Day 19: More Arches

I was fully warned that it is impossible to try to capture the absolute beauty of Arches National Park. They were right. These arches look like ant hills but the pictures are misleading. This is impressive beyond our words or pictures. Junior Ranger badges again.

Due to a pretty neat couple from Canada letting us borrow thier CRV, we were able to drive this in style, first time in a car in three weeks. We are having dinner with them tomorrow night, nicest people you would hope to meet.

That's not true. The nicest people are in all the RV parks. We are having a great time, my grouchy mood from this morning is gone.

Homemade chili and cornbread ala krusty's for dinner. Allie added to this favorite with something she calls the "cheese bowl". She has me thinly slice tillamook cheddar into the bottom of the bowls and then pour the hot chili over the top to make this melty yum of chili and cheese.

Git in my belly.

I am getting excited about coming home, as one man put it, like a horse headed for the barn. We are hoping to visit Williams AZ and our FAVORITE KOA in Flagstaff and bear-a-zona to see the bears.

Day 19: Arches National Park:Allie

A cairnes is a stack of rocks along a hiking trail to show the way to go. Allie and Jay both had to make a few. Allie also had to take a picture or two with her smart phone eraser she bought. She is going to e-mail me her best shots. I asked her what her e-mail address is and it she reported 5829. That is the whole e-mail address... 5829.

Day 19 Geode breaking

Day 18 and then pushing on to Moab

I learned two barometers of hygeine. How much hand soap is used and how many pair of undies make the laundry. Last load, after 6 days, had only one pair of Jay Jay's underwear. That was a conversation that still might need to be covered as time goes on. He has his reasons... forgetting to change them, liking them the best, and my personal favorite, "if I am wearing them under my pants, how are they getting dirty?"

The hand soap is rapidly disappearing, so I am happy.

Today we left paradise in Provo for the bump and grind in Moab, with an afternoon at the Price, UT, dinosaur museum. Very cool. Lots of actual bone rather than fossils. Two staff guys working on the actual bones and explaining how it will take 2 years to complete the reconstructions.

Moab was a mob scene last night. Today we will head to see the arches in the national park.

As we near the end of this trip, I want to just rip it off like a band-aide. I want to just be home already. It is hard to watch it dwindle each and every day as we get closer and closer to the end. If we are not going to chuck it all and stay on the road forever, then let's get on with it already.

I am crabby today.

Just another day at the office

Good intentions went to hell in a handbasket today and the kids completely left me stranded in favor of their new found friends. A cat named "bud", a throng of kids camping on fall break here at Lakeside. I had a wonderful morning planned with homework and reading that would cresendo into a canoe rental at the near by activity center. Clearly, that didn't happen.

The kids were off and running or rather, biking, to the playground to meet who ever should be there. A bandit named Bryce came in from the trees with a bandana covering his mug and a toy gun. Allie and her little friend, Lily, retreated into the treehouse to keep the fires burning, while Jay and Jack chased him with thier more primative stick guns. On and on it went, for over an hour. Duck and cover, no-I-got-you, you're-dead being called at top of full lungs. Good times.

Then Bryce took them off to the woods and together the posse caught a garden snake. It was more exciting that Christmas in those trees as I heard squeals, laughter and 8 kids having a most wonderful afternoon. I was able to enjoy it all from my mother's perch in the rocking chair on the porch of the main office, a vintage cabin with sod roof.

Around 3, I set off on my bike for milk. Gotta have milk for tomorrow morning. Two miles from camp I came to the only game in town, a Chevron station. I knew I would not be able to carry a 2 gallon milk jug on the bike with any hope of grace, I opted for the $1.49
16 ounce deals. I bought 2. I certainly did not plan to return to camp after a 4 mile bike ride with 2 puny milk jugs, so I bought a 24 ounce light golden Corona for dinner, as well, to balance the plastic bags on my bike. What a sight I must have been, careening down the road in the bike lane with that stupid corona glass bottle swinging like a pedulum and banging against the frame of my bike.

Now, I feel my transformation is complete. According to my husband, all I need is a pack or two of cigarette's and there will be no stopping me. Dog tied out front, beer from the local gas station, kids running loose with toy guns, I have become a trailer park babe. I have found my people. I am home.

Off to the Halloween Cruise at the park next door. Pumpkins lit, scary stories await us a we float down the river on a little boat.

