Laura-N-Sasha.com
Laura and Sasha's Excellent Adventure

A descriptive look at traveling with a truck camper - similar to an RV but smaller and more maneuverable. Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005 for a two week vacation and now use it for all vacations.

Trip 2006
Traveling Days Sun & Mon
Traveling Days Tue & Wed
Lake Pueblo State Park
Taylor Reservoir
Crested Butte
Headed West
Grand Junction
Boondocking
Wines & Rides
Rides & Trails
Dinosaurs!
Ride With Us
McDonald Creek
Grand Valley
Bangs Canyon
South Route Back
VA & MD Parks

Previous Trip
   Old Guestbook
   Getting There
   Got Camper
   Wal*Mart-CS
   CS to Grand  Junction
   First Day at Monument
   A Lounge Type of Day
   Mighty Hike
   Wineries
   Downhill Hike
   Signage Day
   Traveling Back East 2005
  

 Laura and Sasha's Excellent Adventure

October 12th through October 15th

We had originally thought we would come back on October 12th (our anniversary) as I had a function for the Dulles Area Association of Realtors (I am the Affiliate Chairperson, and I sponsored this winery event.) We were originally planning to leave the winery and go home. But we had so much fun on the trip, that we decided to either go back to Edinburg Gap or go someplace else. I guess we don't want the vacation to end. Would you?

So the evening of October 12th was spent at the parking lot of Clarke Gap (you can hike the Appalachian Trail from there.) It is always interesting to see, but that parking lot usually has at least two or three cars there overnight. I think it is where people do carpooling - pick up riders to go into DC. When we woke up, there were bird-watchers - they said there were migrating hawks in the area and they had telephotographic lens to watch the birds. Pretty cool, but I did not see any birds.

So we decided that instead of going back to Edinburg Gap, we would go to Green Ridge State Park in MD. When we were riding in Edinburg, we had met a couple who told us about Green Ridge. So we decided we would try that out. We stopped off at a Flying J in Winchester, VA to diesel up, gas up a fuel can, dump, and take on water. From there we went to Green Ridge.

We got to Green Ridge at 2pm or so and they told us of a spot that was not on their grid - it was a place that they had used to sell firewood a few weeks ago. But it was a big spot and as long as we could get our rig up there, that spot was ours. Let's just say that their roads here that should not be called roads, or avenues, but dirt lanes and forestry roads. With jagged rocks.

So we went to the spot - after Sasha got out my little donkey and checked it out. He first wanted to go to another spot, it was quite beautiful but extremely windy. Plus, it was where there were overhead wires and I did not think it too wise. So we went on to our spot. Huge and easy to turn around, just the road was very bumpy and tight. But we were here.

October 10th through 12th: Tennessee and Virginia

We stayed at a Wal-Mart on October 9th and a Flying J on October 10th. Considering how we got in late on both nights, this seems like the best plan for us, rather than staying at a campground. We were thinking of staying at a campground on October 11th - at a state park that has  ATV trails. It is not really a state park but a National Forest area. Can't wait to see what it is like.

It took all day yesterday (October 10th) to go through Tennessee. It is a long state if you are going west to east, but not too long if you are going north to south. We of course went west to east. We also did not realize how big Knoxville was until we were upon it. Very large city, with lots of construction around it. But the leaves are starting to change around here, so it is still very pretty to look at. We are still enjoying our southern route.

We stayed at the Edinburg Gap Staging Parking Lot on October 11th. It was not a campground per say, just a parking lot. We took a short evening ride on October 11th and then a longer ride on October 12th. Both rides were very rocky, with some steep hills to go up and down. The longer ride on October 12th was very nice, went through the forest and we arrived at another campground 9.2 miles away. So round-trip, the ride was 18.4 miles. I did my first stream crossing (and we have pictures!) But I will probably not post until I get home, as the internet is not that great up in the mountains.

