Follow the Frog

 We spent last weekend doing a bit of a test run/shakedown of our camp set up for summer adventuring season. We had picked up a bit of gear we needed to install on/in the tent plus just remembering the install and removal process. We added some stairs to the ladder which made climbing and working on the tent absolutely lovely. Not visible but just as helpful we added a leveling device, clips for fairy lights for the tent, and some bolts to assist the placement of the shoe rack to make it easier to access. We also got a little yard sign to try to keep people from stealing our wood from our campsite when we are out exploring for the day since the tent doesn’t get left in our site.  We spent Friday and Saturday nights at Twin Harbors State Park which is located in West Port, Washington. We got to enjoy some nice beach walking (Pippin’s favorite) as well as exploring a carriage museum in nearby Raymond and some tasty eats and the jetty in West Port. The weather was lovely and the ...

 It has taken a couple of weeks to recover and clean up from our epic road trip and life definitely doesn’t stop! Upon getting home we had zoo adventures and family outings plus work and well life. If I miss something that you were curious about feel free to hit me up. Without further ado…stats!stats!stats! Number of Trip Days: 22 Miles Driven: 8, 867 Gallons of Petrol Purchased: 384 Average Cost Per Gallon: $3.33 Average Miles per Gallon: 23.48 …this is a little less efficient than running around town on errands. Wind definitely affects us more. At one point we had a nice tail wind and we were getting 30mpg! Sadly that didn’t last long. Total Petrol Cost: $1271.31 Most Expensive Petrol Stop: St. Mary’s, MT $4.50 per gallon Thirstiest Tank Fill: 12.044 gallons Columbus, OH  Camping Days: 7 (we lost two nights due to dangerous conditions) Number of National Parks Visited: 9 Number of Zoos/Aquariums/Wildlife Preserves: 6 Rocket Related Stops: 2 Closest Distance to Canadian Borde...

 If you don’t love pretty rocks, this is not the post or park for you. Sam and Bryson have had quite adventuring and decided to sit this one out. With those warnings out of the way, on to pretty rocks! The Needles…well a set of them. There are several such formations throughout this section this just happened to be the most viewable set. The Three Gossips.  Sheep Rock. Surprisingly the closer we got the better the sheep was defined  North Window  North and South Window  Me in front of North and South Window Double Arch Delicate Arch This is the arch you see on Utah plates and all of the tourist promotional stuff. Your options are a 3 mile round trip hike on an exposed ridge line plus some rock scrabbling to physically touch it, a view point from a distance after a half mile 170ft fairly vertical climb up a path with some stairs, or a lower viewpoint a couple of hundred feet from the parking lot. Due to time and being done with type two fun we opted for option tw...

After a reasonably restful night (after grabbing a blanket for me) we got on the road nice and early. Our destination for the day was Canyonlands National Park. We were exploring the Islands in the Sky district and camping in the Needles district. The Islands in the Sky district is the mesa peninsula between the Colorado and Green rivers of which you can see the confluence of at the southern most point in the district. However, our first stop was Four Corners because it was only thirty minutes out of our way.  Mesa Arch I love rocks. Especially pretty ones. I will try to be selective. John had had enough by the end of the day and we still had another full day of rock ogling to go.  Sam and Bryson thought the Prickly Pear cactus was neat.  Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs . We happened upon this on the way to our campsite. Apparently unbeknownst to me we had to pass thorough Bears Ears National Monument to get to our campsite so I got a bonus in seeing Bears Ears. There’s lots o...

 After saying our goodbyes we headed north for about 5 hours to a campground called Copperas Creek which sat adjacent to Proctor lake just outside the town of Comanche, Texas. Parts of our drive even took us along the historic Chisholm Trail.  It wasn’t a bad campground and our new gear to deal with the heat worked quite nicely, however, the bathroom situation could have been better. Seems like they didn’t have a camp just to show a little bit of love to them. They came with “friends”.  After saying goodbye to our “friends” we headed to our next stop for the night at Clear Creek Campground in New Mexico. This campground was in the Santa Fe National Forest and just around the corner from Valles Caldera which we had the pleasure of visiting on our road trip in 2021.  On the way to our destination for the night we saw some historical marker signs aka brown signs talking about the historic Fort Sumner and the resting place of Billy the Kid! We got ourselves turned right ...

 We had one last mini adventure before we loaded up and departed Houston this afternoon. We took a trip to the Houston Zoo to enjoy the new Galapagos Island exhibit, see some baby giraffes, baby capybara, elephants, and lions. It was so hot even the Africa and Asian animals were hiding.  After returning from the zoo we loaded up and headed out. Our stop tonight is a small campground about 4 hrs north of Houston. Tomorrow we camp in Valles Caldera in New Mexico before heading deep into the desert in Utah in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks for the 4th of July holiday. It’s hard to believe we will be home by Friday. That looks like a friend shape I see at home…. I have had the pleasure of seeing sea nettle jellyfish like these drift past the boat when the tide changes Sam and Bryson were excited to tag along to the zoo and see elephants.  Even though black bears do call Texas home, Sam thought it looked like a friend from home. He misses his mountains and forests. Sam ...