Balloons, Angels, and The Virgin

Now that we have your attention..... We thought we should update everyone at home on what we have been up to since arriving in Panguitch.

The first weekend we arrived the town of Panguitch (including our campground) was full of people eagerly anticipating  a large balloon festival.  Interestingly, we found that bikers, the kind that travel to Sturgis every year on their Harleys, also travel throughout the west to see hot air balloons take off.

Eagerly anticipating the launch of these balloons, we dragged ourselves out of bed early in the morning on Friday, and walked about 3/4 of a mile to the launch field. Too windy. No balloons. No problem....we will try again tomorrow.

Repeat the early rising, and don our road racing clothes to see if we can fit in a 5K road race. Drive to the field this time, see some balloons beginning to inflate and decide to skip the race to see balloons.  We'll run dozens of road races in the future, but how many balloon launches will we see?   Walk in and hear that they are just inflating, not launching, still too windy.

 Plan B...run the road race. Back in the car, drive to the high school for the race. We met the local cross-country team coach, and were glad the proceeds from the race were going to support the team. Glen found out that they meet at the high school to run each morning at 7:00 a.m. and is invited to run with them anytime. (So is Terry, but she is too chicken until Glen scouts out the team and sees if there are any slow runners) Small races are fun, and we both left with age group medals.  Altitude isn't fun to race in. 

We did some socializing with our fellow campground workers and some people we have met in the campground. Glen made some dessert in the dutch oven, and it was a big hit. That evening, the town shut down the main street for "Balloon Glow". The hot air balloons inflate in the dark, and then pulse the flames at times, making the balloons glow. There were some live bands, lots of glow-in-the-dark toys and jewelry, cotton candy, adult beverages, and more. It was a really unique kind of a street festival.  Glen fought off the urge to join in the karaoke contest.

Would the third early morning be the charm? We decided to give it one last shot at seeing balloons launched. Got up,drove over, waited a bit, saw two balloons inflating, waited some more, and saw no other action. We decided to drive back to the campground and get some more sleep, figuring nothing else was happening. As it turned out, they did launch a few, but didn't go far because winds were coming in soon. It would have been nice to see 35 or so balloons launch and fly, but the weather just didn't cooperate.

 After the big balloon festival, things calmed down a bit in the campground, and we had five days off! Planning to take advantage of it, we decided to head to Zion National Park. We have visited here three times before, but it is one of our favorite places, and there were things left undone.

One of the most famous hikes in Zion is called the Angels Landing Trail. It climbs from the canyon floor to the rim and the last 3/4 of a mile is on a very narrow ridge trail. It has chains to hold so you supposedly won't fall over 1400 feet to the canyon floor. (Although there have been 6 deaths here since 2004) There are warning signs everywhere telling you not to do this trail if it is windy, during thunderstorms, or if it is covered in snow and ice. (DUH!)

For information junkies (like one of us) here is a link to more information on the trail.
Angels Landing Trail

We had previously hiked with our big backpacks and spent the night on Plateau Point with the intent of hiking up Angels Landing on our return to the canyon floor. That time, we only made it to Scout's Lookout before deciding not to continue that last 3/4 mile on Angels Landing because of crowds, fatigue, and generally chickening out.

This time, we got up at 5:15 in order to beat the predicted 103 degree temperature, and were some of the first people on the trail. We climbed up the trail on some switchbacks called "Walter's Wiggles" after the man who designed and built them. Dropping Glen's big pack at Scout's Lookout (more on that later) we took Terry's small pack for water and continued on Angels Landing and the first section of chains before we could think about it too much.

All of the literature on this hike contains the warning "don't attempt if you have a fear of heights."  In spite of these warnings, we started out onto the ridge.  I guess the warnings were trumped by an old Brewer saying:  "You can always tell a Holyoke, but you can't tell em much." 

It was a bit windy, but it wasn't crowded. We were able to take our time, and focus on the trail. When we stopped, we could look at the view...a little. We both faced some fears along the way. (Terry fears losing her footing and falling,thus walks like a ninety-year-old woman afraid of breaking a bone. Glen fears heights and is afraid of freezing up,thus wants to walk faster than Terry).  Glen put up with the pace on the way out, but on the way back he looked at Terry and said "I'll see you when we get finished", and charged back down the ridge.

Completing this hike put us both in a very happy and proud mood. We headed back to Scout's Lookout and anticipated eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a location where there is enough clifftop to relax and not worry about falling off.

