Travel Means Life

91 miles took 5 hours!

7th – Day 28-33, Nov 20-25, Solstice Motorcoach Resort, Mesquite, NV

Friday, we left our house in Riverton at 7:30 AM. I drove the truck while Kevin worked from his laptop and our hotspot. The drive was easy with very little traffic. We got to the RV storage unit in Washington, UT, next to St George, at 11:30. It took about an hour to get everything hooked up; including airing up the tires. Then we drove to Mesquite, NV to Solstice Motorcoach Resort. Now, this isn’t a resort as I think of a resort but it is one of our favorite campgrounds. The campsites are very wide, in fact, you park your vehicle what equates to two parking spots over. It is gravel, with paved road. There are palm trees around what could be a water fountain and pond. No water there now. The view is stunning: we have what looks like the Wasatch front mtns to the east and then behind us to the west is a mesa. Beautiful. We quickly got set up and then Kevin sat outside and did more work. (No picnic table).

Camping Solstice Motorcoach Resort, Mesquite, NV Nov 20-25, 2020

Oh hey, it is completely dark here at 4:45 PM! It is because we are on the border of the time zone. I think on Dec 21 it must be dark at 3:00! After work, we drove around part of Mesquite.

We found it interesting that there isn’t a lot of fast food places. 2 McDonalds, a Taco Bell, and a KFC. That is all. We got supper at McDonalds and ate in the truck. Then we went to Smiths grocery store. I didn’t bring food because we don’t have the fridge plugged in so it will take a little while for it to get cold. Smiths was a shock! Crowded rows and out of a lot of food….including diet coke! We got a few things but it wasn’t a store I liked. We went to ACE Hardware for a few things. It is a darling store. Then we went to Walmart and it is a pretty nice store. They had diet coke. HAHA Then back to campsite.

Camping Solstice Motorcoach Resort, Mesquite, NV Nov 20-25, 2020S

Saturday I made eggs with pre-cooked turkey sausages. They were pretty good. We spent the day driving around Mesquite, NV, Scenic, AZ, and Beaver Dam, AZ. We really like Scenic; was surprised at all the gravel roads. We saw quite a few “pads” with electricity, water, and sewer for RVs. Interesting to us, for sure. We drove to the sign of Gold Butte National Monument on very rough roads. Will be back tomorrow. Back to campsite around 3:00, hung out and then had pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad for supper.

Sunday, same breakfast. Then we drove to Gold Butte National Monument. There was a ghost town called Gold Butte. It was an active gold mine in late 1800’s, early 1900’s. It was a great day. What we thought was rough roads yesterday, well, nothing compared to this day. Most of it was paved at one time, but now it is a truly washboard road. If we were true off-roaders, we would have “aired down” our tires – lowering the pressure in the tires to make for a smoother ride. There were no potholes, just that washboard surface. The area is unique and beautiful with different kinds of rock, sand and dirt. The Virgin River is so pretty; it meanders along the beautiful desert. We saw the beginning of Lake Mead.

We got out and climbed around Whitney Pockets – so unique! The rock at Whitney Pockets is rock-hard, unlike the sandstone that blows away.

We continued on heading for Gold Butte ghost town. At the end, we got to the ghost town.

We were a tiny bit disappointed in that there wasn’t foundations or anything like that to see. We read on the National Park sign that 2000 people lived there in the gold rush of 1906 but they lived in tents, so that is why there aren’t foundations to see. Two guys are buried there; they did live in a house and would feed people passing by. They died in 1958/1961. We ate a picnic lunch on the tailgate of our truck. That was fun. Then we walked a little ways and saw the opening of several gold mines.

We were there about an hour. On the way back, the road seemed even rougher, if that is possible. HAHA It took 1 hour and 10 minutes to drive 14 miles. What a great memory. Oh, the only animals we saw the entire time was 2 wild donkeys. They just starred at us. 🙂

The road is an in/out road. We went 91 miles in 5 hours! So much fun. We thought about going to Valley of Fire but we will do that at another time. Back to the trailer in time to watch KC Chiefs beat LV Chargers.

Monday, Kevin worked and I did some sewing. He got me, for an early Christmas present, a SewEZi table (https://www.seweziusa.com/) and it is incredible!

