Bryce Canyon was a short but sweet stop. We stayed at a place in Hatch Utah for 4 days which is a gorgeous valley with a winding river traveling down the middle. Everything was so green due to the high rains this spring.
We recovered for a few days from the drive, worked, then headed to Bryce for the day.
The Navajo trail has been closed but lucky for us, opened up the night before! So we enjoyed the views of the amphitheater there, and then hiked at the bottom and saw the queens garden, and came up the other “Sunset” point.
Funny story,
As we were hiking down “Wall Street” we heard a group of loud and rowdy kids coming up behind us. We thought if we hurried up, we would stay ahead of them but they were moving fast. They sounded like a group camp out of some sort but both mixed with girls and boy. They kept chanting something about being great and awesome.
Ben and I moved to the side to help them pass, and one of the boys looks at me and says “say the word awesome.” I really didn’t want to so I just looked at Ben.
The kid averted his attention to Ben and asked the same question in which Ben responded: “why?”
The kid says “Just do it, you will like it,” and that is when I chimed back in with “will it make you guys start chanting again?
The kid grinning says “Yes!” and I said, “in that case no…”
The poor kid looked pretty defeated in front of the rest of the group but they didn’t chant anything after that! Peace and quiet for the rest of us! I may have felt a little bad, but only just a little.
We made a few other view point stops, and eventually made our way to the Mossy Cave where we say a waterfall.
We noticed a humming sound coming from the trees as we were walking noticed these bugs. When they moved their wings, it made that buzzing sound. They were all over the trees! One of them decided it liked Ben and decided to catch a ride!
They were harmless… just loud.
Engine Scare On The Road
The next day, we packed everything up and headed to our next national park Arches on the east side of Utah. We headed north for a while, then as we got to Salina, took a right and headed straight east. There is 100 mile stretch between Salina and Green River where we make another turn for Arches.
Ben asked me “Do you smell anything? It smells like something is burning.”
I didn’t smell anything up front but when I went to the back I could for sure smell it! We stopped at the next rest stop and we found a huge puddle of oil under the engine! YIKES!
We checked the oil level and they were dangerously low. We let the engine cool down and put 2 gallons of oil back in the tank. We kept driving and everything sounded fine but Ben wanted to check the oil levels about 20 minutes later. Good thing we stopped because those 2 gallons had already drained out!
So there we were, right in the middle of Salina and Green River, not really sure what to do. Luckily we have good insurance with Progressive and they could tow us up to 60 miles somewhere. We found a freight liner back in Salina that was 55 miles away! YAY! Totally lucked out!
So the tow guy came and a few hours later we were parked at the Freight Liner in Salina next to a post with an electrical outlet.
Because it was a Saturday, we had to wait until Monday to chat with anyone and by Monday afternoon we found out what was wrong.
A brass tubbing burst and that was leaking the oil. Luckily, the part only cost $3.50, but the labor was about 100 times that. Oh well, we got some good advice about the other parts that we thought needed repairs.
As they were wrapping up, we went to get a bite to eat at Dennys to figure out what we wanted to do. Our RV could make it to Arches and up to SLC, however, I think we were a little “funned out” and needed some time away from the RV. We decided to head to SLC and stay with family longer. It’s been a much-needed break and we are enjoying everyone’s company.
We even surprised my nieces at a baseball game! I love these little nuggets so much.
We parked the RV at a friends house, and are staying with my Dad. Will update in a few weeks but for now we will be enjoying family time and enjoying the extra room.
Leave a Reply