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27 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Skeeter’s school photo!

“Progression to feral goblin” by DD#1

I gave her the hat; it was too much to hope she would know how to wear it…

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{P

Filed in Family, Humor, Life at Home, PAD 2026 | | Comments (0)

26 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Toots, Skeeter and DD#1 sampling the goods at the new Panera, before I get a chance…(photo by DD#1)…

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {=-{<

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25 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Home at last.

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in F250, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, Life at Home, On the Road, PAD 2026, RV | | Comments (0)

24 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Approaching Idaho!

Over the Malad Summit into the Marsh Valley, north of Pocatello.

On the plains north of Idaho Falls.  Straight and flat.

The renounced bridge of the Union Pacific RR on Monida Pass.

Monida Pass and back in /\/\onTana! at last!

Reaching Helena.  My green tailgater took off at Lima, and was just getting home at this point.  She seems to be bragging about 44MPG in her little green shoebox.  Of course that was when she was following the truck and trailer at 40-50mph…

On the plains (straight and flat again) approaching Ulm!

16 miles to, ten to the exit!  Traffic prevented further photos…

~Curtis in /\/onTana! again, at last! {!-{>

 

 

Filed in F250, Landscapes, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, PAD 2026, Railroads, RV, Subaru Forester | | Comments (0)

23 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Starting the final ride home…round and round we go in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot!  Brigham City.

~Curtis, /\/\onTana! Bound! {!-{>

Filed in F250, Landscapes, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, On the Road, PAD 2026, Panorama, Photography, RV, Subaru Forester, Sunrises | | Comments (0)

22 Mar 26!

Sunday, March 22, 2026

A fairly short day from St. George to Brigham City, north of Ogden.  Around 300 miles, all freeway (I15N).  Same distance as yesterday, but much less uphill and no two lane.  The last stretch is tomorrow: 517 miles or so.

Early daylight.

Somewhere north of Cedar City, approaching Beaver, I think.  Sunny but not too hot!

All the way from St. George (Clarkdale, actually) I have followed by this little green Subaru.  I occassionally get a peak in the mirrors…

We came through Salt Lake City on a Sunday hoping the traffic wouldn’t be as bad as a weekday.  Probably a good choice.  Not photos: it was at least wall to wall if not bumper to bumper.  It all kept moving nicely, excepting the 90MHP+ lane splitting motorcycle, or the several very loud cars racing through all the traffic obstacles (the rest of the traffic…). I do think I saw the last car pulled over later and the driver was in the ditch against the sound barrier and a cop was searching the vehicle.

Love’s Truck Stop Sign, Love’s and the Holiday Inn Express.

It was before three, so we filled up so we can get on the road early tomorrow.  Of course, the pumps decided my card “over fleet velocity” or something and didn’t want to give me gasoline.  It worked when we checked in and at dinner, so we will see tomorrow.

So a pleasant end to the day, reclining on the director’s casting couch, and watching the sun set over Love’s…

…Until a guy opened our room door using a keycard…the front desk had checked him into our room!  A bit later a manager came up and said there wasn’t suppose to be anyone in our room at all and asked when we had checked in.  I told her and that we had a reservation from a few days ago.  We haven’t heard back.

~Curtis still in Utah but only for a few more hours… {!-{>

Filed in F250, Food, Historic, Landscapes, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, On the Road, PAD 2026, Panorama, Photography, RV, Subaru Forester, Sunrises, Sunsets | | Comments (0)

21 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Leaving on the epic (and by that I hope completely boring) drive back to Montana.  Where the Interstate was closed by wildfires already.  Photos by me and the Dailylife Wife.

It is all up hill and previously covered from Clarkdale to Flagstaff…my phone was not wanting to take photos.  Eventual I got that fixed.  It is mostly downhill from Flagstaff northwards on US89.  If we followed US89 all the way north it would run within three blocks of our house.  Assuming the roads are all open, between snow and fires.

There are some really bouncey roads down here!   But they do believe in passing lanes.  For about half the way to Page  it seemed like was a mile of passing lane and then a mile of two lane and then a mile of passing for the other side.  Sweet!  From Page on it slowing decreased in frequency and length.  But the did still happen all the way to St. George.

About 20 miles from Page you go up a large hill through the red rocks.

Off to the side is the Vermillion Cliffs.  The other road to Kanab runs along the base.  That is the route to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon…and they should get the snow plowed within the next two months to open it.  Great Views and lots of Indian craft tables.

