Monday, May 15, 2017

The Last of Jensen

Another hike we did while in Jensen was Moonshine Arch.  It’s just north of Steinaker State Park.  Getting there involves a gravel road, and then a dirt road that has the sand that’s like talcum powder.  I will once again be vacuuming out the bed of the truck.  It’s a nice hike, there is some slogging through the talcum powder sand so don’t wear a nice pair of socks.  Mine are now pink.

It’s a pretty arch.  There is a cavern underneath it.

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The scenery on the way back is just lovely.  Look at the colors.

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Today we drove to Grand Junction, via the highway of death, CO139.  It’s actually a really pretty drive.  The road surface was not bad until we were about 38 miles north of I70.

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There are cows on the road.  Notice that she is on our side of the jersey barrier.

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As you approach Douglass Pass the road gets really steep.

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The south side of the pass has significant switch backs.  They are signed 15 mph and they mean it. 
Here is more live stock we saw.  It was a critter rich day.  We had cows and deer.  Going into Loma, prairie dogs were running across the road in both directions.  None were harmed by us.  There were also sheep on the highway.  Someone had put up home made signs warning of sheep on the road for several miles.

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A large part of the road maintenance appears to be scraping mud off the road.  See the scrape marks in the dirt?

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The Deere 333G was pushing dirt over the edge of the road.  The power tool behind the Deere was pulling up bushes and throwing them over the side, as well.  There was a lot of evidence of mud removal along the way.


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This is the top of Douglass Pass.  The road was rough in places, but it wasn’t crumbling.  There are roads in the Tucson city limits that are worse. Large falling rocks have taken their toll on the pavement.  In a car or a truck, it’s not a bad drive.  We would NEVER EVER EVER take the RV in either direction on that road.  There are some really steep bits that are long enough to allow the weight of the bus to put serious strain on the engine brake.

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It’s a pretty drive.

Oh yes, the ear.  Fungus is still in residence.  This time the ENT squirted the gentian violet into the ear instead of painting with a q-tip.  His thinking was that more would be more effective.  Thought I was going to pass out/vomit from the pain.  Eight hours later it still hurts, along with referred pain into the jaw.  So, I have an appointment with an office in Boise on the last day that we are there to see what’s happening on the ear drum.  Hopefully today will have exterminated the life forms in my ear.

Take care of your ears.  When they turn on you, life is bad.

2 comments:

  1. Oh man, so sorry about your ear and the pain from the treatment! I hope that will be the last of it (but fear it won't be). I hope my ears stay good as I've got enough other broken bits to worry with! I guess you didn't get to bicycle at all in Dinosaur, and I am sorry about that. It really was one of the nicest spots we rode last year. Glad you had some fun, though!

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  2. Oh, the ear thing sounds awful!
    Glad we only have a 30' motorhome. We didn't hook the car up either time but we would do 139 again. It was no worse than a lot of other mountain roads we've driven, and there was not much traffic. Some of those hairpins might be hairy in a big rig like yours, though!

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