Jacqueline’s Jaunts

09-22-21 Wednesday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 22        Ely KOA Journey Ely, NV Site # 20 Jeeps in Campground: 7 Drive Time: 4 hours Miles: 240 Some facts we've learned on this trip: Dollar stores are popular across the west, even in the smallest town: Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Store Bales of hay are stored round instead of rectangle. I read somewhere they wrap them in some form of plastic then the rain rolls off easier and keeps them dryer. The things you look up and learn when you're on the road.  Thousands of farms across the west grow alfalfa Cement trucks are built backwards The stars are brighter in the desert                  Our drive today was I-15 south then west on US-6. which took us across the flat desert. Miles of sagebrush and large areas of sand. Once in a while we would see a clump of trees and a house in the middle. It's hard to imagine what people do for a living in the tiny towns across these plains. Seems like it would be a very lonely existence.

09-21-21 Tuesday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 21  Elderberry Family Farm  Payson, UT I forgot to mention a few things about Rangely, CO in my post last night. I found it to be an interesting place.  Rangely’s motto is “Way outside ordinary!”, which I think is weird. As you drive west out of town you start to notice oil derricks for miles. All the oil fields are owned by Chevron. Per Wikipedia today, Chevron drilled their first deep oil well in 1931. It currently has 406 producing wells. There is rock crawling parks, 9 hole golf course, Kennedy Reservoir, miles of BLM dirt raids , biking and hiking. The town is very run down but the local Mexican restaurant was excellent. There giant margarita is only $8.50.  The beautiful color brochure we received at our camp ground gives you a lot of information for outdoor activities as mentioned earlier. Other outdoor activities include bow and rifle hunting. The brochure is a little misleading but the town needs all the help it can get.  We would not sta

09-20-21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 20 Dinosaur National Monument Colorado and Utah Dinosaur Day!!!! Dinosaur National Monument has 2 visitor centers; one in Colorado and one in Utah We headed to the first visiter center on the Colorado side since we are camping in Colorado, Canyon Visitor Center. We headed out about 10:00AM. It was only about a 30 - 40 minute drive to the Canyon Visiter Center in the town of Dinosaur. Yes it's called Dinosaur. The Colorado side does not have any dinosaur fossils, only the Utah side. I got my NP Passport book stamped and bought the sticker for it. We perused through the center looking at all the displays and reading boards. Nice little museum.  From here we headed to the Quarry Visitor Center, north of Jensen. We watched the movie about the monument and again walked through the small displays about the area. We were happy to find out yesterday was the last day the NP used busses to take you to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. We were able to drive up to