#39 – Coveys Great Adventure – Nov. and early Dec. 2017 – Deer Creek , Moab ,
Thanksgiving, Simi, Anaheim
and Jojoba Hills
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| Deer Creek campground |
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| Near Sundance. Look closely: gate says "Go Away" |
Although Heber City is a nice town that seems to be growing by leaps
and bounds, it’s main attraction is that it is located about midway between two
more famous places: Park
City Park City
Sundance
turned out to be much smaller and more rustic than we expected. The lodge isn’t
huge and, at least in the off season, very approachable: just park and walk around. There are several modest studios, performance venues and cottages
scattered in the trees around a picturesque pond, and a row of artisan workshops behind the
lodge. We watched several guys blow glass cups, bowls, vases and knickknacks
to be sold at the gift shop. As you would expect, the prices in the restaurants
and shops were sobering, so we had some great soup at the snack bar and moved
on to the murals that describe the history of the property going back to the
early 1800’s. A very interesting place, and surprisingly not too tacky. |
| Old farts do trains |
It was so beautiful and peaceful at Deer Creek that if we hadn’t had the reservation at Dead Horse we might have stayed even longer. We had the whole park almost to ourselves; I think one night there might have been just two other campers. Three nights turned into seven before we finally packed up and headed to
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| Dead Horse Point |
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| We all loved Dead Horse Point campground |
discovered that they hold four campsites off of the reservation system for walk-in campers. One of those sites was big enough for Ripley and might become available the day we had to leave. I made sure I was first in line to move to that site when the current tenant pulled out, so we were able to stay all week.
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| View from the windshield at Dead Horse Point |
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| Ranger in charge |
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| And I missed the peak of it |
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| Arches NP |
Our original plan was to be away from Salt Lake for a week. We stretched into two, but it really was time we headed back to get ready for Thanksgiving. It’s an easy 250 mile drive back to
Liesa is enjoying her new job and they seem to be happy with
her, too. She is working full time which certainly helps her finances, but her
dog is clearly unhappy about it. She was able to get time off at Xmas, and will be flying to San Diego to join us and most
of the family (we’ll miss you, Linda and Grant) in Hemet .
Thanksgiving was a little different this year. I think this
is the first time in over 50 years (good grief!) that I haven’t cooked
something for dinner. We decided that it didn’t make sense to cook for just the
three of us and going out to dinner was much too expensive. Lee’s Market
offered a complete, ready-to-eat turkey dinner with all the fixings for $89. It
wasn’t my turkey, stuffing and gravy (ahem), but it wasn’t bad at all. We had
the all-important leftovers for several days, too. Might do it again next year.
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| Arches, too |
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| Canyonland NP |
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| Colorado River through Canyonlands NP |
It was getting colder in
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| Home for the night |
We pulled into
It turned out that the service folks in Las Vegas screwed up the generator fuel
filter. It took me a while to figure out exactly what they had done and what to
do about it because the access is so poor. They managed to damage the flare fitting that seals one of the fuel lines to the filter body, causing a small but steady leak. Taking it to the pros would be very
expensive and we haven’t had the best of luck with them, anyway. I finally
figured that I had nothing to lose by trying to fix it myself. So far the solution
I came up with seems to be working.
We had planned to leave Simi on December 6, but then the
smoke from the Rye
fire started to pour over the hills the morning of the 5th. We knew the fire was
miles away, but it was straight upwind from us and the only way out of the
campground was a narrow road running through Tapo Canyon Orange , California.
We stayed in Orange
for three nights visiting and catching up with Ted and Judy Anderson, our
friends of over 35 years, Liesa’s godparents and brand new grandparents. Phones
are great and email is useful, but nothing is as good as getting together with friends over wine and dinner.
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| Schroeder really likes Jojoba, too |
Folks have asked me to add a section about our plans,
so here you go:
From Jojoba we will return to Saguaro Escapees Park in Benson ,
Arizona. Florida following a southerly route to stay warm. We hope to arrive on the Gulf Coast by early April.
More soon.