October 8th and 9th: Oklahoma City, Arkansas, and Tennessee

We have started our eastern route back after ATVing in Little Sahara Park and we are liking this more southern route. The scenery is nicer that I-70 and there are more places to stop and rest. We stayed at a truck stop/restaurant last night, right under a huge sign. We woke up to a tar smell, as a tar truck was very close to us. We hightailed it out of there at 11:30 am (the Crack of Noon Club strikes again!) We want to go at least 400 miles today, and we should be able to do that. We are going to Tennessee - and try to stay at a Wal-Mart.

October 7th and October 8th: Little Sahara State Park

We stayed in a really interesting place: Little Sahara State Park - a place filled with sand dunes, ATVs, motorcross, dune buggies, and jeeps. The place was amazing with all of the dunes and places to ride. It was not a great place for Sasha's motorcycle, as he fell when trying to use his. So we took turns using my little donkey. 

October 6th: Laura's Birthday and 5 Star RV Center

Today is my birthday and we are headed to the RV Center where we bought our camper. We need to get the water pump (not tank) fixed, as well as a couple of other items. Last night we stayed in a Wal-Mart, this time in Thorton, CO.

The guys at Five Star RV Center did it again, they totally blew us away with their unbelievable great service. We had a very slight leaking water pump that they replaced at no charge (it was under warranty), they checked our propane tanks and hoses as the alarm went off on October 4th - scared me out of my skin, (they stated it could happen with the wind blowing the propane into the camper), they checked the caulking on the roof (something that needs to be done every year), showed Sasha how to change a filter for the tire air bags, checked to see if we had enough room for another solar panel (we do) and all of this was done at no charge. Unbelievable - they are so cool, nice, helpful, and knowledgeable. We strongly suggest that if you need a truck camper or other RV type home, you should go to them. They are the best! Also, they got us out of there at 11:30 am, with plenty of time to get on the road to get closer to Hayes KS and to Little Sahara State Park in Oklahoma. We plan on going there on Saturday.

We got into Hays, KS after taking a roundabout route through the Kansas countryside to find a place to stay. We ultimately stayed at a Wal-Mart yet again, this time in Hays KS, We had stayed here before, and after a dinner of soup and roast beef, desert of grapes. we went to sleep. I personally think that staying in a Wal-mart parking lot is not too bad, as we have earplugs and can block out the lights. And as long as you don't buy anything at the store, it is free.

October 3rd to October 5th: Island Acres and Bangs Canyon

We stayed at Island Acres on October 3rd and had electric for an evening, which really charged up our batteries. We took showers and did laundry for the last time on the road. (the laundry not the showers!)

Then we went over to Bangs Canyon, set up at a trailhead there, and took out our toys for a ride. That ride was probably the most challenging for us, as there were lots of rocks and steep climbs. There were two others on the trail, but they were used to using their ATVs so it was different. We have pictures on the page Bangs Canyon.

On October 5th, it continued to rain, so we packed up and left Bangs Canyon, to go back over to Island Acres, where we will dump and take on more water. Having the Colorado State Park Pass has been great for us, really worthwhile.

We need to get to Denver by October 6th, so that they can take a look at it and fix our leaking water tank and a few other things. Hopefully they will be able to fix everything on Friday, then we are thinking of taking a Southern Route, on I-40 and check out some ATV spots along the way.



September 30th to October 3rd: Grand Valley North Desert Area

We stayed for four days at the Grand Valley North Desert Area, a place of ATV and motorcycle wonder. We have many pictures of the rides that we took. We also finally tried out the shotgun at the shooting range there. I found that as long as you place it correctly on your shoulder, it did not hurt when it kicked back. We also have a few pictures of that.

Unfortunately, we have been getting some rain and when it rains in the desert, it is not good, especially when the dirt your truck and trailer are on bentonite mud. This kind of dirt is very unpleasant to say the least. So we got out of there on October 3rd. 

September 24th through September 29th:
Most of these days were spent enjoying ourselves as well as working. On Sunday, September 24, we rode around and did the EXTREMELY Challenging Rim Trail where Sasha rode my ATV, into and out of the trail.