Fits perfectly in our trailer. I had a lot of fun sewing.

When Kevin was done with work, we both took naps and then drove around Mesquite. A few months ago we found online a different campground that had opening for Christmas. It is cute with palm trees between each site. However, it is in the middle of the city right next to Smiths. It does’t have a view and so we decided to cancel that one and keep our reservation for Southern Utah RV Resort for dates in December. We had the reservations for Dec 18-28, the dates we were suppose to be gone on a cruise. Kevin checked and the exact same campsite was available Dec 28-31 so we took it.

Tuesday, Kevin worked and I did some sewing. Same as yesterday. Later Kevin went with me to two fabric stores. One was Simply Quilt and found from Traveler’s Quilt Book. It was tiny with no more than 20 bolts of fabric. Very nice lady and I bought some white fabric. Then we drove to Stitch N Scrap. The lady there was extra nice and kept asking Kevin how to sign different words in ASL to help me. So kind! I got some fabric just because it is pretty, a rotor cutter container, Isulate-Bright, and a book about a quilter, novel. If you are in the area, check out this store: http://www.stitchnscrap.com

Later in the day, I checked the Southern Utah RV Resort’s website and low and behold, our same campsite was now available for Dec 31-Jan 3. We took it! HAHA So we have 3 reservations, in a row, all for the same site. Kevin called them and we reserved the activity room for Christmas Day, 11:00-3:00. Then we invited Mom & Dad to come for Christmas.

I suggested to Kevin that he try doing a puzzle. I think he would like it and it would be good exercise for his brain. We bought a cute one the other day at Ace Hardware. He started putting it together tonight. He worked on it for 2 hours and I was very impressed. Oh, this was after one game of Cribbage, which I finally won. 😉

Wednesday, “disembarkment day”… Always a sad day.

Part 3: Quilting, Relaxing, Reading, and Storage

6th Trip – Day 18-27. Oct 16-25, 2020

Monday Kevin woke up at 6:45 am, you know, he has a long commute! HAHA But as he was ready to log on to work and discovered he had left the charging cable at home. Off to Walmart he goes. Back quickly with a new one. He was kind and set up my sewing machine for me. I on one end of the table and he on the other. I love it!

Kevin working on one end and me sewing on the other.

Soon he was outside for the day working in his comfy camping chair. I had a lot of fun sewing in the trailer. I set up the cutting board on the end of the counter; plenty of room. It even has a plug right above for the iron.

My big kitchen allows for great space for quilting.

For lunch I made Steak Bites with Garlic Butter (recipe below). I came to realize that on Kevin’s work days, we should have our big meal at lunch because as soon as he is done with work, we want to be off exploring and not taking the time to cook and not come back starving. In the afternoon I sewed some more and read.

Working while at Southern Utah RV Resort, Camping St George, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

As soon as Kevin was done with work at 4:00 pm, we were in the truck. We went to Traveler’s Quilt Book stop Quilted Works. It was a small shop and I was surprised not a lot of xmas fabric. But I did find a darling one with snowmen and bought it.

Shopping for fabric. Can never have enough, right?

Then we went to what showed online as a used bookstore. It is called Book Bungalow. As the name says, it is in an old house, cute, but all new books. Kevin is interested in old books. Interesting, online we don’t find any used bookstores in this area.

We drove to Red Hills Desert Garden. This is a neat place where you can walk on and around red rocks that have been shaped from wind and water. Really fun place. We took out our walking sticks and did a bit of walking around. Kevin offered Costa Vida for supper and of course I couldn’t resist! (Otherwise, it was sandwiches.) We ate on our picnic table and enjoyed watching the sun go down and the moon come out.

Beauty from wind and water,Camping St George, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

Tuesday was incredibly relaxing. I did some quilting, reading and catching up on this diary. Kevin worked from outside. Lunch was French Dip. After work, we drove to a place in Hurricane called “Winder Towing.” They have a YouTube channel called Matt’s off -road Recovery. It is something that Kevin and his brother, Gary, have seen on YouTube and they laugh their heads off! As I understand it, if you need a tow, you get a free T-shirt with their logo. We went there because they have a little shop online and we thought he could buy some things from there. Every though we were there during the open hours and cars were in front, the door was locked.

