Wake Up Let's Go - Friday, March 25

About 4:30 am Linda rousted me out of bed and we got on the road. We started a new book on CD, The Lovely Bones, and immediately got absorbed. Linda had counted the discs before we started and they were all there. As we neared our destination we noticed Jeeps and 4 wheelers of all types on the road coming and going in every direction. Yep, Moab is Jeep country! On we drove and arrived in Moab, Utah at about 10:00 am. We had planned to try to get a spot in the BLM camp just up river from the bridge leading into Moab so we drove immediately there. Upon entering the camp we noticed many of the sights were taken and we were very worried that we might have to move on and search for another BLM campground. When we hit campsite #6 Linda got out of the truck and checked the reservation tag and it said that the previous residence were leaving on Friday. BINGO, what a find. It was almost the prefect campsite, flat, dry, and three down from the camp host. We jumped on it and set up the camper.


Linda, Baka @ Goose Island

One of the latest deanovations to the camper is a 10 foot awning that extends off the back of the camper. I created it in my mind and did some searching for the right parts. I found some aluminum railing for attaching tonneau covers to trucks that came with a plastic insert. We purchased some umbrella material and went out to a friend’s house that has a heavy duty sewing machine. In three hours we had put all the cloth together and sewed the plastic inserts on to the one end of the tarp. In the end, four grommets in the awning and attaching the railing to the camper was easy and we have a beautiful green stripped sun and rain cover to sit under.


Our Travel Setup

This cover was one of the first things we set up, the lawn and shower tent followed quickly. Our home was set and we were ready to go into Moab for some provisions. Moab was a mad house! We had hit the end of the world’s biggest Jeep rally. What a mix of big tires, mud, loud exhaust and unshaven guys revving their engines. Linda and I started laughing. We were probably the only people in a Jeep, who had no idea the rally was on this week, driving the streets of Moab to get groceries. Our little lapis blue Jeep looked so inadequate I kept saying to Linda we needed to go get it dirty with some of this red mud they have around here. We got our provisions and went back to our camper where it was warm and quiet.

About twenty minutes after we arrived back at the camp the weather took a change for the worse and the wind picked up followed by rain. Our awning did real well, but a couple gusts hit so hard I figured the awning could take the wind but the sound of it flapping would keep me awake all night, so I took it down. We ate our dinner, played cribbage and went to bed. In bed we could hear the rain spattering on the top of the camper, putting us gently to sleep.

On our way ! - Thursday, March 24

Everything worked out well and we were able to get out of Coeur d’Alene by about 12:00 noon just like we planned. I drove and Linda kept me entertained with various questions about what I had put in the refrigerator and the camper in the morning. Linda had asked her friend, Barbra, for some books on CD and she had given us two for our trip. So about Wallace, Idaho we put the first one on and got deeply involved. The book was called The Four People You Meet in Heaven, and came in a five CD set. About one CD in to the set we realized that there were only four discs in the box, Barbra probably is home wondering why she has an extra The Five People You Meet in Heaven disc in her player.

We drove through the afternoon and evening listening to the CDs and taking breaks to talk about what was going on with the characters. There is not much to see as you drive after the sun goes down so we listened, talked, and drove. About Treementon, Utah, CD four ended and we cursed Barbra for a moment. We were able to drive to just before Ogden, Utah before I was too tired to see straight. We pulled off into a rest area/truck stop. There were about 20 big rigs parked in there and about 5 other cars so we stopped and set up the camper. Did you know that trucks don’t shut off their engines? They also have air breaks that hiss loudly as they release their parking breaks to get back on the road. Also there was this one street light, just above out camper, that kept turning off and then on, at a regular beat of about fifteen minutes. So that is how we spent our first night. Did I mention how cold it was that night?

Moab, Utah - Here we come!

The camper is on the truck and all packed and ready to go! We plan to leave on Thurday, March 24th and travel as far as we can. I plan on keeping the blog up to date and if possible post the events of the week.