Pinkie's new friend

We have spent the last week and a half frantically running around Denver on various errands and getting to visit friends.  Its been a lot of fun and we have definitely missed "home".  We will leave tomorrow to start the 12+ hour drive to Missouri to spend Christmas with my family.  We will be there for about a week and a half and then we will head to Houston to be with Matt's family for New Years.

As we returned to the RV this afternoon after running a few more errands and braving the huge Christmas shopping crowds, we found that Pinkie had gotten tired of being left alone and had made a new friend in the neighborhood bunny rabbit. 

Here she is with her new friend...

Ah... the joys of Colorado weather...

And the fun begins....  hopefully the weather will clear out for our drive on Sunday.

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM WEDNESDAY TO NOON
MST THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DENVER HAS ISSUED A WINTER
WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM
WEDNESDAY TO NOON MST THURSDAY.

* TIMING...LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOWFALL WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH
  LATE THURSDAY MORNING.

* ACCUMULATION/WIND...SNOW TOTALS WILL RANGE FROM 3 TO 7 INCHES
  WITH THE HIGHER AMOUNTS ACROSS SOUTHERN AND WESTERN SECTIONS OF
  THE METRO AREA. NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 20 MPH WEDNESDAY EVENING
  WILL WEAKEN AFTER MIDNIGHT.

* IMPACTS...ROADS WILL LIKELY BECOME SLUSHY AND POSSIBLY SNOW
  COVERED OVERNIGHT. BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES MAY ALSO BECOME QUITE
  ICY. MOTORISTS SHOULD PREPARE THEIR VEHICLES BEFORE WEATHER AND
  ROAD CONDITIONS DETERIORATE WEDNESDAY EVENING.

64 Degrees in December???

Wow, we had 64 degrees and sun today here in Denver.  Matt and I wanted to run around in our flip flops!!!  We figured it has been about 3 months since we have seen weather that warm.  Another 60 degree day tomorrow!!!

We have spent the last week running lots of errands and enjoying being back in civilization.  Well, maybe I should define civilization to mean "different restaurants".  I think we've hit just about every restaurant that we can think of in the last week.  As I was cooking dinner tonight, I realized it was the first time I've cooked in the RV since before we left Haines in November. 

We had a great weekend staying in the mountains with Jayme & Andy.  We were both surprised that we had a touch of altitude sickness with a nasty little headache.  I guess when you spend the last 8 months at sea level, its easy to lose!  We enjoyed visiting their beautiful new home and trekking around in the new snowfall.  Too bad our skis are in Missouri in my car!!!  Guess we didn't think that one through!!!

We are still hoping to leave next Sunday to start the two day drive to Missouri for Christmas but they are forecasting a bit of snow so we will be keeping a watch on it.

Ahhh... Sunny Colorado

We left Wyoming about 7:20 this morning and arrived into our campground in Arvada about 12:15 this afternoon.  The drive started out with more of our favorite freezing fog and slick roads but after an hour and a half, it cleared up and we actually saw dry pavement and that big bright thing in the sky.  We had a pretty short day with less than 300 miles to finish off the drive. 

We arrived to sunny weather and temps in the 40's in Denver and thought we had crossed the equator and should put shorts on!!!  In all seriousness, it is really good to see the sun and have a bit of warmer weather. 

Also, for those of you who have been replying to the email that you receive on the blog postings, I just discovered that I have only been receiving those for about the last week (I had no idea anyone was repsonding that way).  So if you thought we were ignoring you, I am so sorry!!!  I think I have it all fixed now so that you can just reply in a normal email and we will receive your comments.  If anyone is interested in getting the emails instead of having to check the blog, just email me and I'll get you started.

Here is a photo of our overnight camping spot last night among the big rigs in a travel stop.  We actually look small here but notice all the frozen stuff all around...  The trailer has been complaining that she misses her daily shower and is now really dirty.

Foggy Idaho, Utah & Wyoming

We left the Oregon/Idaho border at 8am and drove over 600 miles to Wamsetter, Wyoming. We have less than 300 miles to make it to Denver tomorrow. Today' drive was spent mostly in fog & freezing fog. The roads were definitely better. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow but not holding our breathe as the fog caused us to stop earlier than we wanted tonight.


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Snowy Idaho

We left Bellingham, Washington, at 7 this morning and ended today's drive 10 hours later at the welcome center to Idaho. We had hoped to make it further but we hit snow and bad road conditions about 2 pm and needless to say, progress was halted after we slide a couple of times. We stopped at the mile 1 visitor center rest area on I-84 just over the Oregon border and into Idaho. We will sleep here tonight with the furnace running as it's in the 30's. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow so we can cover some more distance. Less than 900 miles to go after driving 500 today.


