Epic Road Trip

After wasting the whole summer away at home, we finally decided to get out and do something. We decided on a road trip to Colorado. We've never really explored there before. The trip didn't quite turn out as we had planned. We ended up driving through six states and traveling just over 3,000 miles in a week.

We started out very early Sunday morning. We wanted to get through Vegas before all the people with hangovers started to stir. We succeeded and got into St. George, Utah before lunch. We dipped into Nevada and Arizona before going up to Utah.

Our first destination was near Hurricane, Utah but it was way too crowded. We continued up the south route to get to the other side of Zion and drove past Bryce and Escalante. Honestly, we were a bit discouraged. All the available spaces were just covered in RV's and side-by-sides tearing up the roads. We actually ended up finding a great spot in the Dixie National Forest. We drove around checking the area out and settled on a little pocket surrounded by aspen. We set up camp, made a campfire ring and collected wood for a fire. There were a lot of mosquitos in the area but none of them were as diseased as the mosquitos here in Riverside. We put on repellent but if we got bit, it was a little itchy and irritating and then you were pretty much fine. The mosquitos bites here swell up and I will be itchy for many days, losing sleep over it.

On day two, we decided to just stick around a bit and explore the area as it was very beautiful and peaceful. We drove by Long Lake and continued up the trail to see where it would take us.

We ended up on a bit more difficult 4x4 trail. We decided to just go up a little way to see what was up there. It took us to Scout Lake. It was just the most idyllic little site. We only saw one other person so far all day. We relaxed by the lake for a while and had our lunch. Unfortunately, it started to rain on us. We decided to head back and by the time we got back into the truck, it was raining pretty hard. We looked out over the mountain range and figured that we could not retreat back to our first campsite as it would probably be raining there as well or would be raining shortly.

We didn't think that the storm system could be too big, so we drove further east looking for a back way into Capital Reef National Park. We had several false starts. There seemed to have been a lot of roads that are no longer maintained so after a while, the brush would become impassable. We had a few mishaps on a couple of the trails. At one point, a large rock that we drove over popped up and wedged itself behind the passenger side tire. It put a big dent there and we had to jack up the wheel to dislodge the rock. It was pretty bad. 

After a few false starts, we finally found the way into Capital Reef. There were a few side trails that we wanted to explore but they were too narrow for the truck. As we followed one of the trails, we drove over a slab of rock that looked just like a slab we could normally roll over but apparently, when the right front tire went over it, it popped up and smacked the truck in the exact same spot as before, further damaging the body of the truck. This time the side fender got pushed up and I couldn't even open the passenger side door. Christian tried to hammer it back into place. He managed to pound it out so that it no longer affected the opening of the passenger door, but it still was not pretty. We need to install some rock sliders before we take the truck out again.

We were a bit sick over the damage as Christian hasn't even had the truck for a year yet, but since this is one of the reasons we bought the truck, we soldiered on.

As we started to descend into Capital Reef, the views were just amazing.

We took the scenic drive to Capital Gorge. Unfortunately, with all the false starts and mishaps, we did not get into Capital Reef until it was fairly late in the day, so we kind of raced through some parts of the park, snapping pictures along the way. We had dinner near the opening of the Gorge and tried to figure out what we wanted to do. We also found that Christian's new and expensive Yakima roof rack got all tweaked and the end cap fell off somewhere down the trail. We had our gas cans up there and apparently, it could not handle the weight. Christian had to remove part of it and fix it before the whole thing fell apart. We are pretty disgusted with Yakima. In addition, we had some bits and pieces fly off of the hold for the tonneau cover so we were not doing too well in the equipment department. Hopefully we can get replacement parts and figure out a better way to fasten it on next time.

We ended up exiting the park and camping off of Notom Road outside of the park. We figured that we would get an early start and head back into the park the next morning.

In the morning, we had to fight off clouds of gnats as we packed up and headed back towards Capital Reef but then stopped at a little pit stop there to look at a map. We had our breakfast and needed to make plans for the day. In the end, we decided that while we really enjoyed Capital Reef and wanted to return again someday, we did not feel inclined to return to the park on this trip. We got an overview of the park the evening before when the park had mostly emptied out and did not want to go back in and fight the other tourists for views on the road today.

