I really fell down on the job of picture taking in the last week or so, so I asked Kirk to send me the pictures that he took last weekend. This is the best of them. Paul and I went up to Kirk and Karen’s cabin again to make them work on the cabin some more. Paul and Kirk tore apart one of the bathrooms, moved the sink and were planning on moving the toilet, but they decided they need a corner toilet, which they didn’t have, so they stopped after moving the sink.
In the meantime, Karen and I were painting the living room wall, and a closet. The projects were fun, partly because it wasn’t our cabin, and partly because we just have a good time with Kirk and Karen, regardless.
The month we spent in Fresno went by very quickly and had a different feel to it than our usual stops. There wasn’t any sightseeing or hiking- it was more like just day to day living. We spent some days working on projects, or hanging out at the trailer. Thanks to Suzy, I had a gym membership for the time we were there. I didn’t go as often as I should have, but at least I went a few times! We managed to squeeze in quite a bit of socializing between projects, giving us a pretty good idea how it would be if we actually lived near our friends, although we all agreed we are exhausted and couldn’t have kept up that pace.
Our original plan called for us to leave Fresno last week, but one of the major things Paul needed to do in Fresno was install the Straight-line System on the trailer axles. We have tandem axles on the trailer and the way it works usually is that the front axle is pulled along, and the rear axle is pushed. (In theory) That can cause irregular tire wear, which we have had an issue with in the past. DRV, the manufacturer of our trailer, shipped us this Straight-line system for Paul to put on, at no cost to us. Unfortunately, the package was missing a few crucial bushings, which meant we had to wait for them to arrive to finish the upgrade. Once they got here, it only took him a few hours to finish the installation. Once that was done, he rotated the spare tire into the mix, so he can assess whether there is still a tire wear issue or not.
Since we had to stick around anyway, I decided to go ahead and order my new Verizon iphone. It arrived yesterday, so I’ve been busy updating all the contacts etc. Unfortunately the phone that has most of my contacts is dead and I won’t be able to retrieve everyone’s phone numbers. I have some of them, but not all.
I’ve also been doing a fair amount of research. In the next month we will probably visit 7 national parks and monuments, before landing in Salt Lake City at the beginning of June. I don’t in general like to over-research things, but I also don’t want to arrive at these parks with no idea of what we should see and do. So, all of my traveling friends, if you have thoughts on Capitol Reef, Zion, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase Escalante, Mesa Verde, Arches, Moab, and Natural Bridges, bring it on!
I think we might have waited just a little too late in the year to visit these parks, based on the weather forecast, so I also did some shopping and got some new hiking boots that will be more appropriate for hot desert weather. My good boots are really backpacking boots- heavy, leather, hot, but very stiff and sturdy. I bought a pair the other day that will be lighter and not waterproof, so they’ll breathe better in the heat. We are already figuring we’ll have to get up and out early every day, to beat the heat, but if we need to do that, that’s ok too.
I’ve also been calling and bugging Yellowstone National Park every few days. When we booked our reservation there for this summer, we made two separate 11 day reservations, with a 3 day gap between them. Our thought was that we would try to get there in mid June, but if it was too cold or snowy, we’d cancel and just use the early July reservation. Now we’ve decided we might as well use both reservations, so we can relax and enjoy the park. But, we still have a 3 day gap. So, I call every few days to see if there are any cancelations. The people on the phone are awesome, and apologetic. They encourage me to keep calling- there’s bound to be a cancelation! Of course, we’re so big, there aren’t many spaces that will fit us, but we’ll keep checking.
So, tomorrow it’s on to Zion National Park. One of the hikes we tried to do there last time, but couldn’t, was The Narrows. Hiking the Narrows is essentially hiking for miles in a river. In order to do the hike, the water flow has to be below a certain level. Last year it definitely wasn’t. This year we’ll have to see!
