THE NATIONAL PARKS: My Parks

THE NATIONAL PARKS: My Parks

This is a promo for Ken Burns' series on the National Parks airing on PBS Sept 27. Since I visit a lot of parks I thought I'd give it a go. 42 PARKS AND COUNTING!!! I think I like our national parks! I'll keep this updated as I visit other parks.

The dates visited is when I first went to that park. However, several of the parks I have visited numerous times, like Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and my second home, Grand Canyon. I worked on the south rim summer of 1989 and then again 1991-1995.

In 1995, just before I moved to Aurora, CO to the corporate office, I took a 10 day car trip, packed with tent, sleeping bag, two coolers, gas container, and all the money I had. In the passenger seat rode my faithful stuffed red welsh dragon, Big Red. We traveled all over Arizona and Utah, visiting 14 parks along the way. It was a trip of a lifetime. In today's economy with the gas prices they are, I could not do this trip on a $300 budget ever again. But I'm already dreaming and planning my next big adventure, wherever it takes me....

Colorado Ren Faire

I don't have any pictures to show, but my friends Drew, Krys, and I did take the RV up to Larkspur for the ren faire during opening weekend. We had a very large private site at Castle Rock Campground, enough room to set up a 10X20 gazebo tent behind it for the Crimson Marque party. Very few people showed up for the Sat night BBQ, mostly because just about half the members were passed out in their tents from drinking rum all day.

We now have a suitable bedding arrangement for the three of us since Krys has a very hard time sleeping on the bed. I get the bed, Drew gets the pull-out couch, and Krys converts the dinette. We're all very happy with this arrangement so far. Even her two pekinese dogs have a place to sleep under the small table.

We'll be taking The Beast next Thursday to Omaha for Osfest, probably with the dogs. Here's a couple pictures of the two dogs when we went to Ft. Collins:

Misty and Tia

One big happy family: Drew, Misty, Tia, and Krys.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

And another one bites the dust!

Or at least my RV left everyone else in the dust! OK, we can come up with a lot more dust jokes, but seriously folks, I really do have a 35 foot 1995 Fleetwood Bounder! I bought it two years ago for $20,000 cash with only 16,000 miles on it. Originally bought at the Beaudry RV Center in Tuscon, AZ, the previous owner used it as an onsite office for his housing construction business. When the business went bankrupt and his wife died, he had no heart left to travel in it. He sold it as is, complete with a beautiful set of dishes, pots/pans, baking sheets, blankets, towels, a really nice tabletop charcoal grill, three tool boxes full of RV tools, step ladders, outdoor rugs, a six foot picnic table, a couple folding side tables (handy next to your campchair), closet hangars, and lots of other stuff I can't think of right now. I felt like I got an RV ready to travel, and boy, was it ready!

Other features:
7K onboard generator
70 gal fuel tank
100 gal water tank
50 gal black/grey water tank
backup camera
454 chevy engine (pulls uphill great!)
sewer/water hoses
TV antenna (as of now, doesn't work due to digital conversion)
TV cable connection and wiring (which we use anyway)
huge basement with two pass-thru storage units

I'll blog about the inside later, but what this little beauty had that you just don't see in the half-million dollar babies is a BATHTUB! Yep, I bought it because of the great open layout and the bathtub. The higher toilet seat helped make my decision, too.

I'll post more pics of my hotel on wheels later, along with favorite campgrounds and travel stories.

Happy Travels,

Jawa Jaka