Tomorrow is Moving Day

We will be going to Hurricane, UT for full hookups for a few days to get the laundry done and the house cleaned up. We have clothes to wash and dirt to pickup. Then its being discussed for our next stop. Further north to Idaho and Yellowstone are out of the plans. After we leave this area our posting will be hit and miss depending on how long we stay. So stay tuned for our next posting as to our location.

Zion National Park, UT

This mountain is on the way to west out of the park to Hurricane, UT It is off in the distance but its big.

The drive to Hurricane down state 9 was windy and slow, as in 35-40, part of the way going around the hills and little towns. The drive into Hurricane is a side of the mountain and down about 1500 feet to the valley floor. The temp difference is 5-7 degrees warmer. This summer it will be hotter.

Super good road all the way to town. not like the road to the tunnel.

We did go to the museum and see the film about the park and got its history. After the film we spent half an hour listening to a ranger talk about the tunnel and its building. It took 1 year and 10 months, under budget at 3 million dollars and 4000 workers. Its is about a mile long and was built for the tour buses of the day, 1927-29, with some added height. There were two deaths during its construction. The road from the east is over the hills leading to the park. The road from the west climbs thru a series of switch backs to the bridge leading to the tunnel entrance.


The second pic is of a lone pine, I think, tree on top of one of the cliffs. This is at the turn around. Lots of photo opportunities here.

Kitty is enjoying his "still" time of our not moving. He is also getting cooler laying on the wood. He seems to sense our moving day. He refuses to come out from under the passenger seat in the morning.

We will be here for 5 days and then move again. Not sure where yet but we need to get full hookups to do laundry in our washer. We have to have gas as we only have 1/2 a tank. Gas in Hurricane is under $3 as of yesterday. After we leave here, posting will be hit and miss depending on our length of stay.

Janice and Dean Schultz, Class of '05

Meet Janice and Dean, class mates of '05.

We first met them at Rend Lake, IL before the '05 fall Escapade. They are a very nice couple and we like to be around them. They travel in their Mobile Suites 5th and the dually truck. Being from Alabama is something I will not hold against them. Their blog is in our links page.

You guys have a nice trip and be safe in your future travels. Hope we meet up with you again soon.

Zion N. P. South Campground, UT

Its a new day, our first night at space 36. As you can tell in the pic above we are all cozy. We moved from space 111 which is about 300 feet beyond the rv to this spot to setup the dish and we got phone service too as a bonus. This is one of about 3 spaces we found that the dish could see thru the trees. The dish is looking thru a valley between trees.

Another pic of the rocks we have. Some of them are to big for your back yard so we'll keep them here in our back yard. We woke up to lots of wind this morning. Down under the trees its blowing at a steady 15-20 mph. The poor tenter's are catching it. Above the trees its howling. I would guess there is a front coming. We are at a morning low of 60, 61 now with our forecast of 88 today at 20% chance of rain. The wind for our neighbor town of Springdale, some 3 miles away, is 15-25 mph. This is where we are getting our cell service. Looking outside, its cloudy.

Janice and Dean we met back in the fall of '05 in Il are parked in Hurricane, UT till Wednesday. We haven't seen them or any of our class of 05 mates except for Smokey and Pam just before I went to the hospital for surgery. We will get down there about 1-1:30 for a late lunch. They are in our links page. keep up with them as they are planning on doing Alaska this summer.

UPDATE: we meet with Janice and Dean and had lunch. The two are not going to Alaska after all. Instead they are touring the pacific northeast. They are a nice couple and we like them.

Dust in the air is causing both of us to have itchy eyes. We have over the counter drops and we will be using them today. We didn't have any problems till this morning. We also have allergy drops, both over the counter and Rx if needed.

We are not hooked up to services, we are dry camped or boondocking. With the cloudy skies, we will need to be thrifty on our electrical use. No sun means no solar charge of the batteries. Our generator use is limited to 8-10 am and 6-8 pm only. We have no air tv and the DTV service is not available in the trees.

Ya'll have a good day out there and we will be back on this pm when we have our generator running.

Greetings from Capitol Reef and Zion National Parks, UT

This is the "Big Ben" in the park and the turn around for the tour bus. The bus is nice as there is no traffic problems. It would be nice ot be able to get better pics. The area is spectacular and different from the other parks we have been to. The tunnel drive was an experience all by itself.

We had to pay $15.00 to go thru the tunnel. It was our escort price to be able to drive down the center strip. I was the lead vehicle with Shirley behind in the suv and the rest behind her. The center clearance was 13'-1" with each edge at 11'-4". Our about 12'-3" at the King dome was under. The tunnel is a mile long and has several turns and is going down hill. Once out of the tunnel it was first gear at 10 mph for the ride of switch backs down to the river below. My best guess we went down over 1200 feet. The road is narrow too. About an 11' wide roadway.

This is a couple of the pics of the mountains here. Riding in the bus you would like up at a good 80* angle to see the tops of them. They are shear cliffs. The tallest cliff in the world from its to to its base is here in the Zion park. As I recall it is 2700 feet above its base and the "flight time is 16 seconds". All straight down. Where there are ledges, pine trees and shrubs grow.

Capitol Reef N. P.

We stayed one day at the state park. Most of what there is too see can be seen there. The area is or was a Morman Fruit tree growing area. The town was called Fruita, UT and had 10 families living there in the early 1900's.

We stayed one day at the state park. Most of what there is too see can be seen there. The area is or was a Morman Fruit tree growing area. The town was called Fruita, UT and had 10 families living there in the early 1900's.

There are some interesting pics of the area in the photo links for this park.

we are going to park here at the Zion south campground for 4 days at $8.00 per day for no hook ups. Then we will move on the 5th day, when we dump tanks and get water, to .... We went to Hurricane, UT where there are two Passport America parks for $15.00 and a 3 day stay. But is much lower in elevation, 3250 feet, and much hotter. It was in the low 90's while we were in the upper 80's with trees. Lets see what the weather is in 5 days.

Now if Janis would call or email we could get together.

Mileage: 94 to Capitol Reef and 292 to Zion NP. 292 tow miles.
RV mileage: 1018 for April, $348 for gas
Suv mileage: 763, $109 for gas
Budget spent for the month: $1970
Zion south visitor's center elev: 3997'
GPS: 37*12.202', 112*59.066'