We continued our way to the east and stopped by briefly at Factory Butte.

The area is really neat and probably underrated just because it does not have the vibrant colors the more popular buttes have. In fact, some of these buttes looked exactly the same as the ones in the popular parks but just drained of color. It was kind of fascinating.

We stopped in Hanksville to stock up on water and to get some maps. Unfortunately, all the BLM offices were closed except for appointments or something. It's funny how the rangers don't care about viruses as much when it comes to collecting fees but the BLM offices are all closed for fear of the virus.

We continued on and drove through Little Egypt. We had the place to ourselves, so we got to enjoy ourselves there except for the heat.

On a whim, we stopped by the Hite Overlook to see Lake Powell. There are a lot of overlooks that are overrated. You can get better views before or after the overlook but because you can't stop there, you have to settle for the views the overlook provides. This was not one of them. It was really beautiful.

There were some other people stopped here but not so many or so obnoxious that you couldn't stay away from them so it wasn't too bad, but again, it was very hot.

We continued on our way down State Route 95 across the bridge that takes you across the Colorado River. We pulled off at a dirt road to have some lunch and decided to explore where the trail takes you. Most of the trail was very well maintained at the beginning and then it seems to just disappear but if you continue farther up the seemingly invisible trail, it cuts into the side of a steep hill and allows you to proceed forward. The trail got a bit precarious at a few points but it basically takes you up to Jacob's Chair.

It was pretty neat but the trail seemed to go on forever. Since we did not want to spend the remainder of our day here and it was excruciatingly hot, we turned back near the top where the trail seemed to get more narrow. Also, while hiking around to scout out the trail, the sole on Christian's boots started to come apart. We have had many Five Ten shoes over the years and although the rubber on their shoes are about the best we've ever used, the glue they use to put it together is just crap. So basically, we were only halfway through our trip and Christian no longer had useable shoes. The only other thing he had was a pair of flip flops that has also seen better days.

We decided that we needed to head into a bigger city in search of an outdoor shop to get him a pair of shoes. On our way, we stopped by the Natural Bridges area and kind of drove through the loop but found out that you could not see much without getting out to hike down. Since it was getting late and Christian did not have any shoes, we did not get to stop to see anything.

We went instead in search of a place to camp. We took a side trail quite a ways away and finally settled on a place to camp. We proceeded to set up camp and have our dinner. Unfortunately, there were some really irritating flies in this spot. After three long days out on the road, we decided sponge baths were also in order. We had been watching the clouds all evening and saw that rain was imminent as we got ready for bed. We woke up to rain so we quickly packed up and headed out.

We headed into Moab in search of a mountain shop to look for Christian's shoes. It was so crowded there. In addition to it being the height of tourist season there, they decided that that was the best time to do some road maintenance to make things extra annoying for us all. We did manage to find a little mountain shop and found some shoes Christian liked. It was still raining on and off all morning so we had to figure out what we wanted to do.

We ended up going to the Canyonlands. There was a line to drive in and you had to pay. A lot of the view was obscured by haze. We decided to come back when we can drive through and see everything properly. We took a side road to take us to the edge and look over.

On the way to the edge we accidentally scraped the bottom of Christian's truck on a rock. We didn't think anything of it at first. But later, we checked underneath and saw that the splash shield over the transmission was hanging down. Apparently the bracket that held it in place got bent.

Christian had to do a bit of trail repair on the truck. His poor truck is a bit worse for all the wear on this trip. Afterwards, we decided to continue on our way towards Colorado. We went back through Moab.

We splurged on some burgers from MacDonald's for lunch. We stopped by to see the Fisher Towers.

Shortly after finally crossing over into Colorado, we pulled over to get some gas. It was still raining quite heavily. The gas station has one of those annoying pumps that blasts commercials, little news blurbs and the weather and stuff. The forecast they gave showed that there would be rain and thunderstorms for at least the next three days. Apparently, the storm system was a lot bigger than we would have thought. We were not equipped for the rain and colder weather all of this would bring to the mountainous area we had intended to go to. We had prepared for hot weather camping and had brought all of our lightest camping equipment. After checking the forecast for all the possible places we could go next, we decided to go up to Wyoming to see the Wind River Range. The forecast said that there was only a 15 percent chance of rain there. We fled through all the rainy parts of Utah, avoiding the worst parts of it only to find that it was worse in Colorado.