Day 16... leaving Idaho for Utah

We started the morning with another stray dog who tried hard to board the bus and come along. What is it with these dogs all the time?
Did Lucky send out some kind of e-mail to fellow homeless and lost to try to link up with us? I am canceling her e-mail account when we get home and she is losing her internet priviledges,

From Lava Springs, we headed to Utah. Horrid drive on the interstate. Until now, we've been hitting the back country roads, driving along the interstate in Utah is like driving it Scottsdale, Detroit or anywhere. Gross commercial areas, billboards, all the usual offenders.

Once we got to Provo, I thought, once again, it would be a quicky overnight deal before we headed to Moab. Nope, this place is right out of the 1950's. The kids are hiking and biking and really enjoying the camp store, where 25 cents can set up up in some serious Halloween sized treats.

More later.

Day 15: God did bless America

Today we met with Milan from Lava Zipline. He owns 40 acres here in Lava Springs that he grows wheat, barley and hopefully next year, hops. Funny, funny guy. Let the kids zip! It is out of season, no annoying tourists around, so we had the full tour by ourselves with Milan and Keith. Talk about a great time. We were picked up at the local coffee spot called "Peaceful space" Jay Jay, who have been called Zen Daddy for his "lighten up your soul" comment, loved that name. Milan drives a 1966 Duce and a half, which I still have memories of from my army days. The kids really enjoyed the 6 mile CHILLY open air ride. Can you see the slots of open space behind their backs? Is Milan crazy? Where is the 5 point harness and seatbelts?

Jay Jay zipped 5 times. We all did execpt for Allie. After the tail wind sent her FLYING on the 1500 foot cable, she decided to stay with Keith and eat granola bars at the end of the line. And she thinks she had the best day of all of us. Jay, Zen Daddy and I were all able to flip upside down and ride that way for the whole drop. Jay Jay got to ride on the zip line sled and do a "super man" on his tummy. After the terrific day of zipping, Milan offered a prize to either kid who climb this slippery nylon rope... 22 feet up! It only had one knot. Guess what, Jay Jay did it! So he got a super cool decal for his bike with a ziplining guy on it.

On the drive back in the windy, open duce and half army truck, he turns to me and says, "Mom, God did bless America." The Zen Daddy strikes again. The fall leaves around us on the mountains, the pine trees, the crisp 65 degrees and blue skies overheard. I think I also heard angels singing at that moment.

Lunch was at the restuarant aptly named "THAI FOOD". The Chevron overhang still in the parking lot. It was the best Thai food I've have in a long time. I spent a month in Thailand and I was so impressed. Jay and Allie both had the chicken satay with peanut sauce and sticky rice... in the little bamboo steamer pot... Jay had pork pad thai, his old reliable and I have to say, I wend with Larb Kai salad and my old reliable, thai iced tea. Jay ate every bite and half of Allie's. Allie ate 2 cups of rice, sipped on my tea and had three bites of chicken. She was initally not impressed until she found that on the bottom of the peanut sauce dish, were painted flowers. Those crafty Thai! So we all had to eat or wipe out the little dishes so she could see the pattern on the bottom. She would like this for Christmas she tells me. And a HUGE sweet tart. Mom, will you start looking for little dished like this?

After lunch at 3, off to the most horrid, horrid laundry I have ever been to. It is in the back of Blue Moom bar. No kids under 21 posted. Smokey, musty, moldly. I must get this laundry done before we head to Provo tomorrow. Jay took the kids for a walk to the Lava Springs Museum and to the park. I met a sweet old hunter (it's hunting season) and chated with him while the clothes spun and rinsed. He claims that wolves are devouring the elk and that he has noticed a real shift in the game. I didn't want to tell him that the wolves were coming from the WA area in response to all the vampires. Didn't want to freak him out in the unfortunate event he hasn't read the entire Twilight series

Allie come back to the bus with a pioneer sun bonnet that she bought at the museum fundraiser. She tells me that if Jay Jay can be Zen Daddy, she can be pioneer girl. And she is like a pioneer girl, traveling to new lands with her family, far from home. So cute.

Tonight we hit the hot springs again. Here it is a cross between a scene from cacoon and porky's. Not sure which way to go on that, but some of the bathing suits clearly were too tight or too little or just not the right move. Allie told me tonight, as she has at other times, that she is really worried their "ya knows" are going to pop right out. I talk about modesty and how we choose to treat our bodies and at this point, she totally agrees.

