The Lowe Down

  You have endured our last 39 days on the road.   This has been one of the most memorable trips we have ever made.   Our objective was to see the two states that we had not visited in the lower 48, Idaho and North Dakota.   Along the way we visited a lot of some of the most beautiful scenery God created.   Everyday we were thankful that we had this opportunity.   We are quick to admit that we are happy to be back home.   We are thankful that we had this opportunity.   “No place like home”   As much as we enjoyed every minute, we are tired of the travel and probably want take this long of an adventure again. I promised photos.   Here is a link to those photos. https://montes-capture-the-moment.smugmug.com/Travel/Out-West-in-2022/ This is a site I use to show and sell photos however, if you find a photo that you have interest in having, let me know and I will email it to you. Thanks for going with us. Monte

  June 7 & 8 Over last two days we have seen very little to stop and photograph.   What we have seen is, leaving Loveland was dairy farms and feeder lots.   In fact one feeder lot was nearly ¾ of a mile long and full.   Getting into Nebraska it was nearly mile after mile of corn and soy beans.   This also continued into Kansas.   It was not our plan to go to Kansas but Jan checked the radar and found that along our route was a rain system.   We felt that it would be best if we found a go around so we headed south into Kansas.   This route proved to be a great alternative.   We ended up going along the old Pony Express route.   After a looking at map, we found that over the last 4 days we had pretty much followed the route from Sacramento all the way to Jefferson City, MO.   Since we had scheduled so many miles each day, we did not stop at any of the old way stations. However, we did learn that the Pony Express only existed for...

  July 5 & 6 On this trip we have seen some really interesting places.   And today was no exception.   Today (July 5), we traveled from Loveland, CO to Estes Park.   Estes Park is the gate to the Rocky Mountains.   If you haven’t been to it, it is easy to compare it to Gatlinburg.   The big difference to me is that most all the folks visiting are really outdoorsy people, from fishing, kayaking, biking, hiking and nearly all other outdoor activities.    Driving over to Estes Park we drove up one of the most spectacular drives we’ve ever driven.   This road went through a canyon that was just about as wide as our car, with a lot of curves.   The walls of the canyon did not slant to the road they were vertical and solid rock.   You won’t find any pictures of this canyon because I had both hands on the wheel and eyes straight ahead.   There were no turn outs either.   Since we were early traffic wasn’t a problem.   ...

  July 3 & July 4 After having a rather boring day of driving yesterday, we started today with a nice ride through some mountains.   These mountains lasted till we reached the Utah border.   At that point we topped a mountain and then looked eastward across the Great Salt Lake Flats.   As far as the eye could see was this interesting sight.   For the next 40 miles the road was flat and STRAIGHT.   Any one that can drive a straight line could do this.   This took us by the Bonneville Salt Flats where a lot of speed records were made.   I wish we could have gone over to it to see how it was setup.   As we drove through the salt flats we finally came upon the Great Salt Lake.   It is interesting to see the crust of salt along the edge.   Our next sight was Salt Lake City as it sits at the base of mountains it is really a pretty setting.   Passing through, we followed the road that would have taken us to Park City, this was ...

  July 2, 2022 We may not be in Tennessee but we still awaken at about the same time as home.   Hitting the road at 6:30 is a good thing out here.   First the temperature is about 55 degrees, low traffic and most importantly the wind is not a factor.   The down side is when headed east the sun is directly in the face. I can’t imagine what the attraction to this desert is.   At one of our breaks, I got out to make a couple pictures.   The ground was so dry that each step I made the grass crunched.   Miles and miles of NOTHING.   I need to mention at one point there were large bugs walking on the interstate.   The bugs appeared to be about 2-3” in length and about 1” tall.   Luckily they didn’t fly or we might have had a cracked windshield.   Sometimes in the distance there may be a mountain but is so far away.   We had one little canyon to as we started. With the kitties as our passengers, we make a few stops to let them ...

  July 1, 2022 Our day trip today is was to Lake Tahoe. I came here back in 1982 as a support person for my friend Wally Robinson.   Wally was here to run the Western States 100, from Squaw Valley to Auburn, CA through the Sierra Nevada’s.   I was amazed how good my memory was regarding the area.   Today, we drove to Truckee and then over to Squaw Valley to see where the start of the run was/is.   What amazes me is that he had to run in the first 4 miles 4000’ in elevation increase.   Not too surprising to me was that the mountain was still there and still horribly looming over the start line. From Squaw Valley we drove the perimeter of the lake stopping at a beach (not too many bikinis at 55 degrees) then on to the “Vikingsholm” and then on to Lower Eagle Falls.   Both of these locations were within the Emerald Bay State Park. This was quite a walk for us, only 1 mile, but the elevation change was 500’.   We didn’t know if the altitude of 65...