within inches of hitting a big cow elk…that got the heart beating, we could only imagine the damage that would have done (to the elk and the truck).

The next stop was Chaco Canyon (Chaco Culture National Historical Park), New Mexico, which was a major administrative, cultural, and ceremonial center for the Anasazis. The ruins here were fantastic…the main loop drive takes you to about 8 or so great houses and other ruins where you can hike around and through the ruins and attempt to rewind over 1000 years. It was quite cold (low of 19 one night) and windy while we were there, but we thought it would have been fun to bike the loop while stopping at all the ruin sites. The ruins are incredibly preserved and completely different than Mesa Verde’s, with five different styles of masonry that were used over a period of about 300 years. We lucked out finding a spot big enough for our rig in the park campground, otherwise, we would have had to turnaround and drive back the 20 miles of rough washboard gravel road to find another campsite. The road in is tough for big RVs, but it was all worthwhile and we’re glad we made the effort to go see it because it is off the beaten path. Marty read about this place in the book Collapse, which details the decay of various ancient societies around the world.

After a couple nights in Albuquerque to restock and run errands, we drove south to Alamogordo, NM. Alamogordo is home to White Sands Missile Range and the adjoining National Monument. For those that don’t know, White Sands Missile Range is known for detonation of the atomic bomb (Trinity site) and is generally regarded as the area that ushered in the American space program. The space museum in town was great and included the National Space Hall of Fame. The White Sands are the largest gypsum dune field in the world…Alamogordo had received something on the order of 26 inches of rain since July, and about half of the park road into the dunes was under water and closed to visitors. So we got to experience a real rarity at the park (pools of water), which is ordinarily a dry, desert environment. While we were in Alamogordo we sealed a deal to work for 6 months for a geotechnical and environmental firm (PSI) in New Orleans, where we would be headed after a short visit to Carlsbad Caverns.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park had enormous caves compared to Mitchell Caverns, CA and Wind Caves, SD, which we had visited earlier in the trip. They have two self-guided tours, one that takes you down to the Big Room via a 700+ feet elevator, and another one which is a scenic route through the natural entrance of the cave. We missed the bat exodus from the cave entrance (Mid may to mid October), which occurs everynight at twilight as hundreds of thousands of bats exit the cave to feed on insects….this is supposed to be a one-of-a-kind wildlife viewing experience. The Big Room is the largest cave chamber in North America, over 8 acres in floor area…to be honest, it seemed bigger than that! The trails and cave formations here were incredible and we loved it. The “speleogenesis”, or formation, of the caves at Carlsbad are unique in the world – the limestone was dissolved from the bottom upward by a sulfuric acid bath. The sulfuric acid was formed when hydrogen sulfide from the petroleum reservoirs in this area migrated upward and combined with groundwater. (Most caves are formed by dissolution of the limestone by a weak carbonic acid formed when carbon dioxide from the air is dissolved in rainwater and snowmelt).

So, from Carlsbad, we had an uneventful 1000-mile march across our great state of Texas on Interstate 10 via San Antonio and Houston. After a few days of hunting for a place to park our rig for the next 6 months, we found a spot. Now we’re back to the working life till May before we will hit the road again in search of new adventures, experiences, and friends.