Kevin and Gary watch YouTube videos of this place. He wanted to see it. Camping St George, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

Then we drove to Sand Hollow. I hear people talk about that place. It didn’t seem like much to us. Continued to drive along the east side of St George and around the south near the hotel we usually stay at. It is fun to drive around and just see life and houses. We went to Harmons Grocery for treats and bread and then back to camp. We were full from crackers and cheese I had taken with us. I read and Kevin watched some videos. We did a late night (9:30 PM!) walk-about and then went to bed.

Wednesday continued to be a relaxing and perfect weather day. For lunch I heated up the Chili Verde I made at home and we had it over tortilla chips. Yummy. That evening, I had to do a Zoom video conference meeting over the internet with the Department of Services to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advisory Council. Kevin got me all set up on his computer and I had my iPad for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation). It worked well since I am deaf. Kevin went off to check out the storage place for our trailer that we rented. Afterwards, Kevin and I went on a walk-about and then came back and had sandwiches for supper at 7:00 PM. Enjoyed a lovely evening reading outside.

Thursday I was busy with emails with the Advisory Council and other things. I didn’t sew today but organized and edited a lot of pictures. I also read. Kevin is enjoying his work from his chair outside. 🙂 At 5:00 PM, we met our friend who goes to college here. We went to Angelica’s Mexican Restaurant. It was good food and fun to catch up with her. After dinner, Kevin and I drove around and looked at some campgrounds around here for ideas for next time. We found we really like Southern Utah RV Resort! Hey, look at the cool way the guy cleans the campground road:

This made us laugh. Riding that thingy and using the leave blower to clean the road.

We picked a name for our travel trailer. Since it is our Home On Wheels, we named it HOWE (pronounced How-ee). We even have the camping dates in our calendar listed under HOWE. HAHAHA

If you remember a few posts ago, we had decided to get a storage spot for HOWE in Southern Utah. This area is warmer and a place that Snowbirds (people who go south for the winter) like to be. Where we live, it is way too cold, too snowy, and most places in the mountains are closed because you can’t get there in the winter. So by having HOWE in the warmer area, we can drive there in a few hours and take it out and camp on long weekends, holidays, etc. Don’t worry, we will be camping in just a short time.

HOWE parked at storage. We can easily pull it out for camping soon.

*Steak Pieces in Garlic Butter Yumminess

(We made this on the Blackstone Griddle but this recipe shows cooking on a stove)

1 1/4 lbs. steak, cut up into small pieces

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

2 tsp garlic, minced

1 Tbsp parsley, minced

Salt and Pepper

Over high heat, using a large pan, heat the olive oil. Season the steak with salt and pepper.

Place the meat in the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir often so that each piece gets brown.

To the pan, add butter and garlic, cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir so the sauce coats the meat.

Sprinkle the parsley over the meat and serve.

More beauty

6th Trip – Day 18-27, Oct 16-25, 2020 Part 2

Sunday we have a humungous drive from St George/Leeds KOA to our next campground, Southern Utah RV Resort….15 miles! HAHAHA We took our time this morning and finished off the Blueberry Muffins. We didn’t cook outside at this campground. After a walk-about to a historic brick house that is on the property there, we left at check out time, 11:00. We decided to drive to Southern Utah RV Resort to see if we could check in early, otherwise, check in is at 2:00. Kevin said they were so nice and said we could check in now. This was at 11:15! This place is great, paved road, gravel sites. Large sites! Each has a tree growing but is small since this place just opened up last year. Lifetime brand picnic table. Nice grass with games, bath house, etc. We really really like this place! It would be hot in the summer but perfect right now.

Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

After we got all set up, we decided to drive to Kolob Canyon. It is the Northern part of Zion NP. It is right off I-15. We stopped at the visitor’s center but it is closed due to Covid. The Ranger outside with his table of maps was nice; no charge that day to go in the canyon. We drove the 5 miles to the end and like this entire area, it is hard to describe the beauty. Lots of cedar trees but then jutting up to the sky would be these red rock cliffs. Incredible.

We even got out and walked down a trail for a ways.

