Eastern Utah
EMAIL ME AT: mgypsy97 at aol dot com

Monday, June 13, 2011

Beautiful day for a drive

I started out today to find Rudd Pond campground in the Taconic State Park, approximately 40 miles from here. I love driving the Highlander, although I'm not sure if I will ever get used to the miscellaneous controls. I drove about 10 miles with the windshield wipers on intermittent, because I must have done something to that control stick while trying to figure out the cruise control. It's on another, shorter control stick just below that of the wipers. I don't remember ever having this much trouble dealing with simple things before now.

I eventually got the wipers turned off, a big relief on a sunny day and more oncoming vehicles than I would have liked to see, considering the wipers were merrily sweeping back and forth across the windshield. Occasionally I gave the window a squirt of washer fluid just so folks might think I was merely cleaning the windshield.

The cruise control is different as well, and I think I prefer having it in sight on the steering wheel. But I quickly realized that I push the button on the end of the stick to turn it on/off, and then for SET the stick is pushed down, and for RESUME it is pushed back up.

I took pictures of Rudd Pond, from the left end, across the water to the campground, and over to the right end. Click on the pictures for a much clearer, larger view.





There are about 6 tent sites that are available for campers with dogs, and this is probably the best out of the 6.




Most of the sites have wooden platforms, and the ones without are usually two sites to a space. All in all, I'd say they are too close to suite me, especially since all six sites in a row would be those with dogs. That is too many in a short space to my way of thinking.

The camp host was very helpful and loaded me down with brochures, maps, and diagrams. The New York state parks charges an extra fee for out-of-state residents, and non-residents don't get any kind of senior discount. Maybe tomorrow I will try another direction. I drove through some very beautiful rural scenery, but as usual there is never a place to pull over and take pictures, and since the road was mostly hilly and curvy, I didn't even try to pull onto what shoulder there was. The little towns I drove through were quaint but not touristy - real people live there year around evidently.

Sorry about the pictures being all over the page - I prefer them in the middle but every time I tried to upload the images Blogger would say "DONE" but the pictures wouldn't be there. I thought maybe if I did something different they might show up and they did, except the text isn't where I thought it would be. And no, I can't use LiveWriter on a Mac computer!

I stopped in at A&P to pick up a couple of items and noticed a blood pressure machine, so I sat down for a couple of minutes. My pressure was 103/49, which goes a long way in my mind to explaining why I'm having dizzy spells. I won't take anything tomorrow and then will go back to my HCTZ the following day and thereafter. I read that the leg cramps can be alleviated by drinking a small can every night (and in the morning, if needed) of V-8 juice. I'm also doubling up on the bananas.

Again, I marveled at how easy it is to park the Highlander. I am so glad I made the change. Now I have to figure out what to put down on the immaculate beige carpet in the cargo area to keep it clean and relatively free of dog hair. I may be dreaming to think I can minimize the dog hair because it seems to fly around the inside of the vehicle, landing on the dashboard and every other surface.

13 comments:

  1. Good to see you got out today to check campgrounds. You'll love the Highlander, just something to get use to. Mine is laid out the same way since it's the little sister. RAV4, it's holding up well so far.

    Looks like your too far East for our travels to Canada. Maybe someday we'll still meet. Have fun. I hope you get more strength.

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  2. Best of luck with your new vehicle. Don't feel bad about the wipers. Same thing happened to me, while driving my daughter's Toyota Van. I had no idea how to turn them off and it was a bright sunny day.

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  3. We've had our Avalanche for almost a year and I still haven't figured out several things on it. So sometimes I end up driving with the wipers going and I just sing along with them. How about a cheap piece of carpet to cover the carpet in the cargo area. That might help. Glad you got to get out and drive today.

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  4. Nice pictures. How about COE parks, are there any in your area? I don't think I would ever do tent camping. Just too old, but I have done it and enjoyed it. Last time was in Rock Mountain Park,CO

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  5. If you love your dog you have to love her hair. We have three shih tzu dogs and loose hair is a way of life.

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  6. Good luck with the dog hair. I think it's a lost cause! :)

    My GPS stopped talking to me this morning on the way to the repair facility. what a pain! Sometimes these electronic wonders seem to have a mind of their own.

    Better buy an extra gallon of wiper stuff! Ha Ha!

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  7. I've had my Honda CRV for a couple of years and occasionally I STILL can't figure out how to turn the rear wiper on and wash the back window. And the automatic door locks? Did you see my blog where Eldy accidentally locked me in the car while he went to use a public restroom? When you lock the car from the OUTSIDE you can't unlock it from the inside. I set the car alarm off trying to unlock the car from the inside. The locks wouldn't work. (I had decided I better get out and use the restroom too.) People came over and tried to tell me to unlock the door from the inside but I couldn't. Eldy finally returned to the blaring car horn and stares from people looking at me on the inside of the car.

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  8. I enjoyed the pictures very much. I know what its like to not be able to pull over and take pictures. I was having trouble with blogger also. In my case it wouldn't even down load the picture, it took 2 days to get it done.
    You'll get used to the new car. All these fancy things take time I am still learning and mine is and 04. Enjoy

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  9. Loved all the picutres today, even where they are they look great. That lake looks like one you could paddle a paddle boat on. Seems like your pressure is very low. Hope you can get that righted.

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  10. It seems every vehicle has to have a different way of doing things. Makes it confusing for anyone jumping into an unfamiliar vehicle. Even when the vehicle is familiar, it can still be tricky. Things seem to be opposite between our Santa Fe & Jeep so I often get muddled up on wipers, etc.

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  11. I'm guessing there's not a book to show all the controls. If not, no telling what ur missing. lol. Every time i change vehicles, i have the same problem, but have had the books.
    GL, and TC

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  12. Toyota is funny on the cruise control. Pushing down on the stalk sets the speed to on, but you push up to accelerate or resume. This is backwards to most vehicles. Usually set and resume are on the same button. Ford separates set and resume to different buttons. Man why can't they just pick a way for it to work and do it on all cars? On the Toyota you can pull the stalk towards you and it will knock the speed off without turning the curise control off. So that is just like touching the brake. I'm still confused about the cruise settings after two years of owning the car, and Loyce won't even use it because it makes no sense to her.

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  13. Nice pictures Gypsy. It might make you feel better to know that I finally did start using Live Writer to help with all the blogger problems. Well it uploads pictures easier but blogger changes the fonts and spacing when I upload the Live Writer to it. So I don't think it would help you that much. Blogger is a real pain.

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