A month or so ago, husband and his son made plans for us to meet at Jacob Lake, Arizona and camp out together. The idea was to have a long weekend, kick back and visit. The kids have purchased a pop up camp trailer and are pretty anxious to use it as much as possible. Which is good for them and the granddaughters. Although there were a few problems, it was basically a good weekend and we all had lots of fun.

We left a day early. Even though we could have made the trip in one day, we are retired you know and it is nice to just ramble along down the road taking it easy. Which we did. We left late enough in the morning to miss the commute traffic in the Salt Lake and Utah valleys. Hate that commute traffic. We spent the night at RV Corral in Kanab, Utah. A nice park with nice size sites and full hook ups. They also had wireless internet, so I was able to get on line and do some email. The next morning, it was a leisurely 35 mile drive to Jacob Lake up on the Kaibab.

Some of the sights we saw while on the road, I did manage to get some pictures of. You can click on the link, My Pictures to the right and see them. But I will tell you something about some of them. First off, I saw a sheep camp heading down the road. I thought that a certain uncle of mine would love to see a picture of that one. I did try to get a picture of the side, but for some reason, probably I was too slow taking the picture, I didn't get it. Oh well. Another sight that brought a chuckle to me, even though I didn't get any pictures of them, was in Kane County, Utah and Fredonia, Arizona. In the small communities, money is really tight, so they make do. One way is to take patrol vehicles, put a dummy in them and park them just pass the speed limit signs. This is to fake out the tourists going through town and make them slow down. Saw several in like Mt. Carmel Junction, Mt. Carmel, Kanab and one other, can't remember the name. Then saw one just outside of the rv park in Kanab and on the road in Fredonia. I am sure the locals know all about them. In like 4 days, none were moved or changed spots.But I did notice that vehicles were slowing down when they came to them. 

Now to the rv park we stayed at in Jacob Lake.  It is called Kaibab RV Camper Village.  On one of my Yahoo RV groups, I asked if anyone had stayed there and what their impressions were.  The main one that came out, was that the park had problems with the electricity staying on.  And it was possible that the park would run out of water, especially at night.  There is no water on the Kaibab, so it has to be haul in.  So with these facts in hand, we went into the park.  First off, we did arrive like 11am.  Most parks the check out time ranges from 11am to 1pm.  Upon entering the office, I found the clerk on the phone and having trouble handling that.  As we weren't in a big hurry, it was no problem.  The clerk was handling a reservation over the phone.  The more she talked, the more I realized, she is the type that has trouble chewing gum or walking, or talking.  And definitely not three at one time!!!!!  She did good to muddle through one item at a time.  The son had paid for both sites for one night to reserve the sites.  I told the clerk to separate the two, apply one charge to me and charge me for two nights.  I thought that I was pretty clear.  But it took her a good 15 minutes talking to herself to finally come to that conclusion.  Then she says that Karl would direct us to the site and direct us in backing up.  I explained that we preferred to do our own backing.  We have a system and it works for us.  She said fine, but it was company policy.  I say, I don't care about company policy.  Well, the guy comes into the office and I explained about our backing up.  He said that was fine with him.  So off we went to the site.  First off, notice that it is still occupied.  No problem.  Well, Karl says we can either take the empty site right next to our site or park in another part of the park until the site was cleared.   Well, I look at the site he says we can have.  Well, there is a large tree in the middle of the site and just about 8 feet away is a large boulder.  Our MH is a 102 inch wide unit.  No way, we are gonna get into a site that is maybe 8 feet wide.  So we opted for parking some place else.  The unit in our site finally left and we moved over to the site.  Several hours later, the son and family show up.  And Karl is leading them.  Now the son is a novice when it comes to backing a trailer.  Well, Karl, had him completely screwed up within 5 minutes.  And then he raises his hand and starts to spin it.  I told Marshal to help his son get into the site and told Karl that Marshal would talk the son into the site and he could get out of the sun.  In less time then what it took Karl to get Earl messed up, Marshal had them into their site. 

The electricity only went out three times.  And I made a trip to the office each time.  And came away with the feeling that they really didn't care.  Each time they were blaming other campers in the park, and I got asked if I had turned all our electrical on at one time.  Basically it was shoddy workmanship.  They had too many units on a breaker switch, which needs to be changed out.  As this problem has been ongoing for several years, I don't see it changing anytime soon.

