A Great Surprise…Someone Who Signs American Sign Language!

33rd trip – days 157-159,  Nov 5-7, 2021 Snow Canyon State Park, UT

Friday 11/05/21 For several reasons, this day took longer than most. Of course it starts at the local Maverick gas station for gas, drinks, and ice. Since HOWE (our travel trailer’s name, short for Home On WhEels) is at the storage spot in St George (4 hours south), where it is nice and warm, we need to take a cooler. Once we get to HOWE and the fridge is cold, we can transfer the items. As we passed Rowley’s Red Barn, in Santaquin, UT, we decided we should stop. I grew up with Rowley’s as neighbors and in school. They had fresh apple cider donuts and I just had to have a box. We also got fresh apple cider and some apples. The “barn”-store has ice cream, candy, boxes of meat, all sorts of breads made in that town as well as a variety of salsas, spreads, you name it, all made locally. We like to support things made and grown locally. Down the road we went, eating our  just-out-of-the-oven warm donuts. At Cedar City, we saw the remains of a van that had rolled off the side of the road. The emergency responders were there working. Usually when you pass a wreck the speeds will pick up. But they didn’t. We moved a few yards, slowly, and then came to a complete stop. So stopped, that I turned off the engine. 35 minutes. I even saw people walking around the center median looking ahead. Finally we got moving again. We saw the police standing by a barricade that stops people from going into a construction site on a bridge. On the tow truck was a pickup that was completely smashed, who obviously hit the barricade. We aren’t sure someone could survive after what the pickup looked like. We finally got to St George and HOWE. Then, the jack wouldn’t raise because the batteries are dead. Why? We don’t know. Kevin got on the ground and checked the fuse; it was good. Thankfully Kevin was able to charge it from the truck. Standing there watching him, I felt this red-hot stab of pain on my left hip. Oh, that was weird. It didn’t take long at all to get the jack going and get all hooked up. As I was getting into the truck I felt a red-hot stab of pain at the top of my right leg. Ouch. That was weird. As we were driving, I felt the pain still on the left hip and right leg. Soon I felt the red-hot stab of pain on my left shin. I pulled up my pant legs and there was this huge black ant! I squashed it immediately. I was surprised how big it was. I started squashing movements all around my body! When we got to Snow Canyon State Park and our campsite, I went in and checked and yes, there were bite marks! Ugh. We thought it was strange that Kevin didn’t feel any since he had laid on the ground. Kevin decided he wanted pizza so we drove down the canyon to the city (only a few miles). We drove to a pizza place we had been to before with our friends, Bryce and Heather. So sad, it was out of business. It was #1 on Trip Advisor. Probably couldn’t hold on through Covid, but not sure. Okay, looked up #2, drove some miles to that place and nope it was closed. Remodeling, the sign said. Looked up #3, drove around the city and this place was so packed, we couldn’t even find street parking for more than 6 blocks.We are sure it would have taken forever to get in. Keep going. The next place we found, around the city, was Pier 49 Pizza. There wasn’t a wait and the dining room was empty. Yes! We had the Dinner for 2 which included Cheese bread, our pizza of 1/2 bbq chicken and 1/2 combo, and then a dessert pizza. Very good. Not our favorite pizza but it was good for tonight. 🙂 We made many circle 8s around the town. 🙂 Back at HOWE, we sat outside and watched the stars. Too bad a large motorhome next to us kept their bright outside light on all night. It made a difference in how we could see the night sky. As Kevin went to bed…he said he had several ant bites!

Saturday 11/06/21 We skipped the lemon poppy seed muffins I made, :), and had more apple cider donuts with apple cider for breakfast. Snow Canyon State Park had a 1/2 marathon this morning. The runners start at the top and go down the canyon, which is good because it is pretty steep. We walked out to the road and saw a lady there cheering everyone on. A guy had a sign “You can do it” and was cheering. I was so impressed with the lady, she is older and a little humped over with arthritic hands. But boy, she was so encouraging to each and every person passing by (1500 people did the full length). Kevin and I cheered, clapped and did thumbs up. Kevin signed to me that the lady is the campground hostess. Pretty soon she camp over and started signing American Sign Language! Her name is Nancy, she signed. She had a friend who was deaf so she became interested and learned ASL. She went on to Rochester School of the Deaf in New York! She even taught ASL and became an interpreter. I was so happy and excited to be able to communicate with someone in my new language. She signed beautifully and I was able to understand it all.  Made my day, week, month! After the race, we set up our camp chairs in the large grassy area with huge trees. It is a place for anyone who is in the canyon to sit, eat, and relax (not just campers). It was fun to watch people: trailers pulling in and waiting until check in time, bikers stopping for a bathroom break and fresh water, families who are camping here passing by us as they go on a hike (over 30 people all in a line!), and we saw 2 couples on dates who brought up picnic baskets. No matter which direction we look, we see the awesome views of the red rocks so close. Soon, Kevin was taking a nap after reading his book for awhile. We were there so long, we had to keep moving our chairs to be in the shade. 🙂 Oh, for lunch, I heated up pulled pork shoulder that I had cooked at home. I had shredded it and sealed it with my Food Saver. So in HOWE, all I had to do was heat it up. I served it on hoagie buns. I took our lunch outside and we ate right where we were sitting.

In the afternoon, we decided to go on a hike. We drove down to Johnson’s Canyon trailhead and walked. It took us to a very unique place. A very narrow canyon with big trees with green leaves and willow trees. This is something you don’t normally see around here. But alas, it is because there is a little spring of water and it made green things grow. What a sight to see – the straight up red rocks with green down in the bottom. Gorgeous. The hike was very easy and we are glad we took it. When we got back to the truck, Kevin said we needed to get antifreeze for the pipes. I suggested, strongly!, some sort of ant replant, as we don’t want them in HOWE and obvious got them at the storage spot. We went to our favorite Ace Hardware (I wrote about it when we were in this area before).  It has a large fabric section – bigger than a lot of fabric stores! Plus, it even has a Post Office in it. HAHA Kevin sent me to look at fabric while he got supplies. After that, we decided to find a place to eat. Hopefully not the double-8’s around the city like last night! HAHA We found a sports bar and went it. We we able to watch the Jazz play and the mushroom burger Kevin had was one of the best, he said. I had a California club sandwich and it was yummy. My favorite was the seasoned fries (tasted like Red Robin) and fry sauce. We will definitely come back here again. Back at HOWE, Kevin sat outside for a bit. I came inside and organized my Paprika App on my laptop. Soon, off to dreamland.

Sunday, 1107/21 Breakfast was the last of the apple cider donuts and some juice. We did another walk-about this morning. This is our 2nd time camping here and is a favorite place. We like the sites with hook-ups and they have a dump station. The scenery all around is breathtaking. Checkout is at 2:00 and we plan to stay until then. We will drop off HOWE at the storage spot and then plan to stop at Mexican Restaurant in Beaver. This is getting to be a tradition or habit. HAHA

NEXT BLOG POST: it will be trip #32, which we skipped here. We have some VERY EXCITING CHANGES to tell you about. 🙂