We had picked up a 4x4 trail book back in Hanksville, Utah and decided to try a couple of the trails on our way back through just for something different. We decided on this little loop above the highway to Sager Canyon in the Books area. It was actually a pretty neat trail. It would dip in and out through these washes.

We had the place pretty much to ourselves. We found a place to camp for the night. Our four man tent has been feeling a bit tight with the kids mostly grown up. It doesn't help that Christian and I have gained some extra weight in the last several years! We had decided to have one person sleep in the truck while the other three took the tent and we would alternate in the hopes of getting better sleep. It was Emily's turn to sleep in the truck on this day and for some reason, she had to get up to use the restroom at four in the morning. We all woke up to see what was the matter as she never usually has to leave the tent to use the restroom in the middle of the night. Since we were all up and was still just staying ahead of the storm again, we decided to just pack up and continue on our way. It started to sprinkle as we were finishing up, so it was a good thing we didn't let all our gear get too wet.

It was still mostly dark out when we started out. We took the Floyd Wash trail back to the highway. We saw antelope running through the grassy landscape. The trail was quite nice. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked it and was very happy we picked up the book or we would never have known about it.

We were hot and tired and decided that we needed to stop and take a dip in Big Brush Creek in Vernal, Utah. The water was icy but refreshing. It was nice to wash up a bit.

As we neared the border of Wyoming, we stopped by the Flaming Gorge area in Utah to pick up a map of Wyoming as we didn't know where to go and had not planned to be in Wyoming on this trip. We stopped by this stupid fishing/tackle store where they proceeded to scam us out of six bucks for a free tourist map of the Wyoming area. We were already down the road a ways away before we realized it and it wasn't worth turning back. We were getting pretty tired of the heat, not getting enough sleep and having to completely rearrange our plans to avoid the worst of the storms that seemed to be covering at least four states. Of course, we also found out that, of course, there was no rain back in Riverside.

We stopped off at the Flaming Gorge Dam briefly but there were too many tourists there, so we quickly left.

As we drove further into Wyoming, it began to rain once again. In fact, it started to rain really hard and we could barely see in front of us but we saw lightning light up the sky occasionally. It was not a good sign. We stopped in Pinedale to get some real maps. The weather was not good. Pinedale turned out to be a big tourist town and after acquiring some better maps, we headed back out to scout out the trails to the Wind River Range. Most of their roads are not very clearly marked so it was a bit frustrating. To make things worse, many of the roads that are supposed to be public backroads were closed off by the new rich landowners that bought up land near the road and we had to keep driving back out to find another way in.

We basically ran out of daylight at some point and decided that the forecast we got for the area was complete hogwash and we were not equipped to stay up in these mountain areas in a storm any more than we were in Colorado. So we had dinner and had to make new plans once again. We had so much fun in the beginning of our trip, we had talked about extending it but with all the trouble we have had trying to find somewhere to go, we were okay with wrapping up our trip at this point.

We decided to end it by cutting through to Idaho to visit Emily's campus in Rexburg. Leaving Wyoming was a rather harrowing experience. We found out pretty quickly why they had a speed limit during the daytime and a different one for during the night time. The night time speed limit was 10 mph slower because there are deer crossing the roads/freeways everywhere. They are a complete menace there. We came within inches of one of them. We crossed paths with at least 5 or 6 of them trying to get out of Wyoming. We were originally just going to take turns driving as we have been for most of the trip so that we can get rest in between but because it was so dangerous, Christian opted to just drive by himself for this leg of the trip. We kept looking for places to pull over and sleep but there was always somebody already at the available spots or the spots were too close to the freeway and there would be no way to get any real rest. We stopped somewhere over the Teton Pass and Christian finally got in about fifteen minutes of sleep but then got up and continued driving.

In Idaho, we looked for a way into the National Forest but all we found were no trespassing signs by private land owners and roads blocked by the BLM. We finally just pulled over and camped in some field and slept until the sun was well up. Everyone was absolutely exhausted, especially Christian.