On Monday, September 25th, I did some work while Sasha changed the oil and did general service for both of our motor sports. It was an all day job as it was my little donkey's first time and Sasha's bike, well, he hadn't done it since he got the bike. So, that took some time. So I worked on Monday, and part of Tuesday. We went into town on Tuesday, September 26th, to take showers, get groceries, do laundry, and a few other errands. You do not realize how long it takes to do the laundry when you are at home, but when you are waiting, it seems to take longer.

On September 27th, we rode our toys to the trailhead and took a hike in Rabbit Valley called McDonald Creek, a semi-moderate hike to the Colorado River and pictographs and petroglyphs. I will upload the pictures in the next couple of days. When we were going onto the trail, we met two fun-loving Canadians - Dale and Barb - who had come over to the trail also in their ATVs. They had just come off of the trail and we spoke for a little bit before we went onto the trail - 12 noon - just like us, the "Crack of Noon" club.

On September 28th, we were going to leave Rabbit Valley, but Dale and Barb had come over in the evening of Sept 27th and invited us to ride today. So we did. They took us on quite an adventure, where we took some serious trails, first in the morning and later in the afternoon. The first trail we took was the Kokopelli Trail where we went into Utah as far as the Bitter Creek Campground, and then looped back to do a circle, back into Colorado. The total loop was about 25 miles. It was awesome and beautiful and again, there are now pictures at the McDonald Creek page.

On September 29th, we left Rabbit Valley - Boo Hoo - We had boondocked there for 14 days - a record for us. Our truck camper batteries will never be the same again, as they were drawn down so much, but it was worth it. So we took our time breaking everything down, and once that was done, we tried getting the truck camper on the truck. Let's just say that I did not kill Sasha, but at certain points there was the want to do so! And while we were trying to load the TC, some motorcyclists came by and asked us when we were going to leave. So the pressure was on!  We went into Fruita and got lunch, took showers, got supplies and headed out to the Grand Valley Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area. I was sure that all the spots were taken as it was Friday 4:30pm but luck was with us that evening. We found a spot, set up (we did not take the camper off of the truck at this point but probably will later) and made camp. (The picture was moved to the Grand Valley page.)

We made camp so quickly that we got out our toys and took a sunset ride that evening. It was better than Rabbit Valley as there were no rocks, so you did not have to maneuver as much.  I was much more confident that I would be able to ride here. I am glad we did Rabbit Valley first, then came here. I got my confidence in Rabbit Valley, and I can show it off here.

On September 30th, we got late - big surprise there - even though the motorcyclists were out at 7:30 am, and started checking out our surroundings. After breakfast, we took a trail and stayed out until 1 pm or so, then came in, had lunch and went back out at around 6 pm, as the sun was setting. It is beautiful out here, with motorbikes, ATVs and Off-Road Vehicles, like Jeeps and pickup trucks that are doing some extreme off-road driving. We saw four trucks take a gulch like it was nothing. No one got stuck, they just took it slow and made it work. Amazing! And I'm sure we will see more of that tomorrow.  

September 22nd and 23rd:

Both of these days were spent mostly on the ATV and the motorcycle. We checked out other areas that we could camp, as we have now been in the same spot for 9 days (since Sept. 15th) which is quite a record for us. I had said to Sasha, before we found this spot, that we were moving around quite a bit, but now look, we have been here a while, and no ranger has kicked us off of this spot. We had read that you are only supposed to be at one spot for 7 days, but if the spot is great, and no one else wants it, why can't we stay? People do come on the weekends, but they usually just go to the campground, not were we are.

The only thing missing is a campfire, but you need to have a fire pan, something that is metal and can hold your ashes. Since we did not have one, we haven't had a fire. I sure some would say, why not make your own fire ring, but we figure, if we are staying here longer than we should, then we might as well do something right.

