Doug S

It was a huge sand deposit from the glaciation process in the surrounding mountains. Winds eventually pushed a fraction of the sand into the mountains you see behind. They are always changing on a small scale, but one photo taken in the 1850s (?) looks nearly identical to today.

Here is a photo:

It is really beautiful- the ranger said that it’s the nicest day of the year. The water is starting to run. A small patch right off the campground just appeared. We went into Alamosa a little after going out into the dunes and the truck thermometer said 61F at 1:30. The air is fresh and clear. All of the surrounding mountains have a respectable amount of snow. Clouds in the southwest style started appearing around noon.

Haven’t been to the dunes yet. Am up in Pinion camp. Maybe 40% full. Completely blue skies, 35 degrees now, 25 last night. Just learned that it is a dog friendly park - I think everywhere.

Jill took this as we arrived - Great Sand Dunes - sorry for the length - sort of IMG_2936.mov

Made it to Stillwell Store at Big Bend. Headed into the Park on 385 and an Ollie going the other way at around 10:45. Hello out there!

Spent the last two nights in South Llano River State Park. Found an Oliver there! I think Denise and Dennis. At about 3:00 in the afternoon 3 buses showed up with 104 middle schoolers! Yes, they spent the night- right next to us. Climbing trees, hollering, meeting our puppies. So many spoke French! Turns out they were from an International school in H town (Houston). Very fun and gone at 6:00 am.

No, but I’m really interested.

Sounds great, but we realized that we could run out of time. Started south to Orange Beach, then a night in Crosby Texas, tonight and tomorrow night we are in South Llano River State park. Need to be in Ft Collin’s CO on the 4th. I backed into the site in good fashion for the first time!

Headed further south! Now in High Falls GA. A lot warmer here, and the traffic in/out of Atlanta was horrible! Headed down to Mobile tomorrow.

Did our first night at #1 25F!!! Nice and warm inside.

Need to find a way to connect!

Hi Toni! We picked up Carlotta today! Spending our first night at campsite #1! First Gin and Tonic - which works as planned. Head to Asheville tomorrow via Uncle Nearest Distillery. Both puppies love their new twin beds.

Great advice!

Thanks Bill! Downhill can be thrilling!

Leaving Jackson Hole to pick up hull 1491 “Carlotta” on Monday the 18th. Furthest east we’ve ever driven! Never had a truck - never had a trailer (actually had a Coleman pop-up many years ago, but was too busy to use it). Doug & Jill

I m guessing that this used to be a reasonable recommendation before there were regulated loads and we still had incandescent lights. If the internal voltage was raised into what were closer to resistive loads, both the current and the power would go up. Not the usual case anymore, where we have mostly constant power loads.

You’ve got it! The woman who owned Nora’s (her daughter), sold it to a couple of local fellows who have put a lot of effort into improving it. The food, coffee, and pizza are now very good. It still has the same small local mountain town vibe - people who live here tend to thrive on that. Hungry Jack’s, the local general store was bought out by 250 of us, and is becoming exceptional!

We actually went about 30 miles on the Natchez Trace when we went to the Oliver factory. 30 miles of mowed lawns up to the forest. Some nice turnouts. We got a book on the park and have it high on the list.

Is that in North Carolina?

It is amazing here. One reason for the Oliver is to be able to head out without much planning and do a fishing week anywhere within a few hundred miles. An amazing learning curve on the horizon.

We will definitely check. We are used to cold and weather. We live on the side of a mountain in Wilson, WY. Had a blizzard yesterday morning and a little over a foot of snow. But not in an Oliver!

Thanks - it all sounds wonderful, and it should be a fine time of year - few crowds, variable, possibly beautiful weather, and all new!

We will definitely do that - Thanks for the offer!

Never been to Kentucky, but we’ll definitely look into it!