The lifegaurd, though, Melissa, is wonderful. She invites us tomorrow to her potato farm to see how potato's come out of the ground. We'll be seeing her at 10 just up the road. And Marilyn, the gal who we paid the admission to the hot springs for the last two nights, has a sister in Lancaster Ohio on Maud Street, which is my hometown! I think I may know where she lives. Allie loves this Marilyn b/c she reminds her of my mom, Marilyn. Ah!

I'll let you know how the potato farm is tomorrow night from Provo.

Day 15 picture repost

Day 14: Abandoning Yellowstone

The snow, the road closings, the rangers recommendations. It all spelled disaster, so we are not going to Yellowstone. Everything I read tells me that Yellowstone is not the kind of place you wing, or drop in to check it out. You spend months planning, make deposits, have key weather and you take a week or two to discover it.

So we paid Collin to take us on a private off road tour of Teton. The first picture is the Grand Teton. Majestic.

We saw mule deer, ducks, moose, prong horn, herds and herds of bison, elk, and the most perfect sunrise one could have asked for. Or paid for. It was a little pricey... around 400 for the morning. But he did a great job and we loved it. The kids got to work binoculars and stand up in the ride in this cool pop up ceiling. We came across a coyote trying to take a herd of prong horns so we oggled that a while. Collin had it all. Binoculars, hot chocolate, muffins, bison jerky, coffee, free take home travel mugs, elk antlers, prong horns, beaver pelt and moose hide. It was a traveling science center.

And Allie's question, "Collin, can you guess when my birthday is?" I have to believe that some where inside all the other information stuck. And it mattered. And that it was money well spent. I do know for a fact that she enjoyed looking through the binoculars equally from both ends.

Jay wanted to know about wild animal attacks.

Collin was wonderful. We also learned that in Jackson Hole, May 1st is the first day of Elk Antler Season. The boy scouts of the tetons get to collect all the antlers (shed annually) from the Elk preserve, where the state pretty much feeds the elk all winter to keep the numbers high for the spring hunters. 1000's and 1000's of elk. Then, they auction off the antlers as their big annual fundraiser. Since 1991, this chapter has raised over a million in antler sales. The rest of the Teton forest is up for grabs to anyone with an antler plucking permit. And it get pretty crazy. Collin reports it is fun to watch the locals go antler hunting with such passion, knowing a good rack is worth a mint. And if antlers are shed each year, horns are forever. So he advised not to be too upset about all the antlers stacked around town.

We left Jackson for Soda Springs, a hot springs destination that flopped. In 1937, they tapped it hoping to make Soda Springs the best in the west for geothermal mineral hot springs. What they got was a geyser not of hot water but of tepid carbonated water. Huge pockets of CO2 were trapped in underground sub caverns deep in the earth with enough pressure to shoot this geyser 45 feet up. And it is pretty smelly. And mineral laden. It sprayed the front of the bus and left behind deposits that will need to be scubbed off. So now the town makes it money harvesting phosphates from the hills surrounding the Soda Springs. Plants with smoking stacks and conveyer belts and cooling ponds. It is a smelly process. We opted not to stay for dinner. It kind of rang the Erin Brockovich chlor-hexi-phosphate bell for us. No, we don't even want a glass of water, thanks.

From Soda to Lava Springs. Lava Springs got it right. Dipped there tonight in the 102* pool. We were able to graduate to the 106* with pea gravel bottom. It was like a full body pedicure. And, we finished the night with an up to our waist dip in the 112* pool. The downtown of Lava Springs is a little dumpy, the RV park leaves a lot to be desired. BUT on the walk to dinner we ran into the owner of the coffee shop in town, who were headed up the trail by our bus to the free natural hot springs. We're planning to check it out. They also hooked us up with the zip line tour, scoring in at 25 dollars person, with free pick up at 11 tomorrow.

It was a fabulous day. After the drag yesterday, we had earned it. Jay Jay made an astute comment to Big Jay tonight after a round of "who am i". A game we made up to make fun of each other's nutty habits and behavior. He said, "dad, you know, you really need to lighten up. You are so serious. You" okay, this next part is going to blow you away, I just know it... Jay Jay said, "Dad, you need to lighten up your soul." Knock me over with a feather. I love this boy. I love his dad too, but the kid may be on to something here. Wow, my little meditating, mantra saying beautiful son has dropped the zen bomb.

"Dad, you need to lighten up your soul."

Day 14 picture repost