PRICE UTAH TO CAPITAL REEF NATIONAL PARK…..WHAT A BEAUTIFUL PLACE

THIS IS FRIDAY’S POST which I am publishing from the Subway parking lot in Torrey Utah:))

THIS IS THE VIEW DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM CAPITAL REEF NATIONAL PARK VISITORS CENTER

Picked the Jeep up at PRICE CHRYSLER DODGE about 10 a.m. & drove it to Sutherland’s parking lot where we had the Motorhome parked.  Didn’t take me long to get all the towing gear hooked back up & we were soon on the road heading south out of Price Utah & oh what a welcome sunny day we had going on.  Sunshine is so therapeutic.

SOUTHBOUND ON HIGHWAY 191 THIS MORNING

KELLY TALKING TO AUNT JEAN WAY DOWN THERE IN THAT FLORIDA PLACE

GOTTA LOVE THESE LOW TRAFFIC HIGHWAYS OUT HERE IN THE WEST

Heading for I-70 we enjoyed all the scenery we had missed Thursday night heading the other way in the dark.  Traffic of course was light & it felt like such a nice day as Thursdays stress slowly began to drain away.  Aunt Jean from Sarasota Florida phoned to see how we were.  Reached I-70 around 11, hung a right for about 6 miles then swung off down highway 24 in the direction of Utah’s CAPITAL REEF NATIONAL PARK.  Passed Goblin Valley Road where one of those mischievous little Goblins had played a rascally trick & jinxed us less than 24 hours before.

SO THAT’S WHERE THEY BURIED ALFRED HITCHCOCK

I AM AT HOME IN THE WEST BECAUSE THE VIEWS JUST GO ON FOREVER & EVER

We were now in the land I had been longing so much to see once more.  Here again were my mountains, valleys, mesas, plateaus, canyons & rivers.  Here were the golden Aspen, Sycamore, & Cottonwood trees & here again was Utah’s red clay soil sweeping the landscape.  And yet here again were the the ‘WOW’ factors I continuously seek with todays sunshine masterfully drawing out centuries of color from age old giant rock formations.  Just feeling so great to be back in the good old American South-west again:))

KELLY SNAPS A FEW PHOTOS WITH HER BLACKBERRY

THESE STEEL POSTS IN THE GROUND ARE EXPLAINED IN THE NEXT PHOTO

HERE’S A CLEVER WAY TO SEE SPECIFIC MOUNTAINS BY LOOKING THROUGH THE SMALL ROUND TUBE ATOP EACH PIPE & THERE WERE PROBABLY 10 PIPES HERE

CAN YOU FIND KELLY IN THIS PHOTO…..BOTTOM CENTER:))

HEADING TOWARDS THE HENRY MOUNTAINS

We rolled through Hanksville heading for CAPITAL REEF’S Visitor Center & Fruita campground some 37 miles west.  Hanksville is typical of so many dusty little western settlements we have seen over the years & it is places like Hanksville where one can still catch a sense of the old West.

SLIPPING DOWN INTO HANKSVILLE

We’ve driven many winding awe inspiring roads & just when you think you’ve seen the nicest one you will ever see another one comes along & blows your socks off & so it was with the drive between Hanksville & the Capital Reef Visitor Center.  We had totally lucked out with the weather & we’re no doubt here at the prettiest time of year with all the colorful Autumn leaves & those two things combined to make this drive even more spectacular than it already is. 

I have flown over the Fruita campground a number of times with Google Earth looking at things & how rewarding today to be actually here seeing everything for real.  Capital Reef had been on my list of places to see for a long time & it’s even more awe inspiring than I imagined.  And here’s how Capital Reef got it’s name……"Capital Dome can be seen looking East from the Hickman Bridge trailhead along highway 24.  This Navajo sandstone structure was named for it’s resemblance to the U.S. Capitol.  This Dome along with the nearly 100 mile Waterpocket Fold (a barrier of rock that obstructed early travelers like a barrier ‘reef’) inspired the Park’s name.”

