10-23-08 Thursday (Fire!)

Today is our 100th post! To commemorate the day, I've created a collectible poster. That's right, you'll be the envy of all your friends and co-workers. Order a poster now, and you'll receive:

• Garret-chewed-gum to securely fasten your poster. (Specify Dentyne or Wrigleys)
• One Diet Coke label with Jim's autograph. (Additional offered at $25.00 each)
• A water sample from the infamous washer-over-floweth-disaster.
• Hydraulic jack fluid (ATF), fresh from a leak. (Please specify which jack)
• A sample of awning fabric. (1 X 1 inch, quantities limited due to supplier somewhere in Arizona desert)
• Wal-Mart Door Greeter trading card. (Allow us to pick for you)
• jimandgarret.blogspot.com bumper sticker.
  

That's right, you get all of this for just $49.95 + shipping and handling. Don't miss out, the printer only has so much ink on hand! Order now and receive a bag of rocks!

Here's what people are saying:

JD: I used my bag of rocks to mark off the states I've lived in and the ATF to fry awesome chicken.

Dave: The chewing gum was great to level my keyboard with.

Carl: The rocks were awesome. I used them in the car to add weight and slow me down.

Mike: I ordered 5 kits, just so I could get the Wal-Mart greeting cards!

Fred: Who are you people? Take my off (expletive deleted) your stupid list.

Jack: I used thumb tacks on the poster and rechewed the gum. I chose Dentyne.

Jodi: I'll be giving them away as gifts. How do you wrap 1X1 square?

Pearl: A got a rock shaped like New Jersey... very disappointing.

Tim: As a painter by trade, I found the bumper sticker useful for edging and the ATF worked well to clean my brushes.

Amy: Thanks Jim and Garret! When my adding machine broke, I used the rocks to make an abacus. My boss saw it and it saved me from this round's lay offs!

..... 20,125 more testimonials available upon request!

Yes, I'm done. I had too much fun with the testimonials..... as you can tell.

Capital Reef National Park was nice. We didn't finish it all today because of a 4x4 trail, which I'll tell you about shortly. At Capital Reef, we stopped at the "Gifford Farmhouse" which was a museum and a store. Amongst the junk they sold, they had home canned fruits as well as fresh pies. We bought a small apple salad, OK, so it was really an apple pie. At the end of a scenic drive, we stopped off at a picnic pavilion and ate our lunch, and then the apple salad. After lunch, we spotted a Kangaroo Rat scurrying into some bushes. No photo, it was too fast.

No day is complete without an off-road adventure. This was the most challenging. It was 20 miles and at a speed of 5-10 mph, took hours. We crossed a couple of raging rivers where I reminded Jim not to squash the fish. Raging rivers might be overstated, more like babbling brooks, with no fish.

What was very interesting about the trail was the definite change of terrains. From rocks and boulders to dirt to green spaces to more rocks to a forest. We ended up in Dixie National Forest which was about 30 minutes away from the RV. The fun part about trails (sometimes) is not knowing where you'll end up. The disadvantage is the neck ache afterwards. The bumps were frequent, and often matched with the sound of Dasher's tags jingling as he got bounced to and fro.

We liked the color variations.

This had an interesting marbleized effect.

Towers coming out of the ground.

Picnic spot of the day.

Apple salad pie.

Interesting colors and holes.

The raging river we drove through.

This road sucked.

Another raging river.

We stared at this deer and it stared back. Taken at the Dixie National Forest.

With dinner digested, we decided to build a fire. I'm not really sure what went wrong but the damn wind changed direction more times than a presidential candidate's platform. This spewed smoke and embers at us constantly. As we tried to enjoy the fire, a stray cat walked over and eventually jumped in Jim's lap. It was kinda strange. We eventually had to sit too far from the fire to feel the warmth. Finally we gave up on the chairs, since it did nothing but slow down our flaming fire ball dodging dance. As we pondered the possibility of defective wood, we decided this really sucked. 4 gallons of water later, we came inside.

$4.50 on wood. $3.00 on fire starter fluid. 1/2 hour of time we'll never get back. 4 gallons of water. Clothing that smells like an arsonist. Oh what fun. Not quite bad enough to classify this as a MISadventure.