Sweet Surprise at Capital Reef + A Doggie Goblin

At least four kinds of apples.

We picked 5 lbs of apples cost $5

Dan in Fruita orchard

 

We arrived at Capital Reef in the morning after driving from a little out of the way campground called Calf Creek. An interesting aspect about this campground is we had to ford the creek to get to our campsite. There are falls nearby but we did not take time in the frosty morning to go see them. One of the many things to come back to this country for. We drove to the end of the scenic drive (in Capital Reef) and had lunch then headed for the popular hike to see the Hickman Natural Bridge. 

After we settled in to a camp spot in Capital Reef Nat'l Park, Dan went for a walk with Millie and discovered an apple orchard all set up for U-pick. He came to get me and we went picking. There were ladders and picking poles and plenty of apples up fairly high. So what to do with an abundance of apples? Bake an apple crisp of course. I had all the ingredients I usually use. Flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, butter, oatmeal... No ice cream so I had mine with a little sweetened plain yogurt. Yummmm!

Apple crisp in DeMarle baking pan.

Now on to the doggie story... Millie is doing pretty well on this trip. We actually think she is able to stay calm with it because she is deaf and all of the noise stimuli that used to excite her is no longer there. But she ran into some excitement in the Goblin Valley State Park. Goblin Valley is this surprising little park that feels like it is the middle of no where. 

Dan & Millie by a goblin

This place is where you really need to get in touch with your inner child, there is no end to the photo opportunities. Of course I had to at least plank a time or two...

So Millie was trooping and sniffing along as usual until we came around a rock and she suddenly went crazy. Growling, barking, the hackles stood on the back of her neck were up. We couldn't figure out what was going on until we bent down to her level and looked up at the goblin silhouetted in front of her. Here is what she saw.

Millie's Dog Goblin, do you see it?

Today we drove to Moab and spent our Sunday working... Laundry, vacuuming, grocery shopping, charging electronics... tomorrow (Halloween) we get to hike the "Fiery Furnace" of Arches.

greetings to all

jean

postscript... used some more of the apples to make a glaze with the pork chops I cooked for dinner. Dan is begging for another crisp.

A Week of Fun on the Road

Watchman photo taken with iphone from Canyon Junction

Greetings from Utah.

It is a drizzly morning at Zion National Park. CORRECTION: By noon there is not a cloud in sight and the sky is the most amazing blue!

We have been traveling for a week now. We stayed “free” the first 3 nights as we headed south. 1) at Valley of the Rogue State Park free with Dan’s park pass. 2) a Walmart parking lot in Stockton California. 3) In the mojave desert 5 miles off of I40 near Baker, CA. 

Morning walk with Millie at Snow Canyon

The fun really began when we got to Snow Canyon State Park in SW Utah. Arriving on a Saturday we got the last site available. It was a hookup site very close to the other RV sites. We spent quite a bit of time visiting with Kim, from Haley ID. He is traveling in his class C and has spent a lot of time in the SW. He has similar interests in biking and being “off the beaten path”. I would recommend planning ahead when coming to Snow Canyon and reserving a campsite without hookups. The “dry” campsites are tucked up next to beautiful red rocks. The area has red & white sandstone plus black lava flows ... words can not describe the beauty nor do our pictures do it justice. We stayed there two nights. There are many hiking trails and a few biking trails within the park. The area has more biking outside the park. Definitely a place we would like to go back to. As we were gleaning so much information from Kim, I offered to share our dinner with him. I made a casserole in the crock pot. It was very tasty but the consistency was a bit soupy. It was a modification of a dish my mom used to make. I had made a sauce before we left home, kind of a white gravy plus dry mustard, yogurt and lemon. I layered sliced cooked potatoes, drained green beans, sliced green onions, quartered mushrooms, the sauce then Kim is vegetarian, so I put a piece of foil to divide the pot and put diced turkey on one side. I sprinkled parmesan cheese and bread crumbs on the meat side and just bread crumbs on the veggie side. I plugged pot in on high for about 3 hours. The top browned nicely but as I mentioned the dish was pretty soupy. Maybe I can modify it into a soup recipe for church. 

We had two good bike rides at Snow Canyon. Our only hiking was walking Millie. It was nice to have showers.

When we began preparation to leave Snow Canyon we had our first trouble. The camper jacks would not raise the camper up so we could put it back on the truck. We had been plugged into electricity the whole time but our old batteries were just too old and would not take a charge. It took awhile but by raising about 2 inches then waiting a minute and repeating we finally got there. The park folks helped us locate a local Batteries Plus and $250 later we could head to Zion.

Zion is beautiful! We easily got a campsite in the South Campground. No hookups but flush toilets. Only $8 a night with Dan’s Access Pass. We have done all of the easy hikes plus ridden our bikes to the top of the canyon road and back. It is snowing in the high mountains, but is supposed to clear again tomorrow. Today is a lay low & rest day. Unless we decide to attempt Walter's Wiggles on way to Angel' Landing. We probably shouldn't but it is so tempting.

My work station.

Hard to see, Baptist fans.

Hand quilt project

So far we have been too busy for me to quilt very much. I have been working on my hexagons while Dan drives. I did a little hand quilting while at Snow Canyon and the quilt is beside me as I type. This is my first hand quilting project and I am SLOW, but it feels easier as I go. I am working from the outside in and so far I am almost around the perimeter. I got one thread done this morning then the sun came out and I went out to play ;o)

Later this morning we will take shuttle into Springdale and find some wifi so I can post this. Here goes the post, using the wifi in an ice cream deli.

love jean

Ready or Not Here We Go!

