Sacramento Here I Come---My Final Post

Well we pack up in the morning and head home.  Yes I am ready to come home but will miss my friends out on the road.  Had a great time in Moab and then in Lake Powell.  Hope I have not bored you but that you may have found something interesting in my posts.  This was fun.  Cherie, get your work out clothes out of storage and Hope, let's get ready to ride.......I need exercise!!  Mary Meyers

Capitol Reef, Escalante, National Parks via the back roads

Anyone can drive on the highway and go see a National Park but can you get in the back door via a back country scenic route?  That is what we did today.  What a beautiful drive, we ended up in Boulder and had lunch and then headed back for yet another fish fry.  I have pictures but the pictures just can't capture the 3D image that your eyes see.  This country is spectacular and it is a huge area.  We spotted a slot canyon after lunch so walked back into it,  Awesome Awesome.  Our group is camped down by the water as two of them have boats docked where they are camped.  Wonderful camping, you can have a fire, you can fish right from your camp, you meet and make new friends as different people head to Lake Powell to camp, has been a truly delightful 5 days here at Lake Powell.  Enjoy the pics.  PS:  Does anyone see a flying saucer??

Too Windy to Fish on Lake Powell

Wish I had seen the weather report before I bought my one day fishing license for Sunday.  Awful windy on the lake and apparently fish don't like wind any better than we do.  So we brought the boat back in, sang old country western songs on the way in, cleaned everything up and took off  on a off road trip with the jeeps., aka plan B.    It is a lot less windy inside the jeeps than out.  Went and explored an old uranium mine and then had to really offroad to get us out of there.  But we made a loop and did not have to retrace our steps.  We have extened out stay by one day here at Powell.  Tomorrow we are doing a backcountry scenic byway should be very interesting. 

Lake Powell, Utah

Been out of touch for a few days so will catch you up on the activities.  Thursday we drove down to Bull Frog, Ut on Lake Powell where our friend, Micklick, has his boat in storage.  Got all set up for camping, he is primitive camping and we are dry camping on a concrete slab (civilized).  Friday morning we have to go and get his boat out of storage and cleaned up, bought one day fishing license for Sunday, launched the boat and then had lunch.  About 2 pm we go out for just a little boat ride and head North on the water, brand new territory for us. We get back had dinner and back to our coach at 9 pm---tired.  Saturday is our big day on the Lake as we head South towards the famous Rainbow Bridge.  On the way down to Rainbow which is approx 50 water miles from where we are camped,, we go thru several canyons which basically all dead end, some are wide and some turn into regular ole slot canyons.  We even had to back out of one as it was too narrow to turn around.  In these canyons ,on the walls, is a light show called Dancing Lights.  Just so cool to see the light hit the moving water and then dancing on the sides of the canyon, never got old to look at.  We saw Hole in The Rock, which is were the Mormans and their wagons came across this part of the country, very difficult decent for the horses and people and then crossed a smaller Colorado River (this is before Glen Canyon Dam was built and made the Lake) and you can see where they exited thru rock passage.  Was easy sitting there on the Lake to visualize their route.....glad I am born when I was!!  Because it is such a long trek to Rainbow Bridge, we stopped at Dangling Rope and fueled up and got Ice Cream don't you know.  Then off to Rainbow and it is 2/3's of a mile walk up to the bridge.  The Natural Bridge is now sacred ground to several Indian tribes so you are not allowed to walk under the bridge or even get close enough to touch it.  There were 2 rangers on duty and got great info from them on the history of Raninbow Bridge.  Did you know that it was actually a woman that found out about this great bridge from the Indians?  She and her husband had a trading post set up approx 60 miles from the bridge and an Indian told her about the "great bridge" so they put a party of men together and set out to discover it.  Took them 3.5 days to get there and well the rest is history.  Zane Gray visited this area frequently and Pres. Theo Roosevelt rode his horse to the bridge and actually slept on top of it, which I was told is the width of a two lane hwy up there but sill.  Again this was all done before it became "sacred". There is also one dinosaur foot print in the rock and let me tell you, that was one big foot (actually kind of glad he  or she is extinct now, ha ha). 

Fish Fry Wednesday, Moab

Have been laying low the past couple of days, still recouping from the rally.  Tonight we were invited up for a fish fry at OK RV, boy was that good.  Then I found out it was last years fish, he needed to clean out the freezer for the new fish he thinks he is going to catch when we go to Lake Powell.  Don't matter there is nothing like beer battered deep fried fish, plus homemade potato chips, deep fried of course, and coleslaw, then cheesecake for dessert..........lordy I am going to need to diet when I get home.  We pull out tomorrow morning for Lake Powell, not sure if I will have Internet service there.  The pictures I chose today are:
1) Not all passengers are people
2) Birds view of Moab, see the Colorado River and La Sal Mountains in the back

3) Oops, not good to have this kind of flat

The Party is Over, Moab

The rally ended Saturday night, was a great rally.  Sunday we went out for Brunch and then out to friend's for dinner (can I say pig out!!).  Today the weather turned nasty, major wind, lightning , thunder, rain and hail, wow I am so glad this did not occur during the rally.  I cleaned the motorhome this morning, then we went into Moab and toured a museum that we have not been to and it was free today, that was a nice surprise and had a Wendy's Frosty, yum yum., came home and took a nap!!  Most of our friends have moved on to new destinations but still have a few up at OK (that is OK RV Park) that stay or month or longer here in Moab.  After running around crazy for a week, have to learn to slow down and enjoy our time in Moab.

