it did all night. Downed limbs litter the campground, but none hit us (especially the solar panel) during the night. Can't dump since the hose at the station is messed up, so we take off. At the campground entrance/exit we see a crew working to cut away a huge tree that split in half and just missed the host's trailer. We enjoyed the tailwind on I-70 up to the turnoff on state 19, but from then on it was a steady 30mph 90 degree crosswind on the 2-lane road south to Moab, with gusts to 40 or so. The rig actually tracked pretty well, but my hands were riveted to the steering wheel. At a high point on I-70 we got one-bar service, so picked up a message from Paul saying
that he was going to be in Moab at the La Quinta. Saw our first arches off in the distance to the East as we approached Moab, which lies in a valley, making the entry rather scenic. Our AAA guide said Portal RV Resort (that's our spot in the picture above) had the best rates, so we pulled in there. It's just biking distance north of Moab's downtown, and not a particularly pretty campground (nice mountain views, though), but it suited us. We enjoyed e/w/c hookups, and it seemed almost decadent to have cable tv. $27.50 a night, which seems a little rich, but it was the least expensive place in the area. The local KOA wants $50+, and the campgrounds at the parks were full. We had clean showers
and very friendly hosts, so thumbs up for Portal. Fired up the cell phone, now that we are in a "real" city (6,000?), and . . . . nada. Zilch. No signal at all. As we were to discover later, Verizon and AT&T come in just fine, but Sprint hasn't gotten around to here yet. Ironically, Sprint is the only one we can get at home, which is why we went with them. This trip has shown that they are very weak in Utah. Drove over to La Quinta to scare up Paul and, after we all did some provisioning, we took off in his car to tour Arches NP. That's "Balancing Rock," naturally; me standing under the largest of the Windows formations.
Amazing how many arch formations are concentrated in this area. Arches is mostly a drive-and-look park, with only a few hikes. We did take the one at the Windows area, which sports 5 or 6 arches and is well worth the brief trek. As we continued on into the park, we got splattered with a brief shower, which I figured would be just enough to mudspot the dust on Albatross if it was raining over there as well. [later: yup, Albatross is now a speckled tern] After finishing with Arches, we headed west a bit and headed for
Canyonlands NP. Actually, we ended up at the Dead Horse Point state park just at the entrance. It had been billed as spectacular and it lived up to the press. A mini-grand canyon with a perfect view of the winding Colorado about 2,000 feet below. The wind had come back up, so standing on the edges elevated the heartrate more than usual. We had a hard time holding still enough to snap pictures. Paul and I have retreated to a discrete distance from the ledge. Loni appears to be standing in front of some Disney diaorama, but that's real life, folks. Paul dropped us at the RV and
we changed clothes to join Paul at the Moab Brewery for dinner. this is a don't-miss place, with excellent beer (two pitchers and we were very happy) and generous portions of great food. The Jack Daniels sauce on the mammoth burgers was outstanding. We definitely were El Bloato afterwards. Major zzz's tonight.THURSDAY Paul had booked a full-day Jeep-and-Riverboat trip today, so we're taking a down day to get the rig serviced at the local Ford dealer. We have about 1,200 miles on the clock, and I
want to dump the oil and filter to get out the metal bits that flake off in a new engine, and we're overdue for a re-torquing of the lugnuts all around. They got us right in, took a couple of hours, and billed us the princely sum of $40! At a Ford dealer! That's easily an $80 tab back in LA. High marks for Utah! Paul's coming for dinner tonight, so back to the campground to prep. Pan-grilled salmon with homemade apple chutney. YUM. Paul brought a NZ Sauvignon Blanc and a Central Coast Viognier-Chardonnay combo from Qupe. Both were excellent and both were polished off. We take no prisoners. Paul's off tomorrow for points south, so we'll part ways, but he left us his Colorado materials on the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, which we've never heard of. Safe travels, bro, and Leges.FRIDAY Yesterday, we booked an all day raft trip with Tag-a-Long Tours, one of about a dozen
