Moab and Bluff

October 22

An easy day today: 3/4 of a mile after getting back on the I 70 we took the exit for Moab. Hardly got up to cruising speed! And only 40 or so miles to go.

A nice flat road in reasonable condition at first then we began to descend, winding our way through beautiful rock formations. Most of the the traffic consisted of 4X4s of some description or other, or vehicles towing trailers carrying quads and dirt bikes. We have never seen so many Jeeps in one place!

Entering the town we began watching for an RV Park. We had been here before, in quite a nice park. However in Zihuatanejo last year we met a man who owned an RV Park in Moab which was just to the north of the one we knew. As we approached, we passed one, saying, “No. that wasn't it.” then we spied the Sliprock RV Park and Art exclaimed “That's it” and we pulled in.

The two people behind the counter were dealing with other customers, the man leaving to check something out for one of them. Then it was our turn. While Gillian was taking care of the paperwork Art asked the young lady if the owner was in Mexico last year and was told yes, that was the man who had just gone out. Art thought he had looked familiar!

When he returned Art asked him if we had perhaps met in Zihuatanejo last season and his response was “Yes! I thought you looked familiar!” Mathew is taking his old bus to Cancun this year, leaving in ten days. We may see him on the road as we too are visiting the Yucatan peninsula this year.

Mathew told us that they are almost overwhelmed; He had laid off most of the staff two weeks ago as the season came to an end. This weekend however they had 90% occupancy due to the combination of two unforeseen things: 1) a very warm and sunny week, and 2) Teachers on a two day “professional day” resulting in a 4 day weekend for school kids. Time to hit the desert and the rocks!

Parked and level, slides out. Under and between a few big trees, satellite reception looked like it might be iffy. Art pushed the buttons and a few minutes we had a signal. Now we can watch the weather reports from home and smile smugly.

We spent the day trying to get the internet to work, catching up with the bank accounts and bills, then trying to figure out how to get our e-mail address book from Thunderbird into Shaw Webmail, then trying to figure out how Shaw Webmail deals with e-mail address groups. Not intuitive at all. Still working on it!

During this process we discovered that many e-mail addresses that we used when traveling were only on the Telus webmail address book which is now non-existent! Hopefully we can find them through friends. Or this blog! If you expected to hear from us and haven't, please send us an e-mail!

Then a trip though town, just having a look around and doing a bit of grocery shopping. Just a bit? Over $100.00! And to make matters worse the Canadian dollar is still half a cent below the American dollar, which means about 5 cents on the dollar by the time the Bank takes their cut.

Back at the rig to continue e-mails and to work on the blog. Of course now was the time for the internet to go out again. Access: Local Only! So to Open Office to write the draft there and will copy and past when the internet opens up again.

Of course by now it's evening, all the explorers are back and on the internet. When it is up it is very slow. Hopefully during the day tomorrow it will be faster and more reliable.

Smoke alarm just went off. Dinner must be just about ready.

Dinner done, lamb steak (no, not burnt!) Art carried on with the blog while watching Heartbeat on the Knowledge Network. Bonus: An old episode but somehow one we hadn't seen before. This was followed by “Frost”, one that Art had seen but Gillian hadn't (probably due to a dog class of some sort!)

So late to bed tonight, but we weren't going anywhere tomorrow.

9:40 Sunday morning we woke up! Guess we needed the sleep. After breakfast, during which we watched the news from home, Art spent the rest of the morning (and well into the afternoon!) on the internet working on the e-mail webmail address book.

He had finally figured out how to import the address book from Thunderbird but it seemed at first to not be working. After three attempts he discovered that it had in fact imported everything three times! The error messages that had been coming up appeared to have been related to only one or two addresses! It took a lot of time to delete the duplicates and triplicates! While at it we deleted many unused addresses. If we deleted yours inadvertently and you are not getting e-mails from us please let us know.

Later in the day we went into town to take Gillian's jeep through the carwash. Somewhere at home she had parked the car under a tree resulting in small dark blue almost black stains all over the hood and front fenders. The wash made almost no difference but did remove the residue of the bug and tar remover we had used and had to be rinsed off.

Then to the Moab Brewery for lunch and a local micro brew. We each chose their Scorpion Ale, a highly hopped brew which went well with Art's Jack Daniels Burger and Gillian enjoyed hers with Veggie Wrap with humus and blue cheese. The bill came in at under $25.00

On the way back to the campground we stopped off for look around the well set out and informative Visitors Center. Interesting fact: Utah requires operators of ATVs to have an ATV operator's permit or license. If your jurisdiction has such a program it is accepted here. If not, you have to get a permit here before heading to the hills in your ATV. We didn't look into the requirements since we don't have an ATV.

Back in the motorhome Art went back to the computer—Access: Local Only. So he lay down on the couch for a nap while Gillian got out the liquid wax and went to work on the spots on HER jeep!

The RV Park pretty much emptied out today, very quiet this evening. If the internet connection was up it would probably be quite quick!