Remember the part about dropping Glen's big pack at Scout's Lookout before tackling the narrow part of the trail? Well, evidently squirrels like that tendency of hikers. While we were gone, a squirrel decided to eat his(or her) way into the pack in search of treats. In so doing, it chose to chew up the places where the zippers meet to keep the pockets closed. Some fellow hikers chased it away, but too late to save the pack. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was fine, however. We ate, figured out a way to jury-rig the pack closed for the return hike, and cursed squirrels.

Take a moment and inject some of Glen's attitude into the situation here.  A squirrel, trying to eat OUR food, managed to find the way to do the most possible damage to the backpack.  The hikers who chased it away were helpful, but they also had those young kid smirks on their faces, the ones that say "I wish something like that would happen to MY dad some day, now THAT would be pay back."  You know the look.

The hike down was nice, and we shared a sense of accomplishment. It was fun to greet the hikers coming up, and because there were so many of them, we were extra happy that we started early. The chains and skinny trail would not have been so fun with all those people on them. And we beat the heat!

After stopping for an ice cream at Zion Lodge, we went back to the campground where we were tenting for a few nights, and rested with our feet in the river. We read books and stayed in the shade for most of the day.

Treating ourselves to dinner at "The Spotted Dog" was fun. We had eaten there once on a previous visit to Zion, and remembered it fondly. It didn't disappoint....Glen had wild meatloaf made from bison and elk meat, while Terry had a homemade pasta filled with pear and ricotta cheese. Fine dining, that you can do in casual hiking attire. Not fussy..just fabulous.

The campground we stayed in was on the banks of the Virgin River. There is an outdoor adventure company across the street where you can rent tubes, float down the river, and they will pick you up downstream and bus you back. Our campsite happened to be two sites away from the river access, so we got to see a steady stream of people heading out on their raft adventures. Many people have interesting ideas of what they should wear for bathing suits...and no idea of campground etiquette. They would walk directly on our site, between us and the picnic table, bring a camera, holler to their children playing in the river, and never acknowledge we were there.  Glen wondered what would happen if he walked over to their r.v. sites and trooped around their picnic table a time or two. 

 One of the best conversations we overheard in our time near the river went like this:

 "MOM! DAD! We found a watermelon! It was just laying in the river! Can we keep it? Come see!"

 "What? You found a what in the river?"

 "A watermelon! It must have just grown there? Can we have it?"

 Now, having placed a few watermelons in the lake over the years, and "enhancing" a few watermelon before placing them in said lake, we surely hope the parents said no. Our evil selves might have thought about what would happen if they decided to steal someone else's watermelon and fed it to the kids....

The Virgin River is the site for another of Zion's most famous hikes. The trail is called "The Narrows" and is actually in the river. For more information, click the link.
The Narrows

The canyon walls stretch thousands of feet above you on either side, and it winds around giving you limited views of the sky. The sandstone changes colors from orange to brown, to white, and back. It is like being in the bottom of a giant's sand art bottle. If the river levels are too high, or there is any threat of rain in the area, you shouldn't do this hike. There is no way out if a flash flood comes roaring down the canyon. Fortunately, water levels are low right now, and the deepest part we were in was just over waist high.

 On our two previous trips, we had never made it as far upstream as the actual "narrows", and we wouldn't this time either. That part is close to the trailhead, many miles upstream. We didn't have a permit, or the desire to camp out overnight on this walk. We walked upstream for two hours,  and found a great little picnic spot. Then, we walked downstream for two hours. That kind of a hike uses muscles we didn't know we even had. Thank goodness for hiking poles. (Terry still fell in once...and not gracefully) Rocks are slippery when wet.

 It's always interesting to people-watch on this hike.  Hundreds of people per day start the hike, many of them in flip-flops and whatever clothing they'd worn to the park.  EVERY step you take in the water is a challenge, and a couple of hundred yards into the hike there is a section of belly to chest deep water that you have to walk through -- there's no way around it.  That's the section that usually sorts out the real hikers from the "I heard that it's a cool hike" wannabees. 

 After three days of temperatures hovering just over 100, and tenting out sleeping in our backpacking tent on the ground, we opted to leave in the late afternoon and drive back to Panguitch. The RV felt like a castle. Air conditioning, and a Queen sized bed!

Today we washed the car, did the laundry, updated this blog, and are planning the next Dutch oven get together for Saturday. We are doing chili and dessert, others are bringing cornbread, and we are looking forward to sharing a nice evening with friends. We must have done something right, because the campground owners bought us some pie filling, cake mixes, and chocolate chips to keep the desserts coming!  The bag of chocolate chips weighs almost 5 pounds, so unless Terry goes crazy on the next dessert, we've got a lot of Dutch oven treats ahead of us.