I have really taken a liking to my little donkey, my ATV. We have several movies of us going to some hazardous areas (hazardous only because I am a novice at this, Sasha has been doing great!) But some of the areas are so much fun, and we saw some little kids (3 1/2, 7, and 9 year olds) using motor cross bikes in an area especially made for them. So go on the Rides with Us

September 21st:

Today we got an early start for us (9 am) to go on the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway. We are going to Dinosaur National Monument.  And then over to Utah for the Utah Field House Nature State Park Museum. We will have pictures later on September 22nd as the computer is almost out of juice. And the Dino page will be full of dinos from Sept 20th and 21st.

September 20th:

Today we went and looked at dinosaurs as the weather was not as friendly. We went over to the Trail Through Time and took a couple of pictures but I was disappointed, there were hardly any dinosaurs still within the rocks that you could see. I  do understand why; it seems vandals have ruined it for the rest of us; they keep going to these areas and stealing the bones. There was a quarry there as well, called the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, and when the quarry was discovered back in the 1980's, some thoughtless person(s) took off with about 300-400 TONS of dinosaur bones. That just is not nice.

We have been boondocking for almost a week now and the batteries are recharging everything OK but the computer looks like it might die soon, so I may not get all of the pictures up. On September 21, we are going into Dinosaur, CO, and Vernal, UT for a day trip. I will post Sept. 20th and 21st pictures then.

September 19th: Rides and Trails

We took a video of the rides that we took: the first one is Sasha going up a very steep hill, although you can not tell it is steep. The video is in Google where I posted it, another one is on YouTube.com where he is going down the hill. Check out the pictures and log on the Rides and Trails page.


September 18th

Actually - what happened on September 18th was a work day as September 19th is supposed to be warm and beautiful, not that Sept 18th was not a beautiful day, but I do have to work sometimes. I promised my clients that I would work on their websites, updating their listings and I did. But September 19 is now a fun day so we will be doing some of the things today instead.

On the 18th we actually emptied the yuckies into our blue tote to cart off into the sunset. Now we have almost empty tanks for the black and brown, so that we can fill them up again. Sasha also got more water so we can fill that up and he got groceries. I did not give him enough cash to do the laundry so we will have to do it some other time. That is OK, we brought enough clothes to last a couple of weeks so we should be fine. I guess he found a roadside stand and got tomatoes and peaches. This area is known for their peaches so we have been eating peaches at every breakfast. It is a nice addition.

We did take a ride that evening. Sasha has been having problems starting his motorcycle. It is a kick-start to begin with, but it just has not been turning over. So we rigged up a system last night - I pull his motorcycle with my "little donkey", starting off very slowly, then getting up to a speed of 20 mph then slowly stopping. The first time he almost ran into me as I slammed on the break when he said to stop. The second time it did work, and I slowed down properly. It took a while to undo the knots in the system, but we were able to take a little ride to an area we had not been before.

We plan on going back to that area, it seems to be a bunch of washed out streams but slightly bumpy. So ATVing in the morning, and Trail Through Time in the afternoon.

I am not too sure about staying here the rest of the week as it shows rain and low temps. We might be moving on to Moab, UT where they are showing 70s for the rest of the week, as opposed to 60s here and possible rain. But we are in such a good spot. We will see how the day progresses. I'll put up pictures tonight.

September 17th & 18th:

On September 17th Sasha and I got up around 8 am and were on the motorbike and ATV around 11 am. We gassed them up to the brim so we could go for a long ride. We went on gravel, dirt and 4-wheel roads so I could really test the ATV. A few places were scary for me, but the ATV handled it beautifully. Check out the places we went on the page: Wines & Rides.

On September 18th we will be doing some more riding, this time to a hiking spot - Trail Through Time. There are dinosaur bones to be seen, plus other things I'm sure. When we get back I will upload the pictures. Thanks for looking!