Happy Mothers Day, Moab Utah

The rally is officially over and all of our friends are moving on.  Wonder where we will meet up again down the road??  This is the first rally that we have hosted.  The duties of the hosts is to make sure all the trails have leaders and you have a variety of easy, medium and hard trails on each day and to organize the food functions.  We offered 39 trails  to be run in 5 days and had an appetizer meal after registration and hamburger night on Thursday with live music and Saturday night catered barbecue for our end of rally appreciation dinner.  Even tho everything ran smoothly, we are tired, lots of things to think about.  So tomorrow we will do another jeep trip with friends that stay in Moab for a longer time period and then I do have paperwork to do for the rally and I must clean up the coach somewhat.  Dust everywhere!!  Our next stop will be a few days at Lake Powell with yet another friend who keeps a boat on Lake Powell and then our adventure will bring us home.  Happy Mothers Day Everyone!!

I am a day late on this entry, sorry but we didn't have the camera with us when we did this trail yesterday so Glenn & I drove back out and took the pictures for the blog.  Legend has it that you must drive over the gooney bird's feet for good luck and should the gooney bird crap on you-----well you are in big "dodo".  I made up the last half of the legend, ha ha  So anyway what kind of status do you have when they name trails after you.  We went out on the MM trail, is that for Mary Meyers??, see picture, it is not a joke.  It is a great trail, had some hard obstacles for Glenn, great view for lunch up on top of  a ledge overlooking the valley and beautiful sunshine.  Today when we took the picture you can see the wind is blowing again, my hair is flying sideways....have I mentioned before I do not like wind!!!  Oh, by the way the name of the trail is Metal Masher (MM)............oh well.

Party down in Moab

Today we had a day off, well the people attending the rally may have had the day off, Glenn & I had work to do.  Happy hour started at 4pm, hamburgers started at 5pm and after dinner we started the raffles.  The first raffle was to cut Bumperjack's hair.  Since 9/11/01 Dick Block aka Bumperjack would not cut his hair until Bin Laden was captured.  Well during the Moab rally, they got him so Dick stood up to his end of the bargain and we raffled tickets for the chance to cut his hair.  Three people came up and took their turn cutting.  We raised over $500.00 collecting tickets to cut Bumperjacks hair and it all went into the Land Use Fund, which fights to keep off roads open for travel.    Then we raffled off an assortment of gifts.  The owners of Portal RV park, where we are staying , brought in their family band and entertained us til 8 pm..... great times here in Moab.

Tip Toe Behind the Rocks, Moab

Whew what a day.  Woke up at 7:30 and left the house and 8:30, I drove the 3.5 trail for 8 hours!! Got home at 5:00 Glenn and I took showers (not together, ha ha) stopped and got a card and went to dinner at 6:00 pm to celebrate our friends 39 wedding anniversary.  Now how more can you pack in a day I ask!!!!   Glenn walked a lot of the trail not sure if he was afraid of my driving or what.  These vacations are killing us.  Tomorrow is a day off and I need it.  No pictures as we forgot the camera, bummer as the scenery was just beautiful.  Oh well. 

Crazy Sock Day, Moab

The trail is called 7 Mile Rim.  The requirements for this trail is that the ladies had to drive and you were suppose to wear crazy socks as you can see by the picture.  This is not an easy trail , there are some hard spots to get over or down.  But it is give the women an opportunity to get more comfortable with driving on the trails.  And most of the husbands/partners came along so we women were not alone out there.  But Glenn stayed home so I invited Faith to go with me so we had a real "girls" day.  I have a funny story to tell.  In our club when we need a potty break it is called a 10-100, men go to the left and woman go to the right because of course women are always right, ha ha.  Well we stopped yesterday, I thought to look at an overlook not realizing it was a 10-100 stop.  I am talking with Sherm and we are heading to the left side, where the overlook is,  when all of a sudden I hear"Mary what are you doing over here!!!"  I had walked right into the men's 10-100 spot, boy did we laugh and I got ragged all day on the CB about this incident.  So I made my lunch, drove the jeep on the trail, aired up the tires after the run, went to the grocery store, did a load of laundry and cooked dinner.............what a woman, ha ha   Glenn is still speechless on this.  On the 2nd picture, I wish I had had Micklick drive Glenn's jeep up on the arch and then he could have stepped out of the picture and Glenn could have thought I drove it up there.  Pretty cool picture isn't it, not much room up there.  Great time here in Moab, one of my most favorite places to be.

Moab, Utah

Whew, glad today is over.  Today was our registration for the rally, 200+ people showed up to sign in for a week of jeeping.  This is the first rally that Glenn & I have hosted and I have never hosted anything this large so was quite an experience.  The whole operation ran very smooth..........well I had appetizers for 200 people  delivered at 4:30 and the last 10 people didn't get any food.........including Glenn & me so maybe one little glitch in the system.  But everyone is happy so job well done.  Tomorrow Faith and I are taking the jeep out on a trail and Glenn is staying home, he is tired.  It is a ladies to drive run so this will be the first time I have jeeped without Glenn in the passenger seat.........hope I don't break anything.  The weather is getting warmer but the wind continues to blow, I am so ready for warm weather.  Attaching a picture of my "girls" that worked to get everyone registered and a picture of what we do at our rallys....seat, eat and drink.  Good times.