Charlie and I, and friends Sandy and Lloyd, are vacationing in Moab, Utah this week.
We hadn’t used the RV since last December (prior to pandemic), and this was BonBon’s first motorhome outing, so we expected a few glitches.
Our new Norcold refrigerator is working fine, as is the new windshield.
However, we drove over a very rough patch of Interstate 70 near Richfield, Utah and the jostling up and down caused our undermount sink to break loose of its wooden supports and fall about three inches under the countertop. This happened a few years ago to the undermount range. The builders supported these undermount items with wooden strips that were GLUED onto the interior of the cabinetry. After 15 years, the glue failed.
Anyway, we McGyvered a temporary solution which supports the sink until we can get home and have our RV repair guy look at it.
BonBon had a rough ride up from Mesquite. She was nervous, tongue hanging down, panting, and such, just like Baby did when she was young. I think it will pass with experience, just like it did with Baby. Other than that, BonBon seems to like RV camping a lot.
We’re here with Sandy, who has her own cabin, and Lloyd, who is sleeping in our rig. They both like to hike and bike, so this is paradise for them. Lloyd likes the dogs.
Yesterday, Lloyd, Sandy, and I went for a ride up in Arches National Park. They hadn’t been there before and were suitably impressed with all the oddball geology.
I thought we were just going to sightsee, and Sandy was dressed in a skirt.
However, once we got through looking at a bunch of arches and taking photos, we made the impromptu decision to hike up to Delicate Arch. It is marked as a 1-1/2 mile trail (one-way) with about 600’ of elevation gain. I’ve hiked it before, by myself.
Anyway, it was more like 2 miles one-way and we were pretty pooped when we got back to the car. Sandy was miffed because she had to hike in a skirt and looked like a nerd while doing it. But she was a good trooper, did the hike just fine, and we all had some memories together that we could laugh about later.
Sandy and Lloyd rode bikes this morning while Charlie and I kicked back with the dogs. Then, Lloyd and I went up the Colorado about 16 miles to the Red Cliffs Lodge where there is a museum dedicated to the many movies which have been made here in the Moab area.
UPDATE: On Monday, Lloyd and I golfed at the Moab Golf Club. There was no one ahead of us, so we played in about 3 hours. It was my first round of golf since late August, when I had to stop for my right hip replacement surgery. I was rusty as can be expected, particularly with the pitching and chipping. I shot 89 and Lloyd shot 92. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful place.
Sandy and Lloyd are friends but not in a romantic way. Sandy can be annoying, and she has been on this trip. Lloyd is fed up with her antics and drama and is probably dreading driving 300 miles back to Mesquite with her riding shotgun.
We are planning to hike Dark Angel trail in Arches National Park tomorrow.
Tomorrow, November 3rd, is…mercifully…Election Day. Every American will be happy when it is over, one way or the other. It’s been a long year.
The Dark Angel hike didn’t turn out as planned. Lloyd, Sandy and I got about one mile up the trail, just after Landscape Arch, when we came to a steep, narrow scramble up a rock fin. Lloyd, who has acrophobia, got up onto the fin but then told us that he didn’t want to go any farther. So, he returned to the car while Sandy and I headed up the trail.
We saw all of the sights: Double Arch, Dark Angel, and the Indian petroglyph treasure trove. All in all, we hiked about 6 miles. Sandy really liked this hike.
The next day, Wednesday, Lloyd and I decided to explore a nearby canyon that looked promising. It is called Grandstaff Trail and it turned out to be a beautiful place, with towering sandstone cliffs and a gurgling stream running through the 3 mile length of the hike.
The trail ended in a box canyon featuring a large arch and the source of the stream: water running out of some cracks in the base of the sandstone cliff. It was a very cool place. Lloyd loved this hike.
On our way back from Grandstaff Canyon, we decided to drive a way down Potash Road along the Colorado River to look for “dinosaur tracks”. When we found out that we’d have to scramble up a rock-strewn cliff to see them, we passed. However, on the way back to camp we stopped along the road to view some nice petroglyphs which had evidently been etched on the rock cliff long before the road cut…now, they’re 15′ off the ground.
Sandy was annoyed that we’d hiked without her on Wednesday, despite telling us beforehand that she was going to take the day off. So, we agreed to do some exploratory work on Thursday in the hopes of finding another nice place to hike.
Which we did: Hunter Canyon, a fairly remote trail off of the Colorado River about 5 miles south of Moab. Again, it was a six-mile up-and-back jaunt up several canyons which featured 500′ sandstone walls. There weren’t many people on the trail, which is the way we like it. Another great day of hiking.
Friday was return-to-earth day for us, featuring a long (377 mile) slog down I-70 and I-15.
I learned two things on the return trip: (1) The Norcold refrigerator has a power issue (!!); and, (2) The I-70 stretch between Richfield and Green River (Utah) is a f…ing washboard that I intend never to drive again. It beat the Hell out of the rig for a second time (on the northbound leg it dismounted my undermount sink!).
Fellow RVers: Avoid that stretch of interstate if you can!!
UPDATE: While we were out tempting Covid-19 in north Utah, Joe Biden went out and defeated President Trump. What a nice way to cap off a great vacation week!!!