gigglefern

This morning finds us with no cell phone signal but we’ll call when we have one again.

We’re camped at the Navajo National Monument in northern Arizona. We’re in the middle of the Navajo reservation so not a lot of services and one of our trailer tires picked up a screw and is leaking air. We discovered the leak while trying to fuel up at a station that turned out to be closed due to a power outage. The UPS driver who was trying to make a delivery to them told us about a guy down the road to the Monument that fixes tires. Reluctant to take the trailer down an unknown dirt drive in the middle of a reservation, we drove to the campground, unhitched and went back. The driveway turned out to be about 3/4 of a mile long through beautiful and strange (to my eyes) terrain, ending at a home with multiple dogs laying outside. We sat in the truck until a man came out of the house and then told him of our need for tire repair. A man of few words (at least with us), he asked if we wanted him to come to the campground to fix the tire. We took this generous offer to be a polite negotiation and countered with an offer to bring the trailer back to him in the morning. That’s the current plan and it will be an adventure in its own right.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Grayson decided to spend today wandering somewhere … we don’t know where … and we were distraught. Last seen about 9 am, he was gone for 11 hours; the National Park Rangers as well as the entire campground were on alert. The microchip registry folks were notified and our cell phone outgoing messages updated. Did any of that matter? Maybe on some level Grayson felt the vibe and knew how much we wanted him to come home but in any other respect, no, it didn’t. As darkness began to fall … Grayson’s favorite time to prowl … we went calling again. While telling the tale of our missing cat to some newly-moved-in campers (who happen to be putting in tomorrow for 25 days on The River), he just showed up at our feet. We’re still processing the relief!

“Here” is Lee’s Ferry Campground overlooking the confluence of the Paria River with the Colorado. It is the put-in for the Grand Canyon whitewater run and it is beautiful. We were planning to explore today but instead we worried. Steve did take a hike along the river and I scrambled up a dry wash calling the cat but the enjoyment factor was missing.

Tomorrow the cat stays locked inside and we get to play!

… and we had a glorious paddle on Quail Reservoir this morning before heading off to Zion National Park. Mike and Westi left this morning to join us. Lucky us though… we’re only a half hour from Zion so our travels are short. We spent the last two nights here, outside St. George, Utah. It’s lucky we were so close to a city since Ginger got sick and needed to go to the vet. It turned out to be a bladder infection and something else we’re not sure of … maybe a side effect of her heart meds or maybe she ate something she shouldn’t have. At any rate, she seems to be on the road to recovery today.

Being out on the water was blissful. The water was serene, the views outstanding, and the bird watching was fun too. I didn’t expect to see loons in southern Utah but there they were, in the middle of flocks of eared grebes (life birds for us), western grebes, buffleheads, golden eyes and mergansers. Oh, and with the requisite osprey flying above and the lovely song of a canyon wren serenading from the shore. I took pictures but haven’t done anything with them yet. The same is true for the three days before that spent on BLM land in the Nevada desert, in a place called Whitney Pockets. It was beautiful in a way that photographs (at least mine) can’t begin to capture.

Everywhere has been wonderful … except for the wind. It wasn’t windy in Pahrump, and it wasn’t windy in the Bakersfield Camping World parking lot. Other than that, this morning was the first break from wind we have had. As I said, it was blissful.

… but now we are.

Pahrump, Nevada is an hour outside of Las Vegas and we weren’t going to go there. We just left Tecopa Hot Springs (that post was supposed to be next but it will have to wait now) and we took a short cut to Vegas rather than going through Pahrump. So, when the “check engine” light came on again, and we lost power, we found ourselves in the middle of the Mojave Desert, 80 miles and a mountain pass away from Vegas, with no cell signal.

We’re handling it well so far. We pulled off the road and I checked to see if I could get an internet connection. Yep!! I’m thinking… I’ll email everyone I know and have the first person to respond (we were laying odds on it being Kim) call a tow truck for us. We’ve got water, food, internet … everything we need. If we have to spend the weekend out out here, we’ll be fine. While I’m thinking this, a nice man and (I’m guessing) his son, stop to check on us. They’re from Vegas and they know something about diesel trucks. They suspect a vacuum leak from the turbo charger and they suggest we limp our way to Pahrump.

We didn’t have to limp as, when we started up again, the engine had normal power. Now we are in Pahrump and, as I type, the Chevy dealer is running diagnostics. Will they be able to fix it? Will we spend the weekend in Pahrump? Tune in next time for the answer to this, and other, scintillating questions!