NOTICE HOW THE VISITOR’S CENTER BLENDS RIGHT IN WITH IT’S SURROUNDINGS

OFF TO THE CAMPGROUND WE GO

Although we only have a couple days here before bad weather sets in these few days will give us a good idea as to what the area has to offer.  It’s a scouting mission for us should we decide to return here sometime in the future.  Never know where our wandering ways may take us over the next few years.  Although not big campground people I would have to say this Fruita campground here at Capital Reef is no doubt one of the nicest one’s we have ever been in.  And how nice to have Mule Deer & wild Turkeys walking through the campsite.

HEADING TO OUR CAMPSITE FROM THE VISITOR CENTER

JUST LOVE ALL THESE BIG OLD COTTONWOOD TREES

ENTRANCE TO OUR CAMPGROUND AT LOOP C

WE ARE NICELY NESTLED INTO OUR SPOT

Around 4 this afternoon while enjoying our beautiful Autumn day I thought what a contrast in feelings from just a short 24 hours before when we were gloomily sitting in our rig awaiting a tow truck.  A gray overcast matching our mood drizzled a slow rain upon us as we contemplated cancelling the remaining couple days & just heading for Congress Arizona.  Fortunately we were able to overcome that thought & put it where it belonged…..behind us. 

FROM MY RECLINER THIS IS THE VIEW OUT MY SIDE WINDOW

FINALLY AFTER A LONG STRENUOUS JOURNEY IT’S TIME TO TILT BACK & SOAK UP SOME WARM SUNSHINE:))

Because we were both soooooo tired from our week long journey & Thursdays Jeep incident we decided to just grab us a spot in the campground here & de-stress for awhile.  And what a beautiful campground this is with all it’s trees & surrounding rock formations.  Reminded me of another nice campground near Portal New Mexico in the Cave Creek area on the eastern side of the Chiricahua Mountains.  Oh so many great places with oh so many great memories.  We have been so fortunate.  And tonight we even sat out with a campfire under a canopy of leaves & stars.

WE ARE SURE ENJOYING OUR CLOSE-BY NEIGHBORS

In the morning we’ll be up early & out the door to first check out some boondocking sites with the Jeep in the area.  If we find something we like & it’s not too far we may very well move Saturday.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.  There is no Verizon signal here in the campground but we did hear there is some Verizon coverage on high ground about 6 miles west of the campground so I’ll take my laptop along in the morning & see if I can publish this post.

SCROUNGING SOME FIREWOOD

CAMPFIRES HAVE A WAY OF BRINGING OUT PEOPLE’S DEEPEST THOUGHTS

 

CAN YOU SEE THE DEVIL’S FACE IN THE CAMPFIRE

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Father to Son, “Hey, I’ve told you a hundred million times not to exaggerate”!!

QUICK UPDATE FROM PRICE UTAH

First a quick re-cap of Thursday.  It was somewhere around 8 a.m. when we rolled out of Meeker Colorado under cloudy skies.  Nice drive enjoying the morning scenery all the way to Rifle Colorado.  Lots of twists & turns on the sometimes narrow road between Meeker & Rifle.  Kelly had forgot a few things at Walmart Wednesday so in Grand Junction Colorado we temporarily got ourselves a little lost looking for one.  Back on I-80 & after checking weather reports ahead we decided not to head for Moab but by-pass it & motor on through Green River to GOBLIN VALLEY STATE PARK about 40 miles south of the Interstate.  Goblin was right on our way to Capital Reef anyway.

ARE WE SOON GONNA BE SOMEWHERE WARMER MOM & DA

We knew of some boondocking spots just off Goblin Valley Road but took a wrong turn & ended up at the gate to the camping area.  Large turn around paved parking lot so I pulled the rig over to the right & shut it down.  Plan was for me to un-hook the Jeep while Kelly went inside the Visitor Center to see if they knew where the boondocking spots outside of the Park were located.  I walked back to the Jeep & turned the key ‘off’ from it’s straight up driving/towing position in the ignition.  Walked back to Jeep to begin un-hooking.  Then I made a mistake by interrupting my un-hooking routine.  Decided to take photo of the rig & Jeep first & that’s the photo below.  As I’m walking back to the Jeep to begin un-hooking Kelly walked out of the Visitor Center saying, ‘hey we don’t have to un-hook yet.’  We then had a little disagreement about whether to let Pheebe out right there at the Visitor Center or wait till we found a boon docking spot later.  And it was this short conversation that totally took my mind of what I was doing & it is exactly the same type of disruption in one’s thought process I have blogged about several time before in my posts.  More about that later but in the meantime ‘remember that ignition key I had turned off?  Yep you can see what is about to happen.  We climbed into the Motorhome & I made a wide sweeping U-turn to the left & just started to step on the gas to head on down the road when the rig felt sluggish to me as if we were dragging something.  And dragging something we were…..the Jeep.  With the key improperly aligned in the ignition the wheels could not straighten out & were being dragged.  I instantly new what had happened & stopped the Motorhome.  Luckily we had only gone about 300 feet.  But that 300 feet was enough.  The key in the ignition would not start the Jeep because something was jammed.  Front wheels were askew & because we had started down a slight grade the the hitch pins were totally unmovable with all the pressure on them.  We were stuck in place & could go no further.

