This IS an adventure!

Let’s see… where did I leave you? On the way to Moab?

Moab is the town next to The Arches National Park. Both the town and the park are lovely. My family took trips out West often when I was young, and I don’t recall ever going to Arches. I was excited to arrive and check it all out.

On our way from Salt Lake, we made two stops. The first stop was from HWY 51 to State Rte. 50. We got gas, had a snack at DQ, and stretched our legs at the petting zoo! A petting zoo! Right there at the exit! It was free (donations accepted). We saw peacocks, chickens, emu, goose, camel, zonkeys, alpaca, and two cow types. One was African of some sort with GIANT horns. The guy had run the place for 5 years, “Well, ya gotta give people something to do, to stretch their legs.”

Next we drove a short distance across 50 until we got to 70. We stayed on 70 until hitting 191, then traveled South to Moab. We arrived around 8:30pm on Thursday. The Chinook, who I’m inclined to call “Bessie,” has been slow and mopey through all this. We had intentions of taking her to be inspected by a professional, but first we had some tourist business to take care of.

Friday morning we went to breakfast at Love Muffin. It was organic, local, and delicious, but they still put my coffee in a plastic lined to-go cup. :/ I know that these cups don’t bother most of the population, but they can’t be recycled and you’re drinking HOT LIQUID out of PLASTIC. Plastic melts people, and releases toxins!!! Okay, now you know what goes on in my head every time I get hot stuff in a to-go cup.

Next we went to Moon Flower to get groceries. I think Moon Flower is privately owned, but it has all that good stuff that a good co-op has. We stocked up.

Then, it was off to Arches. The $10 entry to the park was well worth it. The visitors center was informative, and had one of those short movies where a friendly voice narrates the tale of the geological evolution and compares it to human life and death. The road up to the scenic part of the park was up, up, up. Since it was a scenic drive, we didn’t feel too bad about going and average of 35mph the whole way. Matt was tired when we got to the major attraction, so he took a nap while T and I hiked up to the arches and took photos. I really enjoyed myself. On the way back down, I had to take care of some work stuff. Matt pulled over at another scenic spot and walked 1/4 mile to visit Balancing Rock. He said it was “way cooler” than the arches. :P

click any image to see it larger!

After getting all that fun stuff out of the way, we focused on Bessie and her health. After numerous phone calls and 3 visits to various auto support places, we ended up at Arches Auto Repair at 4pm.

We had to beg and pay cash for him to look at our business before they closed. They replaced the fuel filter. We tried to leave town, but Matt felt that things still weren’t right. We paced up and down a hill (for real) in the Chinook for about a half hour before we decided to stay another night in Moab.

This time, we stayed at OK RV. The previous night was at KOA. KOA has it’s benefits, but I felt like the “yellow shirts” were always swarming around… watching… calculating… judging. Signs such as “no working on RVs!,” “do not leave pet tied up outside vehicle unsupervised,” and “no line drying” made me feel unhappy and uncomfortable. OK RV was much more chill, but there were like, a thousand flies. As Matt would say, “half of one, six dozen of the other.”

I stayed up late again working. Remote work is great, but also takes some getting used to. People communicate with you differently. Some act as if you’re not accessible. Some treat you as if you are in the office. And while I’ve adapted to checking email regularly, and staying up late to finish projects, there are still some adjustments I need to make. I need to think bigger when I get a request. I need to review a wider array of problem solving methods an I need to do it quicker. One request that was made yesterday could have been answered right away if I hadn’t taken the request literally. If I had considered what their end goal was, instead of the direct request, I could have helped much earlier in the day by directing them to their need without my support.

The next morning, we packed up. Doug escaped twice, but didn’t get too far. We tried to leave town, but the engine died and we drove back to Arches. And here, we wait…

...with Mitzie, the repair shop dog.

For those of you interested in Tetra’s experience: She’s having a grand time. She sleeps about half the time we are driving. She enjoys our interaction on the road. We read to her, play with her, sing with her, play kalimba with her. She’s no different than she is at home: beautiful, sweet, smiley… meeting strangers and hearing stories of their grandchildren. She’s getting stronger too. I feel almost totally comfortable letting her sit up on her own.

We chatted with these lovely people in the gift store. They have 13 grand and great-grandchildren! He's an Illini. It was his birthday and their anniversary. They were sweet folk.

Pendleton and Beyond

It’s hard for me to gauge how far we will get today. We left considerably later than I would have liked, but it was all due to poor communication. Matt assumed I wanted to sit at the site and work, and I assumed he wanted/needed to do stuff to the RV. Instead of communicating, I blurted out something like, “can we go already!?!?!” HA! Matt’s so cool, though. We realized we never talked about it, packed up, and moved forward.

