It's not ALL fun & games

We pulled into Lorla's last night around 5PM to find out that our landing gear would not deploy. It could certainly be worse than it is, like maybe if we were in a plane rather than a trailer.

We showed up at Desert Coach RV is St. George at 8:30 this morning to see if we could get lucky. If we would have been in Salt Lake, we may have had a 3-4 week wait, seriously!!

It is almost 1:30 and we have been repaired and are waiting for authorization from our warranty company on part of the repairs. Hell, we are just glad they are covering something!!

So for those of you that look at us longingly as we leave town, now ya know, it's not all fun & games out here in the wild.

We did get to see Nick when passing through Hurricane yesterday and that was really great. Prior to that we spent a couple days in Kanab with John Johnson. It is always good to see him.

Happy Trails

The Wave April 26

These 3 photos are from the hike into the Wave. We were very very lucky to get a permit. 10 are given months in advance through the internet and then another 10 people can show up at the Paria River BLM office each morning for the lottery. The first day we tried for a permit, 43 people showed up for the 10 spaces. The second day there were only 34 which greatly increased our chances. We were not expecting to get a permit so when our number was called we were extremely surprised. The BLM office had posted how many people had tried for permits each day over the last few weeks. There were a handful of days in the 70's and one day that 80 people were there for the lottery. There was also a posting that 11 people had been cited for being in the wave without permits in the month of April. The fine was $525. Our cost was $7 per person.

The Wave is a magical place where the colorful sandstone gives itself to mind-boggling psychedelic gyrations.

Concerns about widespread damage to this pristine area led to the establishment of a quota system in 1997, restricting visitation to a total of 20 people per day. (information from Photographing the Southwest Volumn 2)

After reaching The Wave, we walked a little further South. We were told that they are calling this the second wave. The ranger told us that according to Google Earth their are suppose to be 8 waves.

The photo below was taken between the waves. The color was amazing!

Back in The Wave and a moment of play.

Bob found a perfect moment to catch a wave, in The Wave!

There were 2 photo guys there all set up with their nice gear. One of them told us this area in the shade would not be good right now for photo's. The colors look OK to me!

Wire Pass-Buckskin Gulch April 25

We started our day once again at the Paria Ranger Station and we did get a permit for The Wave for tomorrow. We spent this day hiking Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch. Isn"t it pretty!!!!!
There was one drop going in that I didn't know if I could climb back up out of but I did. We spent 2 1/2 hours hiking down the canyon. There were lots of stops to take photos. It only took us 1 1/2 hours to come back out.

Check out the tree stuck in the rocks up above me. Can you just imagine the force of the water that comes through here in a flash flood?

Coyote Buttes South April 24th

Getting to the Paw Hole Trailhead is no easy task. First you have to get a permit which we lucked into. When we arrived at the Paria Ranger Station for the lottery to hike The Wave, there happened to be 3 slots left for that very day so we took 2 of them. We did not get the lottery for the Wave which was for the following day but at least we now had a plan for the day.

You have to drive 16 long miles on a non improved dirt road. It is a headache road for sure. You need 4 Wheel-Drive with high ground clearance to get to Paw Hole. Well he had that but we are a diesel so our front end is alot heavier. We were warned that there is a stretch of close to 2 miles of deep sand with deep ruts and a hill where people do get stuck. With Bob at the wheel, we mad it in. I NEVER could have done it.

The rock is just spectacular.

There were a couple places that gave us a preview of what The Wave could be like.

Ahh, now this was a find! There are no trails in South Coyote Buttes. Since it is all wilderness land, the BLM is not allowed to put up any markers so we just wandered all around. Without Bob I may not have found my way back to the truck. At one point we passed an area with a bunch of really smooth stones and then I almost stepped on this huge spearhead. Bob saw it. We left it a few feet from where we found it under an old cedar. We put some of Brad's ashes under it to protect it from poachers. There is so much wind out there and the ground has to be constantly changing. What a Great Day!!

Another preview of The Wave. Now if we could just draw a permit.

Bob doing a typical Brad thumbs up.

So beautiful. Can you imagine what these pics would look like if we had real photo equipment?

The Grand Canyon

We left Mesa on April 18th and headed to the Grand Canyon. We realized we were leaking some oil from the rear end of the truck so Monday morning we drove 75 miles back to the Ford dealer in Flagstaff and after waiting all day we ended up with a rental car. It seems the back end of the truck needed to be replaced and wouldn"t be ready until Friday.

Tuesday we did a great hike down the Kaibab Trail to Skeleton Point. We were 28 seconds faster coming back up than we were going down which is a great feet at 50 y.o.

The next 3 days we had snow. We were camped on a Forest Service Road 5 miles outside of the park because all the electric sites in the Park were full. It was cold and a bit of an adventure. When there is no sun, our batteries do not get charged from the solar panel. We did have our generator and we used it!! It is a challenge though to use the heater, the generator and not let the battery level drop too low. ESPECIALLY in the night. One of us would set our alarm to get up and turn the heater on and the other one would set the alarm to turn it off. The low was in the early 20's and we did not want to freeze our water lines and bust any pipes.

Did I mention the high was 91 the day we left Mesa. You'd think we would be smarter and have stayed another week in Mesa to miss this storm. Oh well, It was another adventure.

I wish I could do a scratch and sniff of the orange blossoms in Mesa. The smell every evening was so amazing. I wish I could share the smell.

Thelast couple days have been full of great things so I will do another update tomorrow when I have electricity in Kanab.

The Desert In Bloom

This one above is my favorite. I am dedicating this one to my best friends!

Laurie who had surgery this week, Lydia who will have the 1st anniversary of her sons death this Wednesday, and also to Laverne (Lu & Linda's mom) who will have surgery this week.

My heart and soul is with each and everyone of you. xoxoxoxoxoxo

My neighbor here told me that it is a rare occurance for the saguarro's to flower. This one has alot of blooms. It is the only one in the park that I have seen blooms on. I also like his eyes. He is keeping an eye on things. There are birds nesting inside.

OK so this one does not have a flower but I LOVE it. It reminds me of cousin it on the Munsters and also of myself some mornings.

All these flowers were taken in the RV park where we are staying. I just road my bike around and took a few photos.

Happy Easter

Lu flew into town to spend the Easter weekend. Friday night we went out to dinner with my parents and their friends Dan & Denice Richins. We went to Oregano's and had a great dinner. Lu and I got great T-shirts which we will have to show you some time.
Saturday & Sunday were spent leisurely by the pool just relaxing and reading. Sunday night we had a non-traditional Easter Dinner at mom & dads and played cards. We had a great time.
I dropped Lu off at the airport a couple hours ago and I am already feeling blue.
My parents will leave Mesa tomorrow and will be home the end of the week. It is odd to have them leaving here before me.