day 13

Moab to Evanston

Today was about preparing for what is to come aka errands and getting my butt closer to the Grand Tetons. I caught some of the sunrise, retrieved my tent out of the bathroom, got it all cleaned up and packed up, made myself some coffee and breakfast, and did a bit of a re-org of the car. Wingate campground is the nicest campground I have ever stayed at. Every site had an overhang to help keep things out of the sun, the camp host had a sweet german sheperd that carried a mini pendleton blanket roll in his mouth at all times, and there were these sick yurts. I wish I had booked one, but they were pricey. Might just have to if I ever come back.

Like I said - lots to do today. The bulk of the drive was getting to Salt Lake City to get those errands done. Big Future Islands day music-wise! Also finished up My Brilliant Friend and moved on to Slow Horses (weeee!)

Driving out of Moab I saw a cluster of large objects in the sky - a group of skydivers. Watching them spin around and float to the ground was pretty magical.

My big goal in Salt Lake City was to find a different sleeping pad situation. I had been using three thin ones like flat lil pancakes and my back was not loving it. I got to REI, and grabbed something that would work better for me. After that I booked it over to FedEx to ship the three sleeping pads, some books, and a bunch of crochet-related things back home. Getting that box packed was pretty hilarious, I must have seemed like a totally off the rails bag lady bringing in more and more stuff to pack the box.

When I left I double checked that I had gotten my license back from the guy and it was not with me. He and I spent the next 20 minutes looking for it, and before I started tearing the car apart I asked if we could just look in the store one more time. He happened to pick up the little bound book of barcodes he used to complete my purchase and my license fell out of it. Such a stressful moment! The rest of the drive was great, pulled into the Prairie Inn with time to get all my stuff out of the car and do some laundry.

For some reason I hadn’t used the sunroof until today, and man did it make the drive all the more sweet.

day 12

A whole heckin’ day in Moab

Today I got to go to Arches! Arches requires a timed entry reservation which I made months ago for 8am so had to get up p early to get there on time. I pulled into the visitors center, picked out some short hikes - taking into consideration that it would be about 90 degrees by the time I left - and was on my way. The views were breathtaking and I just felt really good being out there, dare I say the desert suits me.

After hiking around for a few hours, I needed a rest. I went back to my campsite, made myself a PB and banana sammy (yum), listened to my audio book, took a nap in my camping chair, and waited for the heat to chill out a bit.

My campground was at Dead Horse Point state park, so I took the rest of the day to explore. A bunch of big ‘ol rain clouds and thunder came up quick so the next few hours ended up being a whirlwind of walking around and taking in the views, driving back to the visitors center to check the weather, and rushing back to my campsite to find my poor tent knocked over and partially in a puddle. I was able to get everything taken down and hung up in the bathroom in between bouts of rain. Made myself some dehydrated dinner (buffalo style mac n cheese - not bad!), set up my bed in the car, caught a beautiful sunset and fell asleep listening to my book.

Caught some stars through the sunroof. Very pleased to say I am getting more comfortable sleeping outside by myself :)

day 11

Ridgeway to Moab

Orvis hot springs is clothing optional so they don’t allow any kind of photo taking but it was a real sanctuary. There were many hot spring pools of varying temperatures some of which had small cold waterfalls to cool off. They also had an indoor pool with wall to wall murals. The grounds in between were soft grass and lots of flowers with some bench swings and adirondak chairs. Really wish we had a spot like this in the bay.

After having some breakfast, I headed to the nearest town Ouray for a coffee and a walk about. Very sweet little town enveloped by mountains.

Took about four hours to get to Moab - listened to more of my book, War on Drugs, Adrienne Lenker, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more Handsome podcast to get me through yet more rain.

Sick of saying this but the drive was beautiful!

Pulled into Moab in torrential downpour. Had to drive through some flash flooding on the roads, but no biggie with the Sub. Sat in the car at the visitors center where there was wifi (view from my car below), made some phone calls, figured out my plan for tomorrow, went through some photos. Then set up my tent, went for an evening walk, and called it a night.