While there, we made a trip down to Lee's Ferry so that Marshal, Earl and the girls could go fishing.  Well, it was so darn hot there, 109 in the shade, they only stayed about 30 minutes.  We stopped at Marble Canyon Lodge and I took a serious look around.  Used to stay in the area quite a bit many years ago.  Some changes, but I could still name off the different buildings. 

Another day, we went down the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Took the road to Cape Royal.  A road that I have always wanted to take.  It was well worth the trip.  Then it was to the lodge at the rim and other than lots of people, it was still nice.  We did manage to see the true male tourist.  Had to take a picture.  He had black shoes, black socks and shorts on.  So typical!!!  LOL

On Sunday, we loaded up and headed home.  The kids headed south to Gilbert where they live and we headed north.  The trip home was pretty quiet.  Nothing to speak of.  We spent the night in Nephi, Utah at High Country RV Park.  And then on home the next day. 

We have a group within our Senior Center that love to ride our ATV's out on the trails of Oneida County. And we have lots of trails to ride on. This ride has been in the planning for several weeks now and we were finally able to get out and do it. Our destination was the Samaria Mountains, southwest of Malad. We all pulled out outfits to Woodruff, Idaho and parked in the field next to the house of one couple going on the ride. Lots of room, as you can see we needed it, from the picture. We had 11 ATV's with a total of 15 fifteen people. And 3 dogs.

We hit the road around 930am and headed to the mountains. The country has really dried out since it has quit raining, so the roads were really dusty and we had to spread out to stay out of each other's dust. Most of the vegetation is still pretty green, but you can see it turning brown. Didn't see any wildlife, unless you count cows and birds.

There is a legend that there is stolen gold or silver, whatever hidden behind an iron door somewhere in the Samaria Mountains. According to the legend, the loot came from a stage robbery. And the robbers hide it behind an iron door. This is suppose to have happened back in the 1880's or so. To date, no one has really found the treasure or if they did, haven't said anything about it. Well, we didn't find it either. But then I have no idea where in the mountains it is suppose to be.

We did see some really nice country and traveled through 2 states. Was able to see south as far as Brigham City, Utah and the Great Salt Lake. North was Elk Mountain, just north of Malad. West into the Pocatello Valley and towards Utah. East was the Malad Valley.

Saw quite a few wildflowers that are still blooming. Due to the moisture we have had this year, they are still really nice. The wild roses were the most surprising. Blooms were really big, bigger than I have seen wild roses before.

We were gone like 5 hours and had a ball. Only problem we found, when we got back, none had escaped the dirt. We were all filthy.

To see more pictures, click on the My Pictures link to the right.

Here are a couple more pictures of me holding the 2nd place plaque that we took in the 4th of July parade and a picture of our float and the ladies and gentleman that rode the float. We are still pretty up in air celebrating our win. This was the first year for the Senior Center to have a float in the parade and to take a prize sure does make all of those of us involved with the project feel real good.

Today across our great country, we celebrate the 4th of July. A wonderful celebration for all of those that enjoy it. And this is Angel and I at the wheel of our truck fixing to get into the parade held here in Malad. On Friday afternoon, the Board of Directors came to my garage to decorate the trailer belonging to a couple of the directors. We spent 2 hours decorating. Well, really we spent about an hour actual work and another hour goofing off. But if paid off for us. We had 7 volunteers from the center wanting to ride the float. And they truly enjoyed the ride. The weather today was not perfect, but close to it. The whole hour we were in the parade, there was a breeze to keep our volunteers cool, but not cold. The morning was mostly cloudy, so they weren't in the sun too much. This is the first year that our center had a float in the parade. The main idea was just to get some of the seniors out and about. And to let others know that there was a senior center in town. Our director, her husband and a couple more members of the board rode their ATV's behind us with signs advertising some of our activities.

We did not expect any awards, just wanted to get out in front of the public. Well, we were awarded 2nd place in the non commercial catagory. Needless to say, we floated through the parade. Thrilled all of us so darn much, we may come down some day!!!!

I will make a recommendation at our next board meeting that this be a yearly thing for the center.

Click on the link to the right, My Pictures to see more pictures of our float.