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Now this is the way to "drive" 1800 miles

We made it safely on the ferry on Monday night and have been cruising for several days now.  So far, we've had it pretty smooth with only some very bumpy spots during each night but we have been very sheltered along the coastline.

We are currently in our last Alaska town, Ketichan.  We will be in open water tonight and tomorrow and then we'll head into Bellingham, Washington on Friday morning.  The truck is still spewing "red stuff" that has dumbfounded 3 different mechanics, so we have an appointment for it on Friday morning in Bellingham with the Dodge dealership.  We are hoping its just a hose of something and can be fixed quickly.  We have a a feeling that we will be spending at least one night in Bellingham before being able to start the 3 day drive into Denver.  So far, it doesn't seem like we have any major weather systems, but any weather at all will definitely slow us down.

We were giggling that we are the ONLY RV on the ferry....  Everyone else ran months ago...  Wonder what that should tell us.

Snowy travel

We made it safely to the ferry terminal. It was quite the experience towing in heavy snow & ice. Only 5 hours until we can board and then hopefully it's smooth sailing.



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Snow, Snow & More Snow...

Hmmmm...  Somehow I think that we may have an interesting time getting to the ferry tomorrow as its snowed about 4 inches or so already and below is our forecast....  Keep  your fingers crossed for us!!!!

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM AKST TUESDAY.

SNOW WILL INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE THROUGH LATE
MONDAY NIGHT.

SNOW AMOUNT: 2 TO 4 INCHES THIS AFTERNOON WITH ADDITIONAL 6 TO
10 INCHES THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO
13 INCHES.

NORTH WIND 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH MONDAY AFTERNOON.

Adventures in camping.... COLD weather camping...

Well, we finally woke up to our first official snow that has actually stuck around for the day.  We have forgotten what really "camping" in freezing weather entails...  Glad we only have less than a week remaining.

First of all, have you ever baked bread in a RV?  I decided to attempt to bake a loaf today as I'm bringing some to the Thanksgiving dinner that we were invited to (such great people here in Haines).  Well, I set the frozen dough out in the late morning expecting it to rise in the 4 to 7 hours indicated on the package.  To be honest, the package did state that the time to rise would depend on the temperature of the "kitchen".  Well, almost 12 hours later (after putting the bread directly in front of one of our electric heaters for the entire afternoon and evening), I was finally able to put the bread in the oven.  I haven't cut it yet, but it seems a little hollow.  Hmmm...  lesson learned...  its darn cold in here and bread does not rise when its cold...

As many of you know, we have been without our city water hookup for several weeks (since it started getting cold) so we have been filling up our tanks at least once a week so that we are operating on a limited water basis.  Well, we forgot to fill up on Friday when the office was open, so of course, on Saturday, we ran out.   Hmmm..  Ok...  Problem solved temporarily by filling up plastic containers with water from the office so we can wash dishes, flush the toilet, etc.  The plan was to fill up on Monday.   Well...  After getting the office to turn on their faucets and dragging out our two hoses and having the office drag out theirs, we finally connected all the hoses in the middle of the parking lot and turned the water on...  No wait...  NO WATER...  Hmmm...  would you believe that 3 hoses tied together across an entire parking lot will freeze in less than 10 minutes...  Still no water even today although we are proud owners of 3 hoses in our interior shower so that they warm up and un-freeze.  We will try again tomorrow.  Cross your fingers!!!

And of course to completely top off the day, my wonderful hubby comes home early from photographing the eagles today (no snow at the preserve) and proceeds to inform me that he sat in a dead nasty salmon and then proceeded to sit in the truck.... Yep...  nasty fish guts everywhere...  Well, of course he is in the middle of the preserve, no water anywhere so after spitting on the nasty gluey glob of fish parts, he finally remembers the baby wipes in the truck.  Well at least when he handed me his nasty pants, there were not fishy parts clinging to them, only a VERY NASTY SMELL...  Oh wait...  No water remember...  Off he goes to the office to fill up our water jugs so that I can proceed to wash the nasty fishy smelling pants in the kitchen sink...  Several trips later, we are now proud owners of a pair of ski pants hanging over the shower drying out (with the hoses)...

Whew....  lets hope tomorrow is a bit tamer...  but just in case, I'm starting my Thanksgiving cooking tomorrow as who knows what will happen....