So, to bring you up to speed in our last few nights:

Night at Pendleton was great. Douglas was the first to go to bed - on the stove. Bamboo chicken indeed. I walked Lucy while Matt and T settled in. We walked to the very end of the parking area. As I turned the corner to come back, I noticed a very large telescope. Wonderful memories of Kathy and star gazing seeped in. The gentlemen was very friendly and said, “Have you ever seen Saturn through a telescope?” He gave me a peek, and pointed out Titan as well. We had a nice chat. That morning we had oatmeal. I took Jack outside on a leash. He was scared, but curious. He had yet to perform a controlled poop or pee. We packed up and hit the road. I totally forgot about Doug’s toilet needs, so she pooped on the floor. Jack scurried to the doorwell while in transport and peed his little pants. Fortunately, I got to Doug’s before it seeped in, and Jack’s was easily cleaned off of the aluminum step. AND I brought vinegar. (Thanks GMA Fran)

Douglas decided to use the stovetop for her bed. Pendleton OR KOA.

Holy Macaroni! We had only gone 5 miles! After the cleanup (parked at a scenic overlook) we got back on the road to Boise. Man those hills are a pain for our little rig! She pushed through though and after a supply (cat litter, coffee) and wi-fi stop in Baker City, we made it to Boise just in time for dinner.

We stayed at my “first friend ever’s” house. She also has a first baby girl, who is 10 months old. It was a joy to visit Hillary, and meet her husband and daughter. We enjoyed re-connecting, reminiscing, and sharing our parenting styles - especially the no schedule schedule. “That’s how we were raised!” Hillary and I are such drastically different people, but we are so much the same too. It’s nice to have friends like these.

Hillary's first birthday. My mom and dad in the foreground, and I in the bassinet on the porch.

This is what most of the play date consisted of... :P Well, there were a few moments of interaction.

After breakfast at a nearby joint, we said our goodbyes and hit the road - this time, to Salt Lake City. It was a (pretty?) drive. Those mountains look neat, but I have such a hard time appreciating dry grass and tan landscapes. After only a couple hours, we stopped in Jerome at a lovely park Mark had recommended. Everyone but Jack got out this time! I even took Doug for a little walk. We ate lunch, made work calls, and got moving again. My turn to drive. I got us to the North end of Salt Lake, where we had to stop and get gas. It was late and we tried to stay at an RV park just down the road. Unfortunately, there was no night check in, and after driving around the park and over about 100 speed bumps talking about what we should do, I declared that we must leave and I will drive for another 100 miles if it means we can leave this dreadful place — or something like that. Matt got back on the freeway, and got us to the Salt Lake KOA. We arrived about 10pm, had burritos for dinner, and got to work. I ended up putting in nearly 6 hours yesterday despite all the driving and whatnot. I did stay up pretty late though.

Jack chillin - while vehicle is moving!

The other fantastic thing that happened last night is that I showed Jack his litter box (again). He was calm enough to see it this time, and after peeing and pooping in it, he came up to Matt and I and thanked us from the bottom of his heart. Well, Jack it’s the least we can do after asking you to take this trip with us. He’s actually quite calm these days, even on the road… he lounges. OH, Doug’s bed of choice seems to be next to the kitchen sink. She’s slept there 2 nights and seems happy. In fact - have I mentioned that she LOVES traveling? She’s so happy to just sit and look out the window at the moving landscape.

Doug in the back. Our location at the time of writing in the foreground.

So, we are headed to Moab, or if we can make it, to Mesa Verde. More updates to come.

To Pendleton

Today, we loaded three critters and three humans into a 1989 Chinook RV. The vehicle is small - 20’ long, and a bit wider than a full size van. We stuffed it with food, pet supplies and human supplies. We tried to be selective packers, but came to such logic as, “I really like this shirt!” and “but this way we’ll have two, in case we can’t find one.” No matter - we’re loaded and on the road.

We decided to start slow. We left in the early afternoon and will arrive at Pendleton in about an hour (7:30). We took a long lunch at Burgerville in The Dalles. Could it be the last Burgerville??? I got a trusty burger and shake just in case.

The pets are doing good. Jack tries to tell us about every 40 minutes that this is a bad idea, but he quickly chills out. Hopefully those increments will space out even more as the days pass. For now, we keep in a pet carrier with potty training pads while on the move, and let him out when we stop. He really likes it when we stop, and will get comfy lounging by the window.

Douglas has always loved to travel. He and Jack are well acquainted (buddies?) and I think Doug really enjoys sharing the ride with Jack. She’ll try to steal his spot by the window, and they will follow each other around the RV investigating dark corners.

Lucy is the same: Food? Poop? Water please. Is that food? Douglas will nudge her out of her seat too, so she has that to deal with. She just scoots over a bit. Doug will hang out by the Goose for a 5, and then go find another spot.

The humans are good too. Matt’s awful tired. I’m doing a bit better. Toots seems pretty tired too. We’re getting along. There’s a lot of new energy in our little Chinook. We all know this is more than a weekend vacation.