places offering variants of the same trips. Paul used them yesterday on his tours. We pedaled on over to their place at 8:00 and waited while our group formed up. We ended up a french couple, two families of 4, and us. We boarded an entirely disreputable Bluebird schoolbus that was on its third incarnation and had that gritty desert ambiance, towing a huge trailer with three inflatables stacked on it. They travel about twenty miles upriver to a put-in point, where we launched along with other tours from the competition. The Colorado here is fairly wide and
slow moving. The trip was rated as rapids I to III, but frankly that seemed like a hype for New York tourists, of which we had some. It was more like 0 to I. Loni was happy nonetheless asthis was her first raft trip. We enjoyed great views as we lazed along. The guides pointed out rock formations that had been used in Jeep and Marine (the climber who morphs into a marine) commercials, and the ranch where the Johns Wayne and Ford shot several movies. The river here is brown as it carries ten times the silt as does the Mississippi, despite much less water volume. Don't drink the
water! I began to regret not having a sediment filter on the rig's city water intake. Mental note to buy one. After braving the ripples, and putting in for lunch, we finished about 3:30 and got bussed back to the store. We decided that after a day in the sun there'd be no cooking tonight, so back to the park for showers and a change, and off to Miguel's Baja Grill. If this place was in LA, I'd be a regular. They don't just offer the usual Mexican choices of chicken, beef, and pork, but also lamb for any dish! Loni got the lamb enchiladas and I got the M.O.A.B. -- not the City, but the Mother Of All Burritos. We halved our dinners and split them. The MOAB comes with a choice of sauces. CHOOSE THE MOLE! I happen to like Oaxacan food because of the mole sauces, and we have some topnotch places in LA. But this dark mole was the best of its kind I've ever had. Smoky, chocolatey, and tangy. The margueritas are just so-so, but adequate. The owner came out after the waitress told him we were delerious with lip-smacking and we heaped some praise.Very nice folks. DO make this a stop if you are in Moab. After dinner we motored over to the local triplex for a showing of Pirates III. Yee-gods what dreck. An unfathomable mess. If this had been the first one, the franchise would have been stillborn. The highlight of the evening was our first drive at night in the rig, back to the camp. No sweat.SATURDAY Rodeo Day! Slept in until 8:00, then watched the three or four endings of the Da Vinci Code on Cinemax while eating breakfast. You gotta take advantage of the amenities when
you have em. This is some cable system. Gets not only Cinemax, but HBO, Starz, and Showtime! Biked into town to watch the rodeo parade. This truly is a small town; the parade was over in 15 minutes, but we loved it. Went over to the visitor center and loaded up on brochures, swung by the library for another abortive attempt to post on their free computers, bought some used books for the Albatross Library, and back to the rig for lunch. 91 degrees in the coach. Thank you, Dometic. The Belmont is coming up on the cable . . . and coming up . . . and coming up . . . zzzzzzzzz. Hey, who won? Early dinner of omelets and we then hoof it a mile to the free shuttle pickup at the nearest motel. The rodeo center is at the far end of the other side of town, way too far to bike, especially at night. Unfortunately, being at the end of this side of town, we stop at every motel, and wait at each for at least ten minutes. It takes will over an hour to travel the six miles or so. The arena is an early-dust-bowl indoor job, which seats several thousand. We skooch in, as everybody for many miles around has shown up for this annual event. Lots of cowboy hats, boots, and glad-handing going on. The honorary grand poobah of the rodeo (translation: the major donor) was paraded around the ring in the back of an old convertible. Now, you just have to see the sight of a 55 year-old Chinese transplant from Taiwan in full Gene-Autry regalia waiving his ten-gallon Stetson in a Utah rodeo ring to know you've crossed over into the twilight zone. Apparently he immigrated here 30 years ago and bought a local motel which he's managed ever since. That's him waiving from the car in the parade picture above. Yahooo, ah so! The rodeo itself was fun, but not great. I think this definitely is the B or C circuit, for both the riders and the animals. The first bronc froze in the stall with its rear end high on one wall and its body plastered to the back. Never came out. This happened several times over the evening. Only 2 of 12 bronc riders lasted the required 8 seconds, and none of the bull riders did. I hope they split the prize money. Anyway, a good time was had by all, including your smirking reporter.
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