Taking a break after a hectic trip yesterday

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May 28
We awoke this morning to sunshine and a welcome relief from yesterday’s bad weather. The snow on the bikes on the back of the trailer was gone. David took Red over to the dog park and I followed shortly after with Dottie. The dog park was right next to a pasture that contain a herd of Angus cows and a bull, a black horse along with a couple dozen ducks. There was a pond and a little duck house where the ducks played and spent the night as well as fed. The dogs loved the dog pen here because they loved watching the pasture activity through the fence. The pen was large too, probably 3000 sq ft so we could easily throw the ball for Red who enjoyed that and we could try to tire him out. It didn’t really work though. This morning in the bright sky to the south, Boulder Mountain was clearly visible and it was still covered in snow. David took a picture of it and talked about how pretty it was. I told David I didn’t see a damn thing pretty about it, it tried to kill us. He laughed when I said I still wasn’t over yesterday. I’d had nightmares all night every time the trailer shook from the wind I though we were going over a cliff, I told him. He said: “You know yesterday was a really good day! We are all safe and the truck and trailer are fine! You did a great job of driving!” I know he is right but my blood-pressure goes up just thinking about yesterday.

After breakfast David went about the task of hooking the water and sewer up and actually getting the truck unhooked and the trailer leveled. The trailer has automatic leveling system but it’s a little scary. After you unhook the truck and get the truck out from under the trailer, the trailer stands on just the two front jacks. Then you push the level button and the first thing it does is lower the front of the trailer. It almost looks like this gigantic trailer is taking a bow. Then it lowers the 4 stabilizing jacks, 2 in the middle and 2 behind the rear tires. Then it raises and lowers each side and front or back until it senses its level. It can actually lift the tires up off the ground on a really unlevel spot. Like I said it’s a little scary to see this big trailer moving all about on its own. David said the trailer needs to be recalibrated a little because the front is always a little low so he manually adjusts it.

The last thing I wanted to do today was drive. The original plan was to sightsee in Capital Reef National Monument, but I just didn’t have it in me to do it. We’d be leaving tomorrow but I just wasn’t up to driving around. We did need a few groceries and gas though, so reluctantly we loaded up the dogs and drove across the street to get gas and then 1.5 miles west to the general store. It was very small store but the only grocery in town. The store wasn’t as big as some mini marts you see. We picked up a few things, David grabbed more cookies and we were heading to check out when we noticed a deli in the back with a menu that sounded good. David and I ordered 2 BLT’s to go. We were to pay up front, the same as our groceries. David left to pay for the groceries and sandwiches and run our food out to the truck and waiting dogs. That’s when the sleet and rain started again. I waited for the sandwiches and then we all headed back to our campground. Boulder Mountain now looked like yesterday, completely enveloped in clouds and snow. Once again I was just grateful to be in Torrey. We got the dogs and groceries in just in time for the rain to subside. Those were the best BLT’s we’d had in a long time. The lettuce was crisp, the tomato juicy, bread toasted and buttered and a little mayo. Only thing to suggest improvement was more bacon. I shared a little crust of the bread with the dogs but I was quite stingy, it was so good.

The only productive thing I did this afternoon was go through every map I could find so I’d know we weren’t going through another pass tomorrow as we head up to Vernal near Dinosaur National Monument. I made David review the maps with me and our final decision was the long way through Hanksville. We knew that road, it was straight and level from Hanksville to Green River Utah. From there to Price, and on to Vernal would all be new. We couldn’t see any obvious mountain passes but the roads were scenic byways. We agreed this was how we should go.

David took Red over to the dog pen and he was gone quit awhile. When he got back he said they had been watching the ducks. He explained that while at the pen these two people drove up in the pasture on a four wheeler. They drove slowly as the two dozen ducks were waddling quickly behind then. Then the lady got off and was swarmed by the ducks as she poured feed into a pan for them. She took the pan over to the little duck house followed by the flock quaking loudly. David took a video and it truly is the cutest thing. My family knows I’m a sucker for ducks. When our kids were little and we lived on a small acreage we had horses, a milk cow, 4-H rabbits, peacocks, pigs, turkeys, chickens, sometimes geese but always ducks. Spring time meant baby fowl would arrive at the feed store and if there were ducks, well I could never resist. I remember having them all in the dry bathtub the first year because the weather was so cold in Wyoming and we hadn’t built a sufficient building to keep them warm. Then later on I remember watching as our boys build ramps for the baby ducks so they could get in and swim in the horse tank. I’m not sure the horses appreciated ducky water to drink. LOL To this day David gets nervous when I go to Tractor Supply in the spring!!! I love ducks and this video is so cute because I remember all those ducks we had.

We rested in between dog walks and rain spurts. The dogs seemed tired too, I’m sure they felt our stress yesterday. We fed the dogs and around 7:30 David suggested we head back to town for a burger at Slackers. It was a little burger and ice cream place we saw in town. So we left the dogs and drove about a mile to Slackers. A cute young girl, I’m guessing still in high school waited on David. She was so peppy that David and I couldn’t help bantering with her. She gave us her favorite burger recommendations which we said we’d try and of course had a Strawberry shake to go with it. She asked if we wanted whip cream, to which I replied “of course”. She laughed and said “well some people don’t!” I told her “Well I’m not one of those people.” She laughed and said: “I like lots of whip cream too!” “Yeah” I said. David paid the bill and I saw him hand her some cash for tip, which he told her to stick in her pocket. We sat back at our table and waited for our burgers and laughed out loud when we heard the young girl yell out to put “Lots and Lots Whip Cream On The Strawberry Shake!” In short order we had our shakes and let me just say I’ve never seen so much whip cream on a shake! It was delicious!!!

The burgers came and they too were very good. As we sat and ate the girls rushed about cleaning the dining room and we found out they were closed now but no one was rushing us for sure. As we left David told the young girl that with her personality and get up-and-go, she would do well in life and go far! She got the biggest smile in her face and she said thank you.

We drove back to our trailer so full of ice cream and burgers we could hardly get in the truck, plus David had to bring home two pieces of hot peach cobbler to go, Ice cream too of course. Well the cobbler and ice cream went right in the fridge along with the last half of my shake. Oh my, does Torrey have some good places to eat.

We headed to bed and I was just hoping I could sleep better tonight. I hadn’t had any wine as I thought I would but I had enough sugar and strawberries on board to make it easy to fall asleep.

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