Passions

I have always been a Jack-of-all-trades, Master of None - a person with many interests who does not master any of them.  This trip has ignited a few of my former favorite things to do.

One of those is dying wool.  I loved to dye wool . . . and I still do . . . but I hate to knit, crochet, hook rugs, weave or do anything other than make God's Eyes.  Once I had children, I quit dying the wool, and have not picked it up again.  But just as with glazes on ceramics, dying wool is fun because you never know what colors you are going to get.

In Mesa Verde, I read about the red mahogany bush that the Navajos used to make a red-brown dye . .  and I began to think about all of the colors I could make with some of the bushes I was seeing.

Then in Craters of the Moon, I saw lichens.  Now in New Mexico, the lichens at our canyon turn wool a beautiful orange.  So when I saw these lichens:

and these:

I began to wonder what color the yellow lichens and the orange ones would turn.  I wish I could have gathered some, but again, because it is a National Park, I could not do so.  Too bad . . . sometime I may find them in a place I can gather them, and then I can again begin dying wool.  And then maybe I will learn to like to knit . . . or not!

Craters of the Moon

Later in the afternoon, we arrived at Craters of the Moon National Park.  Having seen a lot of volcanoes, we were curious how different this could be, and we learned that it was a lot different.  The Malpais in New Mexico seems to be all one kind of lava, and it is a barren desolate place with little growth.  In Hawaii the lava flows are overwhelming - miles after miles of black lava with little in between.

Craters of the Moon is much different.  We saw many different kinds of lava:

This cinder is mostly air, and it shone many different colors.  Wish I could have kept it!

This one looked like chocolate running out of a pan

we climbed to the top of a cinder cone:

we looked down into a spatter cone into deep holes that had snow in them:

and we saw a lot of vegetation growing in the lava.  Like a fire, this lava flow spread in interesting ways, not running over everything like it does in Hawaii.  Hence, there were pockets of original sage prairie, some trees . . . and trees growing throughout the lava.

The wildflowers were blooming beautifully, which one doesn't expect, and we learned a lot about this kind of ecosystem.

The weather was perfect - overcast yet warm - and the displays great.  We had a great day!

Promontory Point

Since we have been Promontory Point and I wrote about it in 2013, I am not going to repeat myself.  Woody found it very fun, however.

It was still an interesting place to go, and I know a little boy who would have loved it!  One thing has changed - the Morton Thiokol plant is now owned by Northrup Grumman.  As we were leaving, a huge puff of smoke went up, and Don is sure they were testing a jet engine.  The wind carried the cloud down the valley, and all we could think of was what the people who lived in the valley were breathing!

Close Calls!

July 9, 2019

The stretch of road from Price through Salt Lake City and into Brigham City is always a bit testy in an RV.  We have driven it a few times now, and it never gets easy.

First there was the road construction that delayed us for about 30 minutes.  That would not have been bad if Don had not been worried about Willie overheating . . .  but he didn’t and we got through the construction unscathed.

As we were traveling through the suburbs of Salt Lake, I suddenly felt Don swerve the rv just a bit.  I looked up to see a white car pull out right in front of us and head for the side of the road. We believe the person had run out of gas and was trying to get off . . . but pulling out in front of an rv going 60 mph is not the best way to handle things!  Anyway, Don is a really good rv driver, and you will see from the video what he did to keep us safe!  Both Woody and we escaped a close call today!

Prehistoric Museum in Price

July 9, 2019

I knew there were a lot of dinosaur finds in Utah.  The breadth of them, however, escaped us.  This little gem of a museum displayed fossils, dinosaur bones, complete dinosaurs and more.

Probably the most fascinating part to us was the exhibit about how dinosaur tracks are found in coal mines.  The dinosaur steps in a peat bog and leaves a print.  It gets covered with sand and other materials, and under pressure turns into coal.  When miners were digging out coal, they would come to these interesting spots where sandstone (the “stuff” inside the footprint) was out of place.  They would then find the footprint in the coal vein.  Some of the footprints were two feet long – those were some huge dinosaurs.

Also in the museum was a display of some lovely Native American art work – contemporary and not – mostly rugs and baskets.  One was an Escher-style optical illusion rug that I would have loved to have owned . . . but not today.  They also had a children’s area with a large diorama, a large mammoth skeleton, a dire wolf, and other interesting factoids.  Even pack rats become archaeologists!

This museum was just the right size – full enough to explain much without overwhelming with too much information.  We would highly recommend.

Oh, and Woody escaped without being eaten by the Allosaurus.  Phew!

Testing New Words

The Kinney family has a fascination with words, and we play with words a lot.

When towing a vehicle with an RV, one is supposed to have an additional braking system for the tow vehicle.  Ours is called a Brake Buddy.  In our first trip, the Brake Buddy and the Jeep had a love-hate relationship.  When it worked, it was great, but when it didn't, it was pretty frustrating.  Don even had it sent to the factory, and they said it was in great shape.

We began using our Liberty Jeep this year, and it has worked flawlessly - until today.  Don could not get it to run, despite doing everything he could.  We got to the Canyon of the Ancients parking lot to try again.  And he kept getting a message that said, "brake pedal depressed."  Don disagreed because he could see that it was working fine . . . yes, he was depressed, but not the brake pedal.  He even called technical support to check it out.

As Bart was watching he created a new verb - Brake Buddying.  Every time Don is working on it, he is Brake Buddying.  Don thinks rather than a verb, it should be a cuss word, but in the meantime, he will continue to Brake Buddy, hoping he can get it to connect!

Canyon of the Ancients

As we were trying to plan our trip, we came across the Anasazi Heritage Center, now called the Canyon of the Ancients Heritage Center.  We had no idea what to expect, and we were so pleasantly surprised.  This is a hidden gem that I would recommend to anyone!

Just the entrance to the building is beautiful - they have planted a variety of gardens with all of the plants named, the weeds pulled, and all in bloom.  Absolutely lovely.

Inside, the displays about the Canyon were extremely well done.  Children would love some of the interactive displays, and the exhibits are terrific for young and old.  Then visitors can take a short walk to the top of the hill where there is a pueblo and a beautiful view of McPhee Reservoir.  Our pups came with us to the top of the hill, which was nice for them, and in 1.5 hours, we were fully educated about the Anasazi.

After a visit to Salmon Ruins, Aztec Ruins, Mesa Verde, and Canyon of the Ancients, we are well immersed in the Anasazi history - and we have loved every minute of it!