I can’t even begin to tell you how we were feeling at this point & I felt just sick inside at my mistake.  Felt I had just totally ruined our entire trip & also knew we could be looking at thousands of dollars in repairs depending on the extent of the damage.  The ignition, the steering column, are the wheels bent??  Of course I imagined the worst of everything.  We had no cell phone or internet service.  While Kelly walked back a couple hundred yards to the Visitor Center to see if they had a phone I set about trying to get the ‘jammed’ Jeep un-hooked from the rig.  I even tried jacking the front end of the Jeep up to level out the hitch but no luck, those pins were not budging.  Managed to get the main pin out out of the hitch itself & figured by doing that I could just drive forward & at least separate the Jeep & hitch from the rig.  Nope, that didn’t work either. 

ENTERING RIFLE COLORADO FROM THE NORTH

Meanwhile back in the Visitor Center Kelly using the Parks ifffy satellite phone was able to contact our road-side service provider, COACHNET.  Or I should say the Park Ranger  was able to get the call through.  This fella’s name was Jim & he was soooooo helpful in making calls & looking up addresses for us.  He was able to help Kelly contact Coachnet as well as a mechanic in Green River & the Chrysler/Jeep dealer in Price Utah.  The fella in Green River said our problem was not something he was equipped to deal with so it was decided to have the Jeep taken to Price.  Coachnet called back to say a tow truck would be dispatched from Price shortly.  Price was a hundred miles away.  Kelly said the dispatcher at Coachnet was very helpful & calming.  Twice they called back on the Park’s satellite phone to give us a tow truck update & twice Jim the helpful ranger walked out to our Motorhome to give us the message.

Kelly made supper but neither one of us had much of an appetite for anything & I added to my own misery by beating myself up pretty bad for making a ‘key’ mistake in the first place.  I think it was somewhere shortly after 6 p.m. when we saw a AJ's Tow Truck winding it’s way along Goblin Valley road toward us.  It had been around 3:30 when our ‘incident’ had occurred.  I had figured correctly that a tow truck driver would have a lot more smarts than me when it came to getting the jammed Jeep unhooked from the Motorhome.  And more smarts this young fella certainly did have.  He had me do one simple thing which I had actually thought of earlier but afraid I might cause more damage.  He had me put the Motorhome in reverse & back up slightly therefore easing the pressure on the two hitch pins.  Before I even got out the side door of the rig he had the hitch off & totally disconnected already.  The Jeep was free.  WHAT!!!!  He then got into the Jeep & started it & WHAT again!!!!  It had been jammed before but he said that normally happens in a case like this & all he did was turn the steering back & forth to unjam it.  With that he engaged the crankcase, put the Jeep in reverse & backed up.  Another WHAT!!!!  How could everything possibly be working when I had just spent 3 hours convincing myself of the worst.  He as well as we figured it would still be a good idea to have the Jeep taken to a dealership to be checked over anyway in case of possible hidden damage or wheel alignment problems.  With that he drove the Jeep across the parking lot & aligned it with his tow truck & proceeded to load it up.  Did I mention it had started raining by this time.