When we were down there, hum, what should we do now. We looked at the map and picked Cedar Breaks National Monument. You go up the canyon out of Cedar City. And can I tell you, again, breathtaking!

The road to Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

These rocks were white, not red like Kolob and Zion. The Autumn leaves were full bloom with lots of yellows. The road goes up over 10,000 ft in elevation. At Cedar Breaks National Monument, the temp was a cold 50 with wind blowing quite hard. It was beauty to see, though.

10,333 ft elevation, 50 degrees, Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

It looks like Bryce Canyon. Kevin checked and we were at 10,333 ft above sea level. We are so happy we went on that road. At one side stop, you can see clear to the mountains near Virgin. I recognized it from the other end. 🙂

Back at camp, Kevin cooked Philly cheesesteaks on the Griddle. No campfires in this campground but you can have propane. This campground is full and it has more huge motorhomes than we have seen elsewhere. Probably more of them than trailers.

Southern Utah RV Resort,St George, UT Oct 16-25, 2020

Next time…how to sew/quilt in a travel trailer! 🙂

Winterizing, oh the joys!

Being a new travel trailer owner, I consulted the experts on winterizing – Google and YouTube. I thought it would be pretty complicated, but it is not bad.

Here is the process I followed the first few times:

I disconnected the city water hose from the trailer.
I then opened the drains for the hot and cold pipes. On my trailer, it is just under the city water hookup.
Then I used a special fitting that attaches to the city water connection. This will connect an air hose to the city water connection.
I connect my small air compressor to the fitting, dial it down to 35 psi, then turn it on.
I close the hot and cold pipe drains.
After waiting for my air compressor to catch up, I go inside and open each faucet one at a time. Air and water shoots out. Once it is just air, I close the faucet, and move on to the next one.
Hot water heater. We turn the water heater off the night before, to let it cool down a bit. Turn the air compressor off. (see story below) relieve pressure in the heater by opening the pressure relief valve. Then remove the anode at the bottom of the water heater. This will take time to drain, I leave the anode just below where I removed it, and close everything up……time for a story. The water heater needs to be drained. The first time I did this, I left the air compressor connected and running – building pressure in the system. When I removed the plug/anode, water shot out 6-8 feet after it shot me right in the chest!
Time to work on the drains. We use the pink RV antifreeze and pour a couple cups into each drain. The measurement is very important. Usually I upend the gallon jug and wait for two glugs. B-)
That is all we do. If we lived in colder climates, we would pump antifreeze into the water pipes.

This is the process we did the first few times. After looking at the temperature in St. George where we store HOWE we stopped blowing out the lines with air. We just open the drain lines and open the faucets. This might catch us someday – who knows. Most people do this once a year in the fall but since we are using it almost every weekend, we do it almost every weekend. B-)

South for the Winter

6th Trip- Day 18-27, Oct 16-25,2020 Fillmore KOA, St George/Leeds KOA, Southern Utah RV Resort PART 1 🙂

This trip started out as a baseball-watching trip. Our high school friend is a fantastic baseball player and we like to go to his games. He was to have a tournament with college scouts watching on Oct 15-18 in St George. Kevin and I decided we would go and watch and camp in our trailer. Well, why not stay longer while we are there! (This is common for us. HAHA) Let’s make it a week, with Kevin working during the days, and then add the two weekends. We found a campground that looked neat but they only had openings from Sunday to Sunday. So Kevin booked that and then we booked a KOA near Leeds. Then, the baseball games got canceled, due to Covid, but we didn’t hesitate, we are still going. 🙂 Since we didn’t need to rush to a ball game, I suggested we go 1/2 way on Friday night. That way we wouldn’t be setting up in the dark. Kevin liked that idea and made the changes.

Friday we left after Kevin got off work (both always antsy to get going with excitement!). We had a great drive to Fillmore KOA. We thought there would be more traffic, this being Fall Break, but we were just a head of it. The campground at Fillmore is really great. It is a Journey with beautiful grass at each site, water, electricity and a dump. We didn’t use the dump, being there just one night. Our site was at the back and opened up to open range. In our walk-about, we saw a lot of ATVs. Talked to one guy and he said it is a popular place for them up in the mountains. We didn’t have a fire that night but just relaxed. I had made Tortellini Salad and homemade Banana Bread for dinner. It was perfect.