Musings From the Road

2966 miles on the road will do funny things to you. After only a few miles, you start letting your mind wander and take great pleasure in small things you see out the window. On our cross-country adventure, we decided to collect some of these random thoughts and sights to share with those of you traveling vicariously with us.

First off, it may help you to know our route.
As you can see, it is a rural route for most of the trip---even if it does travel on Interstate highways.  We plan to take a different route back, as we won't be meeting up with friends in Colorado on the way home. This route avoids most major cities, and ALL of the east coast toll highways. We paid only an $11.00 toll on the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie.

This route allowed for much animal watching. Paul and Kyle...we kept the cow streak alive. (For those who don't know, on our first cross country trip it became a game to see who could find cows first each day. We NEVER have had a travel day where we didn't find cows in any trip across the country.) Here is the animal count for this trip (minus the little squished ones we didn't count, and domestic cows, horses, etc.)

1 eagle
2 herons
5 deer
1 large turtle
1 baby bunny
1 coyote
3 donkeys
1 marmot
3 birds that flew into our camper and died (including a large crow in the upper peninsula of Michigan)
1 eagle eating a deer carcass
1 dead moose
5 dead deer
1 dead badger

We crossed the Mississippi River in Ontario. Yes, we know. There must be more than one Mississippi River. We could have gone swimming in Tea Lake or even Ink Lake. And that led us to look at the town names as we went through them. We went through many towns that shared names with Maine towns, including Madawaska.  But some names were so unique that we imagine they are one-of-a kind. We traveled through Germfask, MI (held our breath). We could have taken an exit to No Name, CO. But some of our favorites were in Nebraska. Anyone want to live in Wahoo, NE?  Wouldn't it be fun when someone asked you where you were from? You could shout out, "Wahoo!"  Or, you could live in Worms, NE. That could also stimulate some interesting conversation....

We listened to random radio stations from all over the country and played over 500 songs on the ipod. Our sing-along skills are all honed up now, so we will be all set if we see a karaoke contest in the area.  Come to think of it, there IS a karaoke contest in town this coming weekend.

Billboards and advertisements provided another form of entertainment. Besides being the focal point for playing the alphabet game....which lasted from the middle of Nebraska until about 60 miles from our campground in Utah.....Darn Q and Z....they also were quite amusing at times. We found out that Renfrew, Ontario was the birthplace of the NHA/NHL.  One for a butcher shop (we think) in Minnesota had the slogan, "You Never Sausage A Place". One was advertising Dick Farms..... (we didn't stop).  And a billboard for some brand of motorcycle encouraged you to "Throw Your Leg Over An Italian in Sudbury".   This particular billboard also pictured a very attractive young lady, who we can assume is making the aforementioned statement.  Maybe it is good that Maine doesn't have billboards.

While driving and seeing sights, we want you to know that many of you were in our thoughts as well. We know we will leave most of you out, so if you don't see your name listed, you can imagine we thought of you as well. It is PROBABLY true! No pouting allowed.


Carl- We kept passing and getting passed by the big tractor trailers hauling support crew for Nascar

Vaughn- We needed you to tell us about the crops we were passing. And we knew which sections of mountain roads you would have needed to close your eyes on. 

Kyle, Emily, and Celia- We passed a shop that made tipis just after we passed a shop that made life-sized metal horse sculptures. We figured we could be the grandparents of the century if we had a horse and a tipi in the backyard! (But we didn't stop)

David B.-The Canadian sign for information will forever make me say, "Information, HUH?" when I see it.

Paul- Dad commented every time we went through interesting rock formations that he needed you around to tell him about them. Mom said you would have been under the table playing video games and not seen any of them.

Martha and Ed- We kept thinking about our trip to Niagara with you and how Dad really liked the campground with the waterfalls. We are hoping to be able to have an opportunity sometime to travel with you and your new fifth wheel. We checked out all kinds of rvs on our way out. Fun to compare them.

Georgia- We wanted to bring you a metal horse sculpture, too. (Sorry, too big) You'll just have to be happy with your riding lessons. Have fun.

Janet- The billboards were for you. :)

John- The wildlife count was for you. Especially the squished ones.