September 16th: Karen Lawrence and Jack Miles Birthday and Wine Festival Day

Today is my sister's and my nephew's birthday - so happy birthday to them both! Also Sasha and I are going to a wine festival - imagine it, come into town and finding out there is a wine festival - for me that is great. Sasha is going as my designated driver, which he does not seem to mind. I can't wait to go. It is looking like blue skies out there, with rain last night and early this morning. But you have to see where we stayed last night - it was great!

September 15th:

Waking up to clouds again today, but that is ok as maybe not as many people will come to the Wine Festival. We are still going to boondock by the Book Cliffs and the ORV area. 

We cleaned up our site, dumped the dirty and headed out of the campground at 1230 to get the ATV. During the morning it rained heavy at least 2 times, making our progress that much slower. We had really started cleaning up around 8 am so that was 41/2 hours of clean-up time. Hopefully someday we will get that time shorter. Well, it is now very windy and a little cooler. Hopefully it won't rain again until tonight.

Please read about what we did for September 15th on the Boondocking page.

September 14th: - Reading and Riding

We woke up to clouds today, with the temp around 67 F today and cloudy. That is OK by me as it will get up to a high of 77 F. If there is a possibility of rain, maybe people will cancel for the weekend and we will be able to stay at the park. But this weather is great for checking out areas to ride and boondock just in case.

Well, we spent part of the day reading (in the morning) as it was raining and we could not be induced to go out. After we had lunch, it stopped raining and we went out, first I check out Dinosaur Journey, a museum about dinosaurs - just to find out the time schedule. I think we will go back to the state park campground next week. Then I can check out the dinosaur stuff in and around Fruita and Grand Junction. We then headed over to Highland State Park, it is outside of Grand Junction on Route 139. We wanted to see if it was completely reserved and it was. But there was no one there at the time. Not even the park attendant. We thought the lake would be big, but the level was low so it looked small.

After Highland we took some forestry and backcountry roads to get to a dispersed camping area near the Book Cliffs. For Boondocking, it is quite nice: they have picnic table and fire rings AND bathrooms. We did not think this was possible. But it did not really have ATV trails, just mountain biking trails. As we want to use the ATV and dirt bike, this did not seem like a good area for us.

So we drove down 18 Road (Grand Junction area has all of the roads in a grid and the roads north/south are numbered and the east west are names or letters of the alphabet. But some of the roads are 0.00 Road or Q 1/2 Road or 18.25 Road.) to get back on pavement, then went over to the airport area (where the ORV area is huge) and got back off pavement again.

We checked out a bunch of areas to boondock and saw a few dirt bike riders. We drove up to the end of the area, where there was a shooting range for rifles (they have a separate one for pistols) and then figured out where we would boondock. - Don't worry Moms - it is not going to be near the shooting range!

We got back on pavement and checked out an area (Bangs Special Recreation Area) that is close to the Colorado National Monument. This area is at a higher elevation and the trails look much harder. Plus there is not many places to boondock. As it was starting to lightening and rain, we booked it out of there and by this time it was 6:30pm. Sasha said, " Do you want to get something to eat on Route 340?" and of course, I said YES.

So we stopped at Dos Hombres Restaurant which is right across the river from Grand Junction (it has a mailing address of Grand Junction so the town is quite big and spread out.) I had shrimp quesadillas and Sasha had a burrito. They have this club called Agave which, after you drink 30 shots of tequila, of all different levels of taste, you get a t-shirt, shot glass and half price appetizers and drinks. The shots are made up of 10 flights of three tequilas, so I tried a flight. Considering that these are really half shots, it was not bad. There were some really nice tequilas in a flight. I just wish that they would use clear glasses instead of green ones as you want to see the color and clarity of the tequila. Anyway, we really enjoyed the meal and I'm going to go back for more tequila.

We came home, read a bit more and went to sleep around 10:30 pm our earliest yet, so that we could get up early and start packing up. I can't wait to boondock and ride my ATV!

September 13th:

I will put the log in shortly, have to take a shower after all the excitement of today. And there will be pictures ultimately. You can check out the page: Grand Junction to see where we stayed on September 12th and where we will stay until Friday, September 15th. Also check out the new pictures of the little bear we got.