This calendar for the past couple weeks.

Lists, Lists, Lists!!! But now I can throw them all away. The camper is loaded, the house is ready to be without us and Dan has about one more hour to work. I am so very ready for no more lists. I just put 6 in the recycle bin. Plumbing issue came up when I was draining the hot water tank. The helpful man at George Morlan says it is not related but when I turned the hot water off to begin draining tank my kitchen faucet started dripping cold water. The only position where it didn't run was in the "on" setting on the "hot" side! I turned the valve off down below the sink and we will deal that in December. Fixing a faucet can be Dan's first "Honey Do" of retirement.

Here is our home for the next several weeks. Dan thinks we could make it permanent. I will let you know what we (I) think about that come mid December. The first couple nights of our trip are arranged around our daughter. She is at nursing school in Ashland, Oregon and has a friend she wants to visit this coming weekend, who lives in Truckee, CA. So the latest plan is for us to drive tonight to Valley of the Rogue State Park between Grants Pass & Medford. I have a little champagne to celebrate Dan's retirement. (shhh it is a surprise). If the weather is good we will bicycle and relax in the morning. We will load a cooler for dinner on the road. Martha has class until 2 tomorrow then we will leave her car at the Medford airport for her return and head out from there about 2:30... second night destination: a Walmart in Sacramento. It can only get better from that, right? We will leave Martha with her friend in Sacramento, then sleep a few hours and head for parts unknown.

Games, games, games

Here is a recipe I came up with today:
When I was emptying the refrigerator the only perishable item I did not have room in camper for was some buttermilk. Plus I had an orange that the border patrol at California might have taken away. So I made muffins. They have a light orange flavor and are quite tasty in my opinion.

Orange Cranberry Muffin

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp each cinnamon & nutmeg
• juice from one orange
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1/2 tsp dried orange peel
• 1/3 cup oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
•  1 egg, slightly beaten

Combine dry ingredients and make a well in center. Warm OJ, cranberries and orange peel in microwave for a minute on low setting. Stir OJ & cranberries, oil, buttermilk, and egg together; pour into dry ingredients and stir until just moist. Fill muffin cups and sprinkle with sugar ( I used raw sugar)

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Yield 12 regular muffins.

I am still having trouble with formatting, lots to learn, lots of time.... ;o)

Best wishes to any who read this! jean

My Title My Life

Millie on my "Cris Cross Applesauce" squares.

Wheely Thready Daze Ahead

Preface: I have plenty to learn... I would like to add several photos the one I have here is of Millie on my Criss Cross Applesauce quilt squares (thanks Bonnie Hunter for the pattern). Now I have a design wall so Millie doesn't get to test my quilts quite so early in the process. Anyway, I am sure I can move the picture to another spot but at this point I do not know how. Now on to my explanation of my blog title:

I am going to try to blog a bit as my sweet husband and I head into a whole new phase of life. Our "nest" is empty and we are blessed enough that after a 30 year career, Dan is retiring. We are preparing to head off on a major road trip in our pick-up and camper. We like to stay fit, so besides the camper wheels we will ride on our two wheel mountain bikes as much as possible. So that is "Wheely" which of course, is also a play on the word "really" and I am really excited about life just now!

"Thready"... on the simple level refers to my passion for quilting. I have always done most of my work on my reliable old Viking sewing machine, but since it doesn't get to go on the road. I am trying to stack up some projects for "on-the-go". So far I have begun a hexigon quilt, I have my first attempt at hand quilting a lap quilt going, plus I am going to attempt "fussy cutting" triangles to become another hexigon/kaleidescope quilt. I want to give credit to an inspiring blogger and quilter: Bonnie Hunter, her website is Quiltville.com and her blog is Quiltville's Quips and Snips. Even though we have never met I can say from following her blog she is an amazing woman, quilter and writer. On the next level including "Thready" in my title refers to all of the wonderful "threads of my life". The threads of the internet can be as much fun as those on my needles. Isn't it fun to find bike trails, campgrounds, recipes and how-to videos, etc etc. I love the connectedness of this life.

"Daze" well sometimes as I look ahead I am in a "daze" about the days to come.

They say the more you write the better you get, I hope there is some truth to that. I always feel so impatient with myself when I write a sentence my mind begins to wander to another thought instead of really completing any thought I was on before. I think I have attention deficit disorder at the keyboard! Following my train of thought is like untangling a ball of yarn when the kitty takes her nap. For now I am going to let the rambling go and hope things improve. (That is what the delete button is for, right?)

The other member of our adventure party will be our old dog, Millie. She is 14, deaf and somewhat vision impaired. Millie was a pound puppy, who came to our family when she was about 6 months old. She is some sort of border collie/spaniel/???. Now a days she spends most of the time sleeping, so long rides in the back seat of the crew cab should be fine. We have covered a board with carpet to set on the back seat of the truck to be a platform for Millie to ride on. She will have her bed in a third or half of the seat and we will use the other half of the seat for storage.

We have cleaned out the camper and "rethunk" what we want to have along. Plus we have added a couple drawers on a space that was designed for a TV. It was always wasted space now we each have a drawer for the small clothing items. We added a shelf in the cupboard under those new drawers. It is the space where we put the extra towels but the top half of it has always been empty. Now it will hold miscellaneous household "stuff".

I will put more pictures in my next post if I figure out how to disperse them in the posting. I want to get this first effort up & live.

Jean