The next morning, we woke up late and headed into Rexburg . We found the apartment complex that she put down a deposit on. It is across from campus and near the Temple. It was one of the cheaper options available to her. It seemed okay, but the parking lot has seen better days. They obviously haven't put any work into keeping it up. Hopefully the apartment building is taken care of better! She has to pay just for the semester, so if she doesn't like it there, she can find a spot elsewhere for the next semester.

Afterwards, we drove around the area to find alternative camping possibilities for when we come up and visit her or drop her off. We found a few better options than where we ended up staying last night. Christian wanted her to feel at home there, so we took her out to eat to get familiar with the area. Emily was afraid of not having Chinese food there so we picked out a Chinese restaurant near campus called Fong's. They have Chinese and American cuisine. We did not know what to expect. We were frankly a little wary and did not expect much but we were very pleasantly surprised. The food was moderately priced, especially given the fact that the portions were generous. They didn't serve anything fancy, just a down home type of food that tasted really familiar. We were curious as to where the owner's were from and found out that they are from the very same town in China that my family is from.

We ate way too much. We ordered four entrees but could only finish three and we basically stuffed ourselves to finish the third one. We took a walk around the campus to try to work off some of the food but it was too hot and the buildings are still closed so we could not find a bathroom and ended up having to leave. The campus was absolutely beautiful though from what little we saw. We did not bring our cameras though so I do not have any pictures.

We drove around town a little after using the restroom, got some drinks and stopped by the market to pick up a few supplies. We wanted to know if the potatoes there were fresher or better in any way since they were straight from the source. We didn't think they were very impressive at the market but stopped by a little farmer's stand off the freeway on our way out of town and picked up a ten pound box.

They were good but honestly, not really any different from what you can get locally for a bit cheaper.

After having such a huge lunch, we were not very hungry when dinner rolled around, so the last entree leftover from lunch was shared for dinner and it was plenty. We camped near Scipio Pass in Utah on our way home.

In the morning, we headed back out on the road. We didn't do any more sightseeing. We were pretty much done and just needed to get back home for the most part. We got into St. George around lunchtime. We were supposed to go to this Peruvian Chicken place my brother recommended and we were excited to try it, but when we got there, it was closed except for online/phone orders. They didn't have a menu outside, so we didn't even know what we were supposed to order. Their website wouldn't load on my phone because of security problems so we just left in disgust. It was pretty stupid considering the Five Guys down the street was open for in-door dining! We should have just stopped there instead, but was so fed-up with everything that we just ate some of our camping food and headed back into California.

In California, we took some alternate routes back home as we made good time. I took some pictures for a project I am working on with Christian's dad. We wanted to take some off-road trails back into 29 Palms but found out that they were closed as the marines do all their bombing practice in the hills. Of course the road atlas didn't mention any of that and the warning sign posted was in Spanish! Luckily, we know enough Spanish to get the gist of the message. Christian knows some of the area here and wasn't that surprised about the road closure to the public but we wanted to make sure.

We had dinner in Yucca and got home in good time to clean up before bed. It will be nice to wash up and get a good night's rest in our own beds.

Jumbled July

We started out the month returning to San Diego for Garth's funeral. It was small, short and sweet. Christian's parents each spoke with stories of Garth, as well as Erin. Austin and his fiancé Natalie sang a song. Terry sang one of Garth's favorite songs as well. Christian dedicated Garth's grave. We had to wear masks because there were a few people from Garth's group home there. There was only 6 chairs under a couple of canopies for "social distancing" so all the family just stood to one side to give the group home people room on the other side. In the end, all the speakers and singers had to take their masks off at some point anyway so it was all a bit of a bother.

We were happy to have driven down Terry's Trooper to return it to him though. That was a huge load off our back. It is running really nice though.

We hung out and ate at Erin's house afterwards. Christian's mom was heading back up to Oregon the next day and Erin and her kids were going to go up as well. Michaela was bringing a friend with her. We were originally going to go up at the same time but felt that it was too much. We went home to get some much needed rest and spend the next day packing. We left on Friday for the 14 hour drive up to Oregon.
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We made good time up to Oregon. We arrived in plenty of time for a quick dinner and to look around at their property. The girls were familiar with the house since they spent several weeks her last summer but Christian and I had not seen the house yet.