Beautiful “backyard” and surrounding area. Fillmore, UT KOA.

Saturday, after relaxing and breakfast of homemade (at home) Blueberry Muffins, we headed out. On the way, we stopped at The Creamery in Beaver. We had stopped before. We ate cheese curds and grilled cheese/patty melt. Then we walked around the store a little bit and bought some Salsa Cheese Curds. Next was famous ice cream. We ate it outside. Everyone wore masks. As we were walking to the truck to leave, I got a horrible feeling in my stomach. Had to take some time in their bathroom. As I got in the truck, Kevin had the same feeling and took some time in their bathroom. We didn’t feel well for about an hour afterwards, although we continued on our way. I think it must have been all the rich cheese…and it is so good we ate it fast. Thankfully, we felt better later. Oh, right as we left, I felt I needed the bathroom again. Kevin pulled into a parking lot and opened the door of the trailer for me. I ended up not needing it but there is something to say about having your bathroom with you. HA

We checked in at St George/Leeds KOA (Hurricane address). It is our least favorite campground, so far. Very clean but the spaces are too close together. One spot we saw two slides literally inches apart from each other. We would stay there if we have to, but not really planning on it.

Too close to the neighbors! KOA Leeds, UT.

After setting up, we decided to take a drive. We drove through Hurricane (much much bigger than I thought!), on through Springdale, and ended up at ZION NATIONAL PARK! Now, last week I had researched and saw that you get tickets ahead of time for the shuttles. They are every hour throughout the day. They are $1.00. I clicked on it and found out that every hour, for all 10 days we are down here, were sold out! (Places like this have been extremely busy due to Covid and add to that, Fall Break. No worries, we had been here before. We went to the Visitor’s Center and Kevin got his National Park Passport stamped. Success!

Kevin getting his National Park Passport stamped. Zion National Park, UT.

He bought a huge mug and we got Zion masks. Then we drove the “tunnel road”and my gosh, the scenery was stunning. It was “golden hour” about 5:30pm and the setting sun made the rocks, mountains, trees, everything just glow with beauty. We went out the other side of the tunnel a ways and then turned back around. As we entered the 1.1 mile long tunnel, I was curious about the inside. It was built around 1930 and I wondered if the ceiling was curved or flat. So I took a picture…

Literal picture of INSIDE the tunnel! I still don’t know if the ceiling is curved or flat! 🙂

ZION NATIONAL PARK

The different layers of rock, sandstone, and trees.

We scored on our little “let’s go for a drive” big time! When we got back to the campground there was a trailer right next to us and so close we didn’t even feel like sitting outside. No worries, we were ready for bed.

Stay tuned for more about this great trip.

Don’t want to stop!

Kevin and I are get such enjoyment out of our traveling and camping. We don’t want it to stop.

We live in the mountains and Autumn, Winter, and Spring can be cold and snowy. Most of the mountain camping around us is closed for most of this time. Besides, I don’t want to camp in the snow and cold. We were so sad to have to put our travel trailer “away”, packed up for the cold. Then I got to thinking about an area 4 hours south of our home that doesn’t get too cold, hardly get snow, and is beautiful to see. Wouldn’t it be nice to have our travel trailer down there, I thought. How about we get a storage spot, keep the trailer there, and pull it out whenever we want to camp when it is too cold around here. But then I remembered how we heard of so many people who wouldn’t get a trailer because the price to store it was hundreds of dollars a month. So I didn’t say anything about my idea to Kevin. One day I got curious and decided to google search storage spaces in that area. I found one for $50 a month. Wow, a lot less than I thought. I told Kevin my idea and the cost and he said he really liked the idea. He was surprised at the low price, as well. Kevin then does some research for good storage places and would you believe…not one space available in the whole entire area there! Ugh, we were disappointed. Oh well, guess we will have to close it up for the cold months. 😦 The storage place that we wanted the most had a way to get on a wait list. So Kevin did but we didn’t hold out much hope. 5 days later, he got the call that a space was available and we could get it. It turns out the price is $37.00 a month! Wahooo!

When our next camping trip is done, we will leