10-26-08 Sunday (Mrs. Kravitz)

I could barely stay up last night. By about 10pm, I was in bed. Jim stayed up, probably much later, since he's slept in so long today. I'm not even sure what we're going to do today. Yesterday, I grabbed a copy of a weekly entertainment newspaper but I haven't looked through it yet. I'm sure there's several haunted attractions to see but I fear (get it?) they'll be as cheesy as the time Jim and I went to the Lakes Park Haunted Train ride. That was a joke. Definitely for children, not for adults. It's possible today might be one of those long blog entries about nothing.

They say a person's life journeys shape one's personalities. Or something like that. I wonder how our journeys will change us. Will we want less belongings since we can currently carry less? Will we want more because we'll be tired of having less? Will we want a smaller home because we're grown accustomed to having that? Will we want to be environmentally friendly after seeing the natural beauty? I'm sure we'll change, and hopefully in a positive way of course.

Jim has crawled out of bed. He didn't go to sleep late, he's just feeling sick. Congested and such. Perhaps he's caught a cold. It's close quarters here so I'm going to do my best not to catch it as well. I'd spray Lysol around but then the LP Gas Leak Detector Nazi will scream at me.

Jim has went back to bed. He laid on the couch for a short time. I can tell he's sick, he hasn't even smoked.

The water here tastes and smells like a new vinyl shower curtain liner. While I've not tasted a shower curtain, I can assure you, this is what it tastes like. We've had this situation before in Florida only it was a foul smell. Since then, I think we've purchased a water quality check kit at some point. I guess the next thing will be to find it. There's not much space in an RV but you'd be surprised at all the nooks and crannies. I've checked in most of the "makes sense" places so far except for where the hose is stored. I think we'll have to get bottled water for the stay here. I'd hate to cough up a PVC pipe, although I'd probably be famous and maybe wealthy.

Jim has risen from the land of sickness. I'm not sure how long he'll be up. I'm thinking I should close the bedroom door, arm myself with Lysol, and attack the bed. I may even scream "attack!" or some other engaging word. "Fire!" is probably a bad thing to scream in an RV park. RV's contain diesel or gas and propane. I've read "It takes only 5 to 7 minutes for a 40 foot RV to burn to the rails." Educational blog, isn't it? Imagine standing at a party, chatting with a new acquaintance. They talk to you about the physics of the moon and you can blurt out "Oh yeah, well did you know an RV can burn to the rails in JUST 5-7 minutes?". While you may appear well read, maybe even slightly smart or mildly disturbed, you can guarantee you won't be invited back.

Way too often, I REread (for Here and There) what I have in the entry so far and amaze myself over the stupid stuff I insert into these things.

Even though my day has been so busy thus far, I stopped to take some photos of our campground "Mountain Shadows".

To one side we have a small mountain view with some attractive traffic cones in the foreground. The small pond with waterfall is fishless but not too bad.

More mountain views also reveal the highway which is right behind the pickup truck that got in my damn way. I didn't want to waste film. Oh, yeah, I have a digital camera.

This photo reveals the soft green areas with another bright orange traffic cone. I never really noticed them until I looked at these pictures. What's that on the other side of the interstate? Is it an Ikea? Wow, we could practically uhhhhh drive there.

It's really not a bad park and the convenience to Camping World for repairs will probably be worth it. Even though I say it's not too bad, I'll probably continue to bitch about it, topped with photos of less than desirable things here..... it's what I do.

Oh wow, 8 Draper City Police cars arrived along with an ambulance and a fire truck. Something happened at an RV 3 spaces down. A crying woman on a phone, and an older man who was shaking met with the police. Perhaps a death or something? I'm not really sure why 8 police cars are needed. The ambulance appears to be leaving without anyone. Ahhhh the days in a trailer park... try it. I'm sure in a way it might be amusing to see all of these people crammed into an RV. The fire truck is now departing. I feel like Gladys Kravitz, only I hope I look better.

Jag takes in the view of "neighbors talking trash during a crisis".

The over-responding Draper City Police Department.

An hour or so later, Jim saw an unmarked bed-capped pickup truck arrive to which a body bag was carried out to. Only 1 police car remains.
Jim had suggested the vinyl tasting water should be checked right from the faucet. I did so and found it to be something in our connections. It turned out to be our hose which was used a few times prior to this one. I'm not sure why the hose started to emit a poor taste after being used a few times. It's a water drinking safe (so we thought) hose we purchased from Wal-Mart in an RV supply section. We bought it because the hose can be used even when part of it is reeled up which makes for a tidy campsite. We'll be returning that now. Maybe Camping World has something similar. I switched out the hose with our other and the water is fine.
While I worked on the connections an older spanish man walked over and spoke with me in fairly good english. I had found out that the woman that was on the phone is his daughter and the 3 kids are his grandchildren. He said she didn't live here and that she came for something and found him dead. I think he's her ex from what I could understand.

10-25-08 Saturday (RV For A Tent Trade)

Since starting the blog, there's been about 3 comments pertaining to who's taking the pictures of Jim and I. I wanted to clarify this issue. As you've guessed, Dasher has taken them. I take the scenic pictures (Dasher's too short) while Dasher takes the pictures of Jim and I. He's not perfect in his picture taking abilities and naturally those are the ones I don't usually post. Here's a couple of pictures I've rejected for blog publishing.

Poor thing, sometimes he's all paws when snapping photos.

Clearly, he's been getting into adult photo shoots with Clea on OUR bed!

We made it to Salt Lake City today. I drove the RV about 50-60 miles worth and then gave it back to Jim with "OK, you can drive." I hadn't driven it for a long time. The hardest thing is keeping it within the lines. It constantly wants to roam the road. I felt like a drunk monkey with epilepsy. The constant steering corrections are annoying. Hopefully that will be resolved next week.

We're staying at Mountain Shadows in Draper, UT right next to a Camping World. The campground screwed up the reservation and listed us for a tent site. This place is full so we're in a site that doesn't have sewer. We'll have to manage until Monday when a site clears out. I was pretty annoyed but left the office before I'd say things I'd regret.

After setup, we went to Costco, Lowes, Applebee's and then Wal-Mart. At Wal-Mart we just picked up somethings for now but will need to go back in a few days once we figure out when the awning fiasco damage will get repaired.

It's so strange seeing so much traffic and so many stores. It's been so quiet and now the opposite. Today was the first time we've driven on an Interstate since Denver to Ouray. Jim has pointed out that I complained when it was too underdeveloped and now I'm complaining about the big city.

Honestly I'm too tired to go into more details about the campground tonight, it will have to wait until tomorrow.

10-24-08 Friday (Blogger Blues)

Yesterday's blog post had 2 more paragraphs at the end. As I approved a comment, I notice ant-sized writing at the end. I went back and fixed it. It wasn't anything important, and mildly humorous at best, I'm still pissed it showed up as it did. Reading it, however, would make the entry title more logical. Google Blogger is very quirky. It's a love-hate thing really. I guess I love that's it's SUPPOSED to be so easy to post, but hate that it constantly fights me on formatting. So many times I preview the post, and make changes, then I post it, and view it to discover the line spacing is wrong. I then unpublish it, change it and go through the cycle 4 or 5 times more. While I'm not looking for pity, nevermind I am. Pity me. Google's Blogger isn't all that cooperative.

The blog takes a long time. I enjoy doing it for myself as well as doing it for the readers. It's awesome that I can dominate a conversation, like I'd do outside the blog anyway. I'm not a very good writer, but probably a good story teller. Some of you have commented through phone conversations that you can picture me saying the things I do. I guess that's what I need to stick with, whether the grammar is marginal or the humorous analogies are missing.

Jim and I have decided to skip Capitol Reef National Park. It was so yesterday. There's probably not that much more to see anyway, so we'll go to Escalante Grand Staircase instead. The Grand Staircase from what I've seen in photos has some very unique ROCK FORMATIONS. Yeah, I make fun of the rocks and dead Indians things but I really do enjoy what we see. If I really want to, I could easily put it into a different perspective, like...

