Rear Window vs Kitchen Window

Remember the movie with Jimmy Stewart as he watched activity outside his window.  Well I am sitting in my kitchen and a motorhome pulls into the spot next to us.  They take out two bicycles, the Mom & daug head off to the shower and Dad & son tinker around with the bikes.  Mom & Daug come back from the shower and they load the bikes up and leave!!  OMG I think they have just used the facility for free, what a bad example to set for their children.....I think I have witnessed a crime!!  In the morning I get up and look out my kitchen window and what is this but the same motorhome that showed up that afternoon to just shower or so I thought.  So mystery solved, their motorhome was their only means of transportation so apparently they needed to clean up and then they were off on a family adventure.  Way too much imagination.

Did a pre run today on a very scenic trail, but forgot the camera.  We needed to "brush" out the trail but had 13 people out cutting and it didn't take any time to clean a long section of the trail, then we were off to explore.  Went out for Mexican food with Jerry & Sherry so really a good day.

Moab

Well we changed scenery today, moved North to Moab.  Not often do you go to a place and start running into people you know, like today at the market we ran into Jean & Sherm.  Kind of reminds me of the way I grew up, small town atmosphere here in Moab.   Moab is one of my/our favorite places to go and I am always surprised at how many people don't even know where Moab is.  This little mecca has the Colorado River for water sports, slick rock for jeeping and bicycling, all kinds of hiking trails, great bars (in Utah??) and restaurants in town and shopping, plus Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point National Parks and the LaSal Mountain Range.  This week is the Jeep Safari which is equivalent to Sturgis for motorcycles, and this is the 45th year that they have had Jeep Safari here in Moab.  People come from all over to jeep (or off road, that covers the Land Cruisers, Hummers, rock crawlers and everything else) around Moab.   There is no place like Moab to off road.   I am sure we are going to see some interesting sites this week.

Piute Pass, Blanding, Ut

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday but at the end of the day after Happy Hour and dinner I realized that one of my favorite earrings was missing.  I was sad.  The girls played Mexican Train again and I didn't win again and then we all headed down the the Trading Post where I had tried on some turquoise earrings.  This will be the start of my problem.  The exact earring that I had taken off to try on jewelry was the missing earring.  So this morning before our jeep run we went back to the Trading Post and they did not have my earring.  Just as we were leaving for the jeep run, the other Mary says, "I saw a loose gold earring and tossed it in their basket of earrings" so back in I went and Wha La, there was my earring....Now I am happy and feeling lucky!!

We did Piute Pass today, a very long trail but very scenic and had some obstacles for the guys to go over and around.  Glenn got out to spot the jeep in front of us so I thought I would drive the jeep up to him and then the next thing I know he is spotting me over the rock, even had to use lockers!!  When we got done my friend Rheta said to me, Girl you have balls!!  I will take that as a compliment.

Angel's Arch, Blanding, Ut

Back on the trail looking for DB (short for dinosaur bones) and PW (ditto for petrified wood).  Our instructions were to head East 200 yards from the main trail and it is in a flat rock next to a tree.  Excuse me but do you have any idea how many rocks around trees were out there-----100's!!  Ten of us headed out in all directions looking and as you can see in one of the pictures, it is not easy combing the countryside looking for DB's and bingo..... we did find a DB, unfortunately not the one were actually looking for but a DB is a DB and we found a huge PW log.   Finally we felt our mission was a success.  Then we took off for Arch Canyon.  This is a beautiful box canyon with many ancient Indian ruins and of course the Angel's Arch.  Ole Eagle Eye (aka Glenn)  was excellent at finding the ruins, they blend so well into the rock walls you really have to search for them.  We have now added two more jeeps to our group so we are up to 6 jeeps roaming around Blanding.  The weather was beautiful today, warm temps and very little wind, Amen to that. 

Mexican Train Day, Blanding, Ut

Today was a day off, hard to believe you need a day off when you are on vacation isn't it?  Did two loads of laundry, took a nap (my allergies are killing me) and played Mexican Train with 3 other gals.  I have never played the game, is a domino game and was fun to learn.  I didn't win but I didn't lose so I am pretty happy.  Remember the dinosaur bone we went looking for the other day?  We are not going to give up on it, in fact we are heading out again tomorrow in search of this bone.  There is also petrified wood and Indian ruins in this area......I will keep you posted on our progress!!  MM

No Dinosaur Bone Today

Four of us set out on an adventure.  Jo was in charge of following tracks that had been installed on her GPS and we were off looking for a dinosaur bone.  Well sad to report, the bone stays elusive to us.  But the whole loop was beautiful country so no worries...there is a dinosaur museum right here in Blanding so guess I will go in there and see my dinosaur bone.  Tomorrow is an off day, laundry, groceries and then we will decide if we are staying in Blanding for a few more days or moving to CanyonLands.  If we move I will not have email service so I may be absent....again.  Sunny and warm here but the wind does like to blow in this neck of the woods and consequently allergies are pretty high.  We did go into the pottery factory here in Blanding.  Was not expecting to see all the pottery being painted by stencil with air guns, oh well at least it is not made in China.......yet!!

Hotels to Bridges, Blanding, Ut

Another beautiful day in paradise.  We stopped at Hotel Rock, it was not easy feat getting there, up and over rocks, what were the Anasazi Indians thinking when  they put their home here?? They lived in this region from 1 AD thru 1300 AD!!   I find it amazing the amount of ancient ruins still standing.   From there we went to Natural Bridges Park where we saw some fabulous bridges.  Do you know the difference between a bridge and an arch?  Bridges are always formed by water where an arch is formed by wind and erosion.  They really do look alike but you must have had water present to make the bridge.  Tomorrow looks to be an interesting jeep day, hopefully we will find the dinosaur bone....I will keep you posted.