September 12th:

We left Cimarron Park around 11 am after checking out the Dam. We went to Delta to see about getting my motorcycle fixed. The guys there were able to fix it and so we headed out to get something to eat (it was around 1pm at that time and we were starving!) We went to this hole in the wall type of place. The reason we picked it is because it had a large parking lot so that we could park the camper and trailer without much difficulty. Then we headed out again to go to Grand Junction and Fruita around 2 pm.

I was working on my clients' websites and told Sasha to stop at fruit and veggie stand so that we could get some fruit. On the way to one of these places, we went down a side road and ripped off the radio antenna. Sasha found it and we will have to put it back on tomorrow. We always have to be wary of what is above us.

We got into Grand Junction and Fruita and Sasha stopped at a car wash place to wash the grime from the truck before we headed to the campground. We got out of the car wash place around 4:30pm. I had called the Monument RV campground to make sure there was space available and they had a couple of nights available. So we were off.

Got to the campground to find it very packed - which is kind of unusual so when we went in, they stated that there was a wine festival in town and that there were places reserved for the weekend so we would only have a few days at their campground. So we said ok, and paid for 4 nights. Got to the site and it was smaller than we thought, with the trailer door open and the stairs of the camper. We were planning to take the camper off the truck, but then where would we put the truck? There just was not the room available. So Sasha went back to the office to see where we could stow the truck, and they said: "You can not take the camper off of the truck. We don't allow that anymore." Of course, last year they did allow it and we have some great memories but great memories or no, there is no way that we would stay there. So we went over to the State Park (which is across the road.) We could get until Friday morning.

We set up the camper but decided not to take it off right then. Sasha had started up my motorcycle and I had gotten ready to get on it, but for some reason, it was not running very well. So we had to fiddle with it to get it to run. I managed to get into 2nd gear at one point, but then when I put it into first, I could not get it back to second gear. Last December I had an operation on my left foot (the foot used to shift gears) around the toe area, and when I tried shifting, the toe started aching. I was scared of the motorcycle as well...

To make a long story short, Sasha and I had a bit of a talk and decided that the motorcycle was not right for me. I am just not a motorcycle person. So we are now looking into finding a ATV for me to get and ride. The biggest problem will be trading in the motorcycle without a title. Hopefully a neighbor or family member will be able to go into the house, find the title and FedEx it to us.

With this campground at $16 a night (with electric and water hookups) we feel pretty lucky and we have internet access. So I will have pictures of what we did on September 12 and 13th tonight.

September 11th:

Stayed at Cimarron Park (in Curecanti National Recreation Area) that evening and in the morning went to see the Morrow Point Dam. The pictures will be in later today. We came from Taylor Lake area, see Taylor Reservoir and Crested Butte pages and I will have a page for Heading West to Grand Junction area. This year we will be doing some boondocking - having the rig out in the wilderness without any hook-ups: no water, sewer, or electric, nor internet access and we will see if we have cell service. I am kind of disappointed in Cingular, here we are on Route 50 and we do not have cell service.

We are now headed to Grand Junction area, I have to go online to work on my clients' websites and Sasha needs to do our laundry. This will be the first time in many years that he has done it so hopefully our clothes will get clean and keep their colors. We first have to go to Delta to see about my motorcycle and if it can get fixed, then head over to Grand Junction and Fruita. We are hoping to stay in the same campground that we stayed in last year. The bathrooms are to die for and they are very close to the Monument.

On September 10th:

The whole Taylor Park / Crested Butte area has been undergoing what the locals euphemistically call the "Monsoon Season" which means that the weather is constantly changing. We get clear blue skies at one point, and then fog and rain conditions the next.

So we are bagging it. We will stay one last night in Taylor Park/Reservoir and then we will head to warmer and sunnier climes. We are changing the program completely and heading out to Grand Junction, the home of the Mighty Hike, Downhill Hike and Wineries.   And of course, internet access.