It happened. We traded in our beloved Arctic Fox trailer for a Redwood fifth wheel. Now we have more space; nothing needs to be stored under the dining room chairs and we can fit all the groceries in the bigger fridge and freezer.

As usual, our trip south this spring was planned before Christmas, with a tentative departure date based on the weather. As it worked out, we chose to leave earlier than planned in order to miss the “wintery mix” forecast. It was sunny on our first two days of travelling (to Missoula, then Idaho Falls). Clouds set in on our drive to Willard Bay, just north of Salt Lake City in Utah. It started snowing big flakes as we broke camp the next day, so it was good that Doug had driven through Salt Lake City traffic a few times before. The snow didn’t really stick to the road much and the traffic was bearable. There was a little bit of snow at Soldier Summit, but as we dropped down, the weather cleared, and the roads were bare. Unfortunately, the showers caught up to us, just as we arrived in Fruita, Colorado.

It cleared up quickly and here is a photo of our new unit at our campsite the next morning at the same state park that we have been in twice before.

On our last blog post in October, we posted a photo of our old, blind golden retriever, Tali in front of the Carbondale city sign. Sadly, we’ve said good-bye to Tali. We’re adjusting to not having a dog after 39 years of “dogship.” So our photo of the sign at James M. Robb Colorado River State Park has a stuffed fox, instead. The fox is also helping us keep true to our “Travels with a Fox” name; the original nomenclature referred to our Arctic Fox trailer. Watch for “Reddy Fox” to appear in future blog posts.

As you can see in the robin photo below, some of the trees have just started budding.

There weren’t as many birds around as on our other trips which were later in April, but the local meadowlark was singing his heart out most of the day.

In the afternoon of the next day, it had warmed up enough for a bike ride. We went to the Kopapelli trailhead and our favorite warm-up loop, “Rustler’s Loop.” Both of us were pleased that we could ride sections that we had trouble with in previous years.

We were itching to hike in the red rocks again, so the next day we headed up Monument Canyon trail. The well-maintained trail is in the Colorado National Monument (which is like a little brother to a national park) and heads towards Independence Monument.

We reached Independence Monument in about an hour. It was too early to have lunch, so we followed a climbers’ trail around the monument. Here’s a view down toward Fruita and Grand Junction.

Instead of retracing our tracks, we followed an “unmaintained” trail through Wedding Canyon down to the trailhead. The trail was in better shape than most of the trails that we hike in the East Kootenays and it was nice to make a loop. Here is a view looking up to the monument from the canyon.

Sunday was a “rain day” which gave us the time to do a bit of cleaning and organizing in the fifth wheel, and for Wendy to get out her sewing machine. The quilters out there will notice that she’s not piecing, just sewing a loop on a towel, but it was a good test of the set-up. That evening we made pizza, testing out the new mini bread maker and our new oven. It was awesome!

We’re on our way to Arizona tomorrow. New blog post soon!