Moab, UT

We are in Moab, finally. We will be here for a few days which is nice, so I don't have to pack everything up the second I wake up in the morning. After this we will be headed to Lake Tahoe. Maybe we can swim there, it is pretty hot around here.

Moab looked like there were quite a few cool places when we were driving in last night. So we will have to see today. I have to do laundry SO BAD, Dave is completely out of shorts because he keeps dirtying them so quickly. I'm thinking perhaps we need to buy him another pair or two.

He bought me a fox fur jacket yesterday at a consignment shop, which was cool. We are now going to ship home a bunch of stuff that we have come to find we don't need. Hoodies, my winter jacket, 3 pairs of Daves pants, and the fox fur jacket. We still have too much stuff, but I don't know what we will need.

I posted those last updates through my phone, and they came out all funky so I posted in the help forum, hoping maybe someone knows what happened and how to fix it. I'll probably have to retype them anyway, so I'll reupdate here on those days, but I'm going to leave those posts up for people to see in order for them to help me.

So I left off on the morning of my birthday...

We were in Flagstaff, so we woke up and got chocolate chip pancakes at the little cafe at the KOA. We couldn't even finish them they were so chocolatey and thick. So good tho. Then we checked out, and went to the RV store looking for new stabilizers since our rear ones are gone. We found something we could use, and bought them. Then we looked at all the RV's because this trip has made us realize how small and not really convienent the popup is. So we're looking for a hard side. We are actually considering a school bus, and gutting the inside and making it nice. I think that'd be so cool, paint it cool colors, and put beds and stuff inside. Win.

After the RV place, we called Canon to see where to get the camera fixed, but they said we have to send it to Illinois to get it fixed, fucking ridiculous, and it will take like 3 weeks. Pain in my ass. So we're shipping that out today, and I'm getting it shipped to Montana where if it makes it there while we are there we can pick it up and use it for the rest of the trip after Montana. So for now we are using Daves moms camera, which sucks. Bleh.

Then we were off to the Grand Canyon. Since you all know that we are not people people, we drove right by the touristy South Rim and headed for the North Rim. What a LONNNNG drive. It was so hot. We drove through the Navajo reservation, and Dave wouldn't stop at any of the road side tables, which was upsetting, but it was too hot anyway.

Right after Vermillion Cliffs, we hear a screech noise, and I look at Dave and ask him what he hit. Then the car is sorta...thumping along. We pull over, and the camper has a flat. The road was so hot that basically the tire blew. But we had a good spare, so we pull the car over so it makes shade and Dave changes the tire. I helped out, and watched the fire ants, making sure they weren't headed for Dave who was sitting on the ground. Those things are ridiculous.

Then we were off again. We had to drive up the mountain to get to Jacob Lake, and it started getting pretty chilly. Then we got gas, and headed the last 40 miles to the North Rim. This stretch was super chilly, I actually needed the blanket...we had taken the doors off in the hot desert, so now it was chilly. We saw lots of deer, and a HERD OF BUFFALO! SO COOL! We stopped and took pictures, and then were off again. We got to the Grand Canyon around 8. There was a huge moon, and the sun was going down, so we took pictures while it was light enough, and then went to eat.

The Grand Canyon Lodge up there is gorgeous. I had pork roast, and Dave had some kind of chicken fettucine, and I had a North Rim Sunset as my birthday drink, since we had just seen the sunset. We left there around 1030. The food and atomosphere were AWESOME.

Dave drove back, I fell asleep. All of a sudden I feel the car slowing down, I open my eyes, and there is the herd of buffalo in the road. You see all their eyes, in the lights of the car. So cool.

Dave drove to Utah, and stopped at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. We set up the camper and passed out. Woke up in the am, and showered, then headed out wheeling on the dunes. Bleck to sand getting everywhere. The Cherokee is too heavy for the sand, especially since we have mud tires not sand tires, so we weren't doing too well. We were out there for about 2 hours, then went back and packed up and headed towards Zion.

We entered the East enterance to the park. So we were looking up at all the formations as we were driving all the way down the mountain. We got to go through the tunnel, which was cool. We saw some desert bighorn sheep, which look like goats. We parked across from the market there, and got food. I got a buffalo burger, which was awesome, and Dave had a sandwich which he said wasn't great. Then we headed towards the shuttle. I asked about the Narrows, and they said we wouldn't really be able to walk too far today because it was already 600. I don't even know how that happened. So we take the shuttle up to the top anyway, the last stop. We walk the Riverside Trail, and then hop into the river and walk up for about an hour. We had so much fun! Oh man, it was awesome. I wish we had more time, but we didn't want to get stuck out there in the dark. There were people who had walked 16 miles up there. Oh man.

So we walked back, and by the time the shuttle got back to the visitor center it was basically dark. We went into the market for postcards, stickers, and bread for dinner, then headed to Cedar City. I fell asleep so fast, no matter how hard I tried to stay awake for Dave, I couldn't. That walk tired us out.

Cedar City was nice. The guy at the KOA let us in and let us have the site for 25 instead of 35 bucks, because we weren't using the cable or the sewer. We set up, I cooked Ramen and made tuna fish sandwiches for Dave, and then I passed right out. We woke up in the morning to a GORGEOUS day. The wind was blowing through the popup, and we definitely did not want to get up. So we took our time. Showered. Dwadled. We got out of there around 1.

We stopped at tire shops, because we needed a new spare for the camper, and we need a spare for the Jeep, since ours rolled down the mountain remember.

Didn't find any Jeep spares. But trailer spares are easy to come by. We ate at Ninja Sushi and Steakhouse, which was good food, and awesome green tea fried ice cream. Yummm.

Then we were off to the car wash. We had fun with that. One of those wash your own car ones. That took up about an hour.

Then we tried again to find tires. We got the trailer one, but still nothing for the Jeep.

Then we were on the road to Moab. Long drive. We just drove and drove, then stopped for dinner at Mom's Cafe, at the exit that was the last exit with any services for 110 miles. Food was super good. I had spaghetti with homemade sauce, and fries, and Dave had a club sandwich which he said was good. Now it was my turn to drive.

Oh man, I drove up this HUGE mountain, the car was putzing along, hardcore. We stopped to let it cool off. I drove for 67 miles, then stopped at a viewing area on top of the mountain, and Dave drove. He got to drive DOWN the 6% grade hill. We were flying. And the engine gets so cool. Nice.

We made it to Moab around 1. Set up. The internet needed a code, so no internet. So we watched Top Gear, and fell asleep. Woke up this morning to HEEEEEEEEAT.

Now it's time to shower, since we've been lazy long enough.

Let's hope I figure out how to mobile update, because my computer code died and wont charge my computer, so blah.