Friday, November 4, 2011

THE Trip, Bryce Canyon to Fillmore Utah and on to Salt Lake City

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Our stay in the Bryce Utah area ended a bit abruptly.

Well, what can I say, things (the power) were questionable.  Our heaters were turning off in the middle of the night.  We basically had, like, NO power.  We were limping along running just the bare necessities, frig on propane, no lights, that sort of thing.  Man complained to the management.  What was supposed to be a 30 AMP service turned out to be much much less.  We could not run the washer/dryer, and Man said no, we cannot even run the furnace.  MMM, it was raining and 40 outside and 64 inside.  The low voltage shuts down stuff, coffee pot was on, but no coffee brewed, the monitor for the computer was on, then off, then on, you get the idea. All was not well, but we were trying to make the best of the situation as we really wanted to stay one more day to rest before we headed out towards Salt Lake City.

When it was time for lunch, and the voltage was below 108 and microwave would not run to warm up Man's left overs, well, things changed FAST!  The weather reports also had a big influence on our plans, as they were tossing around that "S" word again, and we had this high elevation pass to get through on I 70, and frankly, I was just a bit (OK, a LOT!) concerned about getting stuck in Bryce in that kind of weather with low power (aka, NO HEAT!!), and I was concerned about driving Big Butt and Tana over I 70 in a snow storm or squal, or whatever Mother Nature was going to toss at us.

Well, when Man could not eat, like I said, things changed, and fast.  He went back to the office to complain again, even though there was nothing the staff could do.  We believe that the "real story" is that the power company could not deliver sufficient power to the park, therefore the park could not deliver it to us.  Man called me from the office at about 12:30 local time and said, "pack it up, NOW, we are leaving".  And, that is exactly what happened.  Put the scurry on and we were on the road again, heading out of Bryce, cleared the I 70 passes and onto I 15.  We were in a new campground in Fillmore Utah in about 4 hours.  Honestly, I did not know we could move that fast these days.  Being cold and hungry will spur ya on, I can tell you!  LOL

A few photos taken on the drive out.  I think this photo may be one that I try out some special effects on in the photo editing program.


Below, another cabin, but, this one has a bit of history behind it.  MOC friends Steve and Vicki were feeding ideas to us during THE Trip, "what to see", "where to stay", "don't miss this", "gotta do this".  They told us about this little cabin, unmarked in any way, and it's little secrete, is it the childhood home of Butch Cassidy.


I just caught it with Sony on the way out of Bryce, on the fly, err, at 55 MPH.  Steve and Vicki actually stopped there and tromped around a bit, and have recorded that visit on their blog.  I could not quite figure out how to take you directly TO the specific post, so, go to the page and then look down the left hand side to the 2 entries titled:  May 19, 2006, Circleville, UT – Butch Cassidy Boyhood home.  They do a great job on their blog, On The Road With Vicki and Steve.

Below, the rivers and streams were full and running fast from the snow melt.  I actually saw some sand bags in a few places.



Of course, there were a lot of rock formations to see and enjoy, even with the gray, moisture laden skies.



The drive from Bryce to Fillmore Utah was about 140 miles.

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The next morning it was 38 degrees and the precip was rain mixed with snow.  We lallygagged around in Tana for most of the morning, not leaving the campground till noonish.

Back on I 15 we are heading north to the research mecca, Salt Lake City.  It is was about another 140 miles.  It was still raining, sometimes a bit hard, always throwing up lots of spray.  There was considerable construction just south of SLC, and the driving was spicy, as in, narrow lanes, lots of big trucks and cars cutting us off, almost taking off the front of Big Butt, white knuckles.  Note:  No photos were taken on the drive in, NONE.

Our destination was Salt Lake City KOA, which is right down town.  It was our home for the next month.  Ya, an entire month!  Yours truly was in research vacation heaven.  And, much to my delight I was joined by Becky of Kinexxions for about 3 weeks.  Reports/posts on my research have already been posted here at Reflections, mid May to mid June.

We arrived in Salt Lake City on May 18, 2011.



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1 comment:

Michelle Goodrum said...

That little cabin is extremely intriguing. I'm heading over to your friend's blog now to check it out.

No fun being cold...and hungry! Glad you got out OK.