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Night fall at Lake Powell
This was the view as we squeezed into our camp spotTo blog or not to blog. I’ve gone back and forth about blogging. My first blog was a daily journal on our 5 month trip to Alaska. It’s a real big commitment to do a blog/journal. We found that our family loved it and many of our friends. I’m not a confident or accomplished writer so I’m bashful about writing. I’ve written for business most of my life and never enjoyed it. But my Alaska blog was so different and I found I really enjoyed it and simply didn’t really care about being so under pressure to be correct, sort of a take it or leave it attitude. My husband, a much better writer, enjoyed my writing and we both realized how quickly we forgot about parts of our trip. The blog became an amazing memory of our trip. So as this trip began I have argued with myself about whether to write or not. Well I guess you know the answer.
As we made our way today to Page AZ we so enjoyed the beautiful sandstone formations as we went the few miles beyond to Wahweap Campground in the national recreation area of Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. Driving
over the dam with this big trailer made me somewhat nervous. We pulled into the parking lot of the campground and David went in to register. We had arrived later than we usually do as we got such a late start. We were so ready to rest and relax for two days. I’d planned this whole trip off of RV Trip Wizard on the internet. We have reservations for every night. We use to travel without a care, no concern about reservations. That’s easy to do with a pickup camper that you can pull over anywhere but a 40 ft 5th wheel big rig is a whole different deal. So I told David when I planned this trip no worries we have reservations and electricity if not full hookups every night. So you can just imagine my surprise and his when he called me from the campground office to announce that our name was not on the after hours registration. How can that be I said? I frantically went through my trip email reservation confirmations looking for one from Wahweap Campground. I was so shocked when I saw the date of May 19th, not the 18th. We had arrived a
day early. Omg! I told David we are a day early. As always, the solution minded man he is, said “Hey, I signed us up for one of the few open spots”! So we drove to campsite 3- 56 and with careful guidance from David we maneuvered into this small spot, I say that but remember with the truck we are 62 feet long. It was so small we were unable to open up the kitchen slide which meant we were not getting into any of those cabinets. The reason was that we were too close to the road that there would be a danger of a car hitting the slide going by. So we didn’t open the bed slide either but I could crawl over the bed to my side. It was the second surprise that made us laugh, no hookups at all, no electricity! David laughed as did I and we just hoped that we had enough trailer battery to run our CPAPS all night. It’s hell to have sleep apnea, use a CPAP and not be able to plug it in!!!! As we went to bed I assured David this would be the only night we’d experience
without electricity! I should have known never say never but then I’m getting ahead of the story.
The dogs, first night camping seemed not to be bothered by the whole situation, Hell it was all new to them. Red got to see a rabbit which was fun. Thankfully he actually relieved himself away from home. This dog, Red, has had a history of refusing to pee anywhere but home. I guess he got the idea he’d have to on this trip. As the rain moved in we all went to bed, grateful to be back on the road and to have a campsite even if it didn’t have electricity.
May 19 2019. As morning arrived the sounds of the pups scratching in their kennels woke us. We had a brief bit of confusion over the time as David’s phone had us in Utah time zone, and hour later but technically we were a good mile still in Arizona. My phone was still on AZ time. We called the office and explained we’d arrived a day early and we’d be down about 11 am to move into our reserved spot and pay up for last night as well. All
Red his second night out camping.
He loves the big back window for people and dog watching. went well and by noon we had a beautiful big pull-through spot with full hookups. David had us all hooked up in no time and the dogs were ready to explore and we were ready for lunch. The weather continued to be windy, cold, with rain on and off all day. We didn’t really care as we just relaxed inside in between dog walking outings to the prairie. Lake Powell is such a beautiful area but I must say the weather was just not conducive to getting out and exploring. I realized that my one sweatshirt zip up jacket was really insufficient to keep me warm but I assumed it was a temporary issue.
As nightfall came we enjoyed some TV, more dog walking and a restful nights sleep was had by all.
On May 20th rain and blustery weather continued. Prairie walks were numerous as our dogs continued to get use to camping life. We found that we had completely neglected their leash training so that walks through the campground were near impossible without coming back exhausted. I was cussing myself and David for waiting until Red was near full grown to start his leash training. I
remember us saying this time we were going to spend time every day training so we have this nicely trained dog to travel with! Well that certainly didn’t happen. So this afternoon Red and I trained to walk on leash just around the campground versus the usual prairie walk. Dottie is a little farther along in her training because I frequently took her to visit my mother or to Home Depot. Needless to say we spent the day working on the issues.
Rain finally stopped this evening but sad to say we will be leaving in the morning.
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Valerie Ryder
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WE are watching.
OMG! What a start! Will enjoy seeing what happens next.