Not sure what happened but iot is an interesting photo.

Here is the cleft carved in the top of the rocks.

We filled up at the Maverick Store in page.  Well, the truck did.  200+ miles and it was just under a quarter tank (a 38 gallon tank topped off before we left).  A third or a bit more was in the first 50 miles driving up to Flagstaff.  Much better on the downhill drive from Flagstaff.  8.6MPG!  $98.55!  The Dailylife Wife’s little green skateboard still shows a 280 mile range at day’s end after coming all the way from Clarkdale, some 350 miles already.

The bridge beside the Glen Canyon Dam, which as usual you can’t see much of from the bridge…

Leaving Arizona for Utah!

Nearing Kanab.

Between the wind and traffic we didn’t take any photos from Kanab on.  Covered during our last return two years ago anyway…and it was snowing then, vs 89F!

Tomorrow: uphill 40 miles to the Cedar City Love’s Truck Stop (10 cents off a gallon!) and on to Brigham City.  It is suppose to only be 70F in Salt Lake City.  We’ll see!

~Curtis now in Utah again! {!-{>

Filed in F250, Landscapes, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, On the Road, PAD 2026, Photography, RV, Subaru Forester, Weather | | Comments (0)

20 Mar 26!

Saturday, March 21, 2026

After spending much of the day getting ready for traveling home, the sky gave a nice show.  That funny white dot is the crescent Moon with the dark side illuminated with Earthshine.  Neat in person, not too bad for a cellphone!

A little closer.

And as a close up*…while it looks like you can see features on the dark side the lighted side is completely blown out.  This is the main reason other than size  (the Moon is much smaller than it appears) that Moon photos don’t work:  When you shoot the Moon, what you are doing is shooting a DAYTIME shot.  What you see is the sunlight, just like what we see in the daytime, and you need to expose for DAYLIGHT.  It s not a nighttime photo.

*While cellphones are great cameras and some take amazing sky photos, there are some technical limits.  My 400mm Canon telephoto will give a completely, and much more details, image.  This is as good as it gets with my iPhone.

~Curtis in Arizona for one more night! {!-{>

Filed in Astronomy, Landscapes, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, Life at Home, PAD 2026, Photography, Sunsets, Technical Stuff | | Comments (0)

19 Mar 26!

Thursday, March 19, 2026

We are pulling out Saturday.  I have the reservations.  Three long days; just what we usually take either way, but I remember snow in years past.  It will two days of complete AC this time, with the last day a bit cooler.

Skeeter has been demanding to talk to the Dailylife Wife at least weekly.

In case you can’t see that smiling, errr, face!

Grandson Lugnut received a Heisey Award for improvement, citizenship, scholarship, and effort!

And in addition to this fine certificate, he gets a check for $200!  Pizza Planet, here he comes!  {!-{P

Way to go, Grandson o’ mine!  (photos by the Dailylife Daughter #1)

And lastly, my old dream bike, a Victory Vision!  Just like Buck Rogers would have flown!  I don’t know why Polaris, who owned Victory, closed them down rather than rolling it into Indian, which they revived.  Victory had several well known and liked models.  Like this one!  You don’t see many of them in the wild,,,

~Curtis in Arizona, but not for long…{!-{>

Filed in Family, Family Photos, Historic, Humor, Inspiration, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, Life at Home, Motorcycles, PAD 2026, Photography, Video | | Comments (0)

18 Mar 26!

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

It is getting hot here.  Probably hotter than it has ever been while we have been down here.  No, not quite 124F, but over 90.  I moved the sensor from between the propane tanks, which acted like heat sinks and kept the temperature very slow to react, to on top of the jack stand.  Under the black vinyl cover.  So while the colds are okay, the high’s seem a bit…high…

And the Dailylife Wife hates the heat.  This much heat, anyway.  So we will probably be pulling out to return to Montana this weekend.  I will try to make reservations tomorrow.  I want to go before Gasoline goes much higher!  We paid $2.49/gallon a few weeks ago, it is now over $4.29 at Circle K!  We paid abut $3.49 two years ago.  Hopefully the Straight of Hormuz will be open again soon.

~Curtis in Arizona! {!-{>

Filed in Humor, Inspiration, Life as a Snowbird in 2026!, Life at Home, Macro/Closeup, PAD 2026, Politics | | Comments (0)