Marge- Every time we stopped for lunch or supper on the road and ate in the camper, we remembered our trip to PEI where you agreed to camp....but only if we ate out. No cooking allowed. Some meals we were really wishing you were here to enforce that rule. :) Cold sandwiches lost their allure really quickly, but ONE of us didn't want to waste any time sitting down for a real meal.

Alyssa, Ryan, Ashleigh, Jenna, Tyler, Matthew, David G., Naomi, Katie, Jenny, Karen, Gordon, Mackie, Linda, Jon, Amy, Lori, Denise, Kevin....sorry. No specifics come to mind right now. But we love you all.


We managed to plan one of our longest travel days when the west was having a record heat day. Picture the air conditioner in your car trying to cool off a 30 foot rv. Then make the temperature over 100 degrees. (109 was the hottest point) Picture us melting in the seats, drinking bottle after bottle of water and Gatorade. Then ask us why we didn't just run the generator and turn on the big rooftop air conditioner. Well.....when we FINALLY thought of it, we did. And it worked for about 30 minutes. Then stopped. Generator flashed error messages. We melted again. Only after reading several manuals did we figure out that we needed to turn the circuit breaker for the AC off and on again, even though it wasn't actually tripped. Some strange mechanical reason why.... would have been nice to know it before we melted. Ah....those lessons learned the hard way tend to stick though, so maybe it was meant to happen.

We really enjoyed meeting up with Doug and Kirsten Thompson,  Kirsten's sister Megan, and Megan's husband Tom. We connected with them in Grand Junction, CO and went out for breakfast and a quick chance to catch up. We shared some laughs, some hugs, and some well-wishes. We are really glad we had a chance to catch them while they were home in the USA. Friendships make the world a better place to be.

Today we are settled in our new campground home, meeting our fellow workers and the owners, and getting the local procedures learned. We went grocery shopping, and are doing laundry. We will find out later what the schedule will look like and when we might get away for some adventures.

First up...this weekend in Panguitch there is a big hot air balloon rally.  The balloons will be launching from a field directly adjacent to our campground, so we'll get a front row seat!   Should be lots of fun. We'll update you again when something exciting has happened. Take care, everyone!

Glen and Terry

Here we go again!!!

We are in the final packing stages before our next adventure. Utah....here we come!

Where in Utah, you ask? How about Panguitch?  Never heard of it? That's okay. Over the next few weeks we'll fill you in on all the pertinent information. First up, how to pronounce it. Think pang...like a hunger pang, and witch...like our school mascot. Put them together, and voila!

We are heading to work part-time at the Panguitch KOA and play the rest of the time in some of the most splendid scenery we have ever seen. We visited Utah the first time on our epic cross-country journey with the kids.  Then, we came back to explore more when the boys went to the National Boy Scout Jamboree. Trip number three came with Kyle when Paul went overseas with People to People. So, this is Utah trip number four----the extended version.

We hope to see more of this.

Panguitch is closest to Bryce Canyon National Park, but we are planning side trips to Zion, Arches, Grand Canyon, and more. No definite plans yet. (We like to wing it!) The backpacks are stowed, the tent is ready, and hiking boots are already packed.

For those new to this blog, welcome. For those who have checked it out in the past, welcome back. This is the easiest way for us to stay in contact with our family and friends from home. You may hear references to people or events that are unfamiliar to you. Feel free to post comments and questions...we will be checking in and would love to hear from you.

 Since we haven't posted for a year, here is the quick version of major life events since last May. We are proud grandparents to a beautiful little girl named Celia. Celia was born last July and has us wrapped around her little finger. Kyle and Emily are doing an amazing job raising their daughter while attending college. Kyle and Emily are engaged and recently moved into a new apartment. Paul is currently away at a geology field camp and is looking forward to a new geology job this summer. Two more courses, and he will be graduating with a Geology degree from UMaine next December. Terry completed her first marathon last October. Glen qualified for and competed in the Boston Marathon this past April on a blazing hot day. We are both planning to run another marathon in September. We are about to complete the first year in our new school and are excited to be heading off on an adventure. (Last summer was spent unpacking and organizing our school library) There. Not quite the typical Christmas card insert letter, but close! Hahaha

So, if you have never been to Utah, enjoy reading about other people's vacations, or want to see if we survive this latest adventure with all our fingers and toes, buckle up..... we are counting down the days. The rv will be packed and parked outside the school this coming Friday. As soon as we are done at school, we are rolling!

Terry and Glen

P.S.  For all the new people here....if you click on a picture, it should then enlarge so you can really see it. Enjoy!