We have no jobs but really like wandering the country to photograph rocks. OR We've spent thousands to see what some old Indian built out of rocks instead of saving money in piss-poor economic times.

With that perspective in mind, some would say we're nuckin' futs. Truth be told, no matter what the reasoning or perspective, some may still feel that way. As for Jim and I, we don't care if we appear crazy and gypsy-esque. We care about other important issues like what's on sale at Camping World or if there's a Wal-Mart close by. Those are the important things in life.

We're back from the Grand Staircase and it wasn't at all like what I thought I remembered seeing from photos. Apparently the more intricate terrain is only reachable by hiking trails. We're too lazy for that. It was a 2 hour drive there but with today's adventure, it wasn't about the destination but rather getting there. The roadside views of the canyons and mountains were stunning.

Our steepest climb yet.

Great scenery, twisty road.

Dasher seemed to be sulking or something.

A llama in the background and poop in the foreground.

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.

10-22-08 Wednesday (Where's My Keys)

We're on the road to Torrey, Utah. A 3rd jack was discovered to be leaking. Apparently, the stop leak stuff already in the system plugged it or it's a small leak. The jacks cooperated and registered as retracted without intervention. Yay.

The newest dilemma is the shower floor may possibly be leaking. It's had a small crack in the plastic floor (the shower is one piece) since we bought the rig. The crack has grown. We saw some water dripping from under the RV. We'll look into it later tonight or tomorrow. There's an access panel in the front of the shower to access the drain and such. Wish us luck!

We were fortunate to drive through Glen Canyon. More beautiful rocks. I know, it seems like our trip is centered around dead Indians and giant rocks. Maybe we'll find a place where we can throw rocks at Indians. Like a carnival duck shoot booth.

We stopped for lunch within Glen Canyon. As usual, most of the roads we travel are empty and when stopped it is so quiet and peaceful. Have you ever seen "The Hills Have Eyes"? We have; it's a horror movie and many of the surroundings remind us of it. Here's the plot synopsis:

While traveling in a trailer to California through the New Mexico Desert, a family is misled to a shortcut going to nowhere by the owner of an isolated gas station and wrecks the car in a rock. Along the night and on the next day, they are attacked by a group of deformed cannibals, fruit of the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by USA from 1945 to 1962 in that spot. Absolutely trapped by the psychotics, they have to fight to survive.

I know, it's creepy. I was lucky to have caught it on film. I expected some mutant to attack at any moment.

We drove through Capital Reef National Park to get here and it was beautiful. That's going to be one of our destination points this week. We're staying at Thousand Lakes RV Park and I'm happy to say that we have a strong cell phone signal. Yay. I think there's only 2-3 other people staying here. This park is closing for the winter in a few days. We bought a stack of firewood to use; the temperature for tonight is supposed to be in the low 20's. We filled our water reserves and reeled in the hose. We don't need anymore frozen water issues. We've got enough on-going issues to deal with. Dasher seems to be in heaven here, it's like 1,000 other dogs have marked the grass and he's not sure what spot he should re-mark. What a stressful life, eh? Where should I pee? Should I save some for the next 15 spots?

Aside from this place making Dasher happy, it makes us happy too. Look at the incredible view from our patio! A funny thing about this is, neither one of us noticed the view until we finished setup. Jim called me outside to look at the view. Duh. Rock and Indians, rocks and Indians....

Pictured above is the park during the day, below at night.

After setup, we redeemed a restaurant.com certificate for "Rim Rock Restaurant". We used Jim's Diet Coke points. See, it pays to drink 32 gallons of Diet Coke a day. Anyway, the restaurant had pretty good food, and it was situated where most seating had a view of the mountains.

Just ANOTHER reminder, we're only up to $32.73 in ad income. How's about using the search bar on the left to find your favorite crap?
Some of you may know about my fondness of cartoons and Wonder Woman. I found this video last night and couldn't pass it up. I love it.