Tomorrow, the town of Bluff, a few hours drive to the south. We have stayed there before and should have reliable internet connection there.

Monday, October 24

In the morning we tried the internet again; still :Local Only. Gillian went up to the office to find another camper with the same problem. He then went into the office ask for a reset of the modem. Gillian had the dogs and couldn't take them inside.

Some time later Art walked up to see if anything could be done. There he met a couple from Saltair BC, about 4 miles from where he grew up! They too were having problems. Just then the young lady from the office came out and indicating a man sitting at a picnic table, said that she had reset the modem and that he was using the wireless.

Art chatted with the couple for a few minutes and returned to the rig to find Gillian reading the e-mail! We took care of some urgent business via e-mail and Skype then began packing up.

As we drove began to take notice of fuel prices as we would need to take on some diesel somewhere in the next 500 kilometers or so. The price of diesel at one station was 4.199 per US gallon--higher than some in California. A bit further on we saw that in most places prices were nearer or under $4.00.

We have been in this area several times and have many photos so picture taking was minimal, but here are a few just to add come colour to the blog.

We stopped for a few minutes in Blanding, just a short distance north of Bluff, to buy a few groceries that we had forgotten. Bluff doesn't really have a grocery store. Here Art made a sandwich for himself using the last of his ham and a fresh bagel from the store. Gillian had the remains of her wrap and salad from yesterday, which we ate on the road.

We found the Cadillac Ranch RV park with ease, having stayed here several times. The dogs love it: ducks, emus, a donkey, a small fishing pond that Trekker did not unfortunately get to swim in.

The rest of the day was spent just lazing around, Gillian with a book, sitting on a bench by the fishing pond and Art updating the blog then taking his siesta. The day drew to a close with a beautiful sunset behind the hills to the west.

For dinner Gillian made a pasta sauce, some of which will be turned into chili later. For the pasta itself we defrosted some pasta dough that Art had made at home and he kneaded, rolled and cut fresh fettuccine. The rolling and cutting was aided by some homemade red wine which later made a good accompaniment to the dinner.

We woke in the wee small hours to the patter of raindrops on the roof and the sound of the wind rattling the awning. Art got up, pushed the button to retract it and went back to bed.

In the morning we woke to cloudy skies and not a sign of the overnight shower--the wet had completely evaporated. The only sign of the rain was tiny water spots in the dust on the Jeep.

After a leisurely breakfast Gillian walked the dogs while Art tackled several day's accumulation of dead bugs on the windshield and the front of the coach. While at it he gave all the other windows a quick swipe as well. After the dog walk Gillian went back to work on HER jeep.

In the afternoon we went sight seeing in the jeep around areas we had seen before. Dry rocky country, a few horses and a few sheep was all we saw in the way of farming or ranching. Every once in a while we would come across a house alone in the middle of nowhere.

Our goal was Hovenweep ruins. Along the way we stopped at Hatch Trading Post, a rather picturesque place. . . at least on the outside. Inside it was more or less a small general store with one cooler full of beer, another full of soft drinks ( a good selection though), an assortment of snack foods and canned goods and a small but nice selection of native made jewelry and pottery.

At Hovenweep we walked about a bit, Gillian taking the dogs on one of the concrete paths, keeping a sharp eye out for rattlesnakes, there being a warning sign posted in the Visitors Center. We had been here a few years ago but had come from Cortez, Colorado.

Looking at the landscape it is hard to believe that the people who lived here essentially practiced "dry farming" that is without irrigation, relying only on rainfall, although they did apparently have a few small irrigated terraces.

We continued on the road, more or less doing a loop, back to the road to Bluff. Clouds began to form around us, there was a light sprinkle of rain and lightning strikes between ground and cloud--not too close fortunately.

Returning to Bluff we pulled into Twin Rock Cafe for a late lunch that will probably be dinner! Great food there again. The two spires on the left are known as the "Navajo Twins"

Leaving Twin Rocks we passed by Bluff Fort which which had been in the early stages of renovation when we were here three years ago. We notice the open sign was still up so we looked in. The lady in the info center called her husband on his cell phone to ask him to keep the cabins open for us.

We began touring the grounds just as the rain began. But without rain you can't have rainbows.

We were amazed with the progress made in the last three years. Besides preserving original structures they are well into recreating the old fort, building replicas of the original settlers' cabins and blacksmith shop and wagons. Also just being started, to be finished next year is the stone Co-Op Store.

Back at the motorhome Gillian took the dogs for a quick walk around the duck pond then loaded them and the laundry to go to the laundromat half a mile up the road. The dogs will complete their evening walk while Gillian waits for the machines to finishing going round.

The rains returned along with a little thunder and lightning so we spent the evening deciding which of the 99 photos should go in the blog, reading and watching TV.

Tomorrow we move on into New Mexico, either Santa Fe or Albuquerque. We want to visit both, not sure yet which we'll do first.