The Fire Canyon Fight

Woke up and made BOTH sides of the bed today.  We did some work in the Flag and watched the dogs have a 20 minute fight jumping from couch to chair and attacking each other.  Jen made my eggs and snuck in the rest of the summer sausage I had for breakfast and lunch and dinner yesterday (we bought what seemed to be a 5' piece of summer sausage a while ago).  Believe it or not, the eggs were great.  You would think I would be sick of the summer sausage but it was really good.  I think we are out now.  

By the way, Jen is mentally challenged with any technology we deal with one a daily basis.  Yelp, Maps, Google Maps, Internet.  She can never seem to make things work which is a tough scenario when you are trying to get places in a 60' yacht with no direction.  It is fun to watch her try and figure it out, though.    We went to check into our park because we came in late last night on our way to hike.  Turns out that this is a 55+ RV camp ground and we should not be here.  We decided to kick ass in shuffle board before our hike and paid our 20 dollars because it was too late and they could not kick us out.   We said we were almost 55.  

Stopped by Napa small town auto parts and spoke to ed and tom about our light bulb and how to fix.  Told him about our diesel pusher and after shooting the breeze and Ethel taking payment, we were on our way.  Our hike was to the preserve that used to be Lake Meade before it dried out.  While walking, we ran into a guy on a side by side (the ranger) who said, "what are you doing?" where we replied, "hiking."  He said, "its an even day and the hunters can hunt and will shoot you today so you cannot hike."  Ok, we said, THANK YOU FOR THE INFO.    

Onto, The Valley of Fire Park where we hiked 2.5 miles into the "valley of fire" along soft sand.  It was horrible and so difficult to walk on.  Jen was miserable (as was I).  So we had a little disagreement.  You see, I am happy doing whatever as long as Jen is happy (happy wife, happy life) and apparently, Jen feels the same way in reverse.   The fight lasted about 1.2 miles and after we thought about the things that have happened recently that could be causing our arguments.  I suggested we brainstorm on things that could have changed since the beginning of the trip and lets say last Friday.  I do not want to say what we came up with as it is not a popular topic of discussion (but does make sense--(Vacation)).   We decided to make up and finish the crapy hike and move on.    Life is now good.  See we were both trying to make each other happy and just off on our communication!  I feel like I could be a counselor now!

After the hike, we cleaned 5 lbs of sand out of our shoes and headed out.  Incidentally, we did head out on a hike into the middle of a desert with a half of a pint of water (will we ever learn?).  Here is the best part.  I saw a dirt road with a sign that said St. Thomas and Jen let me drive down it with the Jeep.  OFF ROADING baby.  We drove into the canyons off road to St. Thomas which was a few miles away.  It was fun and if i lived here would do it all the tine. Everyone has a side by side, ATV and Jeep and there are endless trails everywhere.  Dan Kelly, T bone and the ATV crew would love it here.  We found the town that was built in the 1800's and when they build the hoover damn, it was evacuated to allow for the water of Lake Meade.  It has been under water 60' for a long time and now dry again.  You can see streets, building, etc.  Talk about a ghost town!  

Back to the over 50 RV place where we need to sneak out before Ruth finds out we are late to check out.   We are on road now headed to Zion.  We have to make a few stops.  Guess where?   Thats right, DICKS SPORTING GOODS.  Why you may say?  Well, Jen wants to get new sneakers is size 10.  I said, But why, honey, you just got new sneakers.  She said, "shut up John!"   This time, she tried the sneaker on!

By the way, we saw a Hare on the sand trail today.  It was really cool and long legged.  It also had no problem walking in the sand.  

Then onto CVS-Out of pills- Love to listen to Jen be surprised that someone at CvS did not do as they promised.  I am never surprised when someone doesn't do their job and Jen is alway surprised.  Got our supplies and off to the campground -SURPRISE in the F-ing DARK.  

Got to site and lost a freakn' hour (MST).  Our neighbors are a bunch of CA cattle ranchers (20 of them) all republican and all are professional Cattle Ropers (hats, boots, and everything).  They compete in events and we can see them in Vegas in December.  Hung with them and their fire and had dinner (they cooked).  When I was eating the chicken, the thin blonde lady who was very cute for her age asked me, "how do you like the venison?"  I replied, GULP.  She then went on to tell me she killed, striped and mounted the deer herself (in a European style-facing sideways).  Great job.  Jen had a salad and apple cobbler.  They were really nice and reminded us of hanging with our family and saying crude things, with the one exception, that they were cowboys and cowgirls.  

Home to a full blown soda, drop and spill with a hole that was spraying like a shot gun.  Lucky it is not sugar soda and that we refilled our soda arsenal today.  

Headed to Zion tomorrow and are psyched.  The drive in from Nevada and through AZ was amazing.  We went through a mountain range that was awesome.  

Side note--When I tell you I am driving to all these places, (grocery, CVS, etc.) I am doing so with the RV and Jeep in small parking lots like a champ.