SITTING IN THE RIG WAITING FOR THE TOW TRUCK….THE WEATHER MATCHED OUR MOOD

Light was fading as we followed the tow truck about 40 miles back up to I-70 then headed east towards Green River.  Tow truck driver had said he was low on fuel & would head into Green River to tank up & we were to just go ahead & drive to the Chrysler dealership in Price Utah.  And that’s what we did.  We were so tired & the night seemed so dark as we steadily pushed north up & down many grades with many of them long & steep enough to have their own passing lanes.  I was so glad to finally see the lights of Price ahead.  Think it was somewhere just before 8 when we rolled into town.  Garmin Gertie our GPS led us to the wrong address & we had to stop at an ice cream place on the main street to ask where the Chrysler dealership was.  Turned out it was located just a few blocks south.  Found it & pulled in but no Jeep or tow truck driver there.  We waited, & waited, & waited.  Walked all around the lot looking for the Jeep.  Tried phoning the towing company but no answer.  We knew the towing company was just down the street so I walked down to see if the Jeep had been taken there.  All closed up & nobody around. 

Had been about 40 minutes now & still no Jeep or tow truck.  Walking back to the rig I spotted a police car patrolling a commercial parking lot.  When the cruiser stopped I headed in it’s direction across the parking lot.  Being night time in a deserted lot & with the recent shootings & nervousness not only in police officers but the public as well I made sure not to approach the cruiser with my hands in pockets.  I’ve watched enough of the ‘Cops’ TV show to know what to do & what not to do.  Worried about where our Jeep was I figured I would ask the officer if there had been an accident or anything south of Price.  Really nice fella in the cruiser & I also made sure not to come right up to the cruiser posing myself as a threat.  A couple minutes later after explaining our situation he knew I wasn’t a threat & got on his radio to dispatch to see if they could contact AJ’s Towing about the whereabouts of our Jeep.  Just as he was doing this he pointed behind me & said “do you know that dog.”  Turning around I saw Pheebs racing towards me about 300 mph with Kelly further back headed our way.  She had found the Jeep.  Turns out the tow truck driver had already been to the dealership & unloaded the Jeep behind the dealership where we had failed to find it in our previous search . Kelly & Pheebs had decided to have another look & that’s when they found it.

The Police Officer was really nice & when Kelly inquired about us overnighting in the very lot we were standing in the Officer said sure he didn’t think it would be a problem & besides he knew the store manager anyway.  So, that’s what we did.  Walked back to the dealership next door, retrieved the rig & brought it over to SUTHERLANDS HOME IMPROVEMENT & BUILDING SUPPLIES & shut er down for the night.  What a past 6 hours it had been.  We’ll be glad to reach Congress early next week, close the the gate behind us, lock the door , pull the curtains, & totally de-stress for a couple days.

In conclusion let me some up some thoughts about our incident Thursday.  It was a case of 1 bad thing happening then a bunch of good things happening.  Bad thing of course was the mistake but here’s the good stuff.  Although this happened in place with no internet or cell phone service it did happed just a couple hundred yards from a place with a satellite phone.  The 2 Rangers at the Park’s Visitor center were very helpful & especially Jim in putting us in contact with the people we needed to be in contact with.  Coachnet was helpful & courteous on the phone.  Impressed with the young friendly tow truck driver who was able to detach Libby from the Big EEE in a matter of seconds.  And a nice police officer checking to see where our Jeep might be.  Like I said, one bad happening followed by a good bunch of happenings:))

THIS IS WHERE LIBBY SPENT THE NIGHT

OKay that brings me up to today.  I wrote the above Thursday re-cap about 6 a.m. this morning & happy to say we woke up under clear sunny skies.  Re-positioned the rig out of the way in Sutherland’s parking lot & walked over to the Jeep dealer at 8 o’clock.  Checked in with the service department & luckily they had a cancellation for 8 so took it right in.  We walked back to the rig & awaited the good or bad news about our Jeep.

WE SPENT THE NIGHT RIGHT ABOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS BIG PARKING LOT

It was 9:40 when our cell phone rang.  It was the Jeep dealership next door saying they checked the Jeep out & everything appeared fine & no damage.  Started OK & no pulling when they drove it.  That was good news for sure & here’s the second chunk of good news……………no charge for checking out the Jeep.  A great big Paul Bunyan two thumbs up for AUTO FARM the Chrysler/Jeep dealership in Price Utah.  A big thank you folks:)))))

QUICK UPDATE::  We are heading back to Capital Reef & if you don’t hear from us for a couple days it is because we do not have an internet connection…………….Thanks for all the concerned comments & a special thanks to Chinle from SPOTTED DOG RANCH for her helpful email:))

------

No time for Groaner’s Corner……gotta get the Jeep hooked up.