In the morning, Cheri made us breakfast and we sat around for a while waiting for everyone to get up. We decided to drive out to take a quick look at Terry's property there. Cheri led us there in her Jeep and then left us there to explore. Most of the land was very steep and covered in trees and poison oak so we did not explore much. We drove around looking for one of his Grandparent's old houses.

When we got back, mostly everyone was up and moving. Cheri and Erin took off to reserve a spot at the river. Austin and Natalie put some food together for the day and we were finally off.

The river was extremely crowded. It was the Fourth of July, so it was not pleasant. Music was blasting everywhere. Most of us were dropped off further up the river and we paddled our way down in various canoe/rafts. Christian and I did not speak up and ended up with the worst of the lot and it was difficult to maneuver. We stayed out in the water as much as possible to keep away from most of the crowds.

I got to try most of the toys except for the paddle boards. I was not brave enough to give that a try. Cheri brought this huge six man raft that they bought but never used and we took that further down the river. We did not know what to expect. Most of the river was pretty calm but there was some small rapids supposedly on the way. Truth be told, it was all mostly calm. Some of the other's jumped in and out of the water because it was so hot. Although it was not very exciting, it was the best part of the day at the river as we were finally able to escape some of the noise and most of the people so it was pretty nice.

Austin had driven out earlier to leave his truck at the boat dock but because he was afraid of getting the key fob wet, he ended up giving the keys to Cheri. We realized towards the end that we might not have an easy way of getting back. Luckily, Cheri realized that she had his keys and drove back out there to bring us the keys!

We packed up and left shortly after the rafting group returned. Everyone took turns cleaning up and they prepared to bbq hot dogs and burgers. Mark and Danielle, who did not go to the river, had got things started while we were away.

After dinner, the kids got to light up a bunch of fireworks that Erin had picked up earlier. Our kids have never gotten to really play with fireworks since they were illegal where we live. But since everyone sets them off illegally for months before and months after July normally, we were not overly enthusiastic about them anyway.

Everything was going mostly fine until we got back from the river. Because of some personality issues and family drama with so many people in the house, it had gotten kind of unpleasant. In the end, we decided to leave the next day.  Even the girls were not enjoying themselves nearly as much as last year when they were here mostly by themselves with their cousin Michaela. We spent a long time talking very late with Cheri.

In the morning, she made us breakfast and we packed up to begin our long journey back down to Southern California. Christian woke Mark up to give him a blessing before leaving. He had asked for it before retiring for the evening.

We came back down the long way, taking the 395. It took us longer, but it was overall more pleasant.

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I had forgotten to mention back in June that Caitlyn finally got bored and got up the courage to get her haircut. She actually went with getting some bangs...so that was interesting, except, every time we looked at her with her hair down like that, we didn't hardly recognize her. When she put her hair up in a pony tail, she looked a lot more normal.

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Christian's school district told them that they were re-assigning him to Rialto High School to teach Physics. He's not too happy with that but at least they are keeping him through all of this distance learning fiasco,  We don't know what he's going to be doing this next school year as everything keeps changing weekly. The district didn't think that they would re-open for in class teaching then the state mandated that there needs to be an option for kids to be taught in the class room. Then the governor turned around and started re-closing certain businesses again so we are back to not being able to have an in-class option.

Caitlyn had chosen to return to school in the classroom as well but it will be done in phases depending on the whim of the governor and what he thinks he can get away with. 

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Towards the end of the month, Christian's dad came back up for Christian to look into recharging his air conditioner. It was not working as well as it had been and he wanted to make his first trip up to Oregon since his operation. We were getting ready to go on a real family trip but Christian got the tools and everything to help re-charge his dad's Trooper anyway. In preparation, Christian re-charged Emily's Ranger and that went well but it took a lot of refrigerant. We got some more for Terry but it did not go so well. We think that there is more wrong with his Trooper's a/c system than just being low on refrigerant. It was making some weird noises before he started and there was some strange smells occasionally when we had tested it earlier. But after trying to put in more refrigerant, it just stopped working.  We didn't really know what to do. Christian's dad needed to leave and we had to prepare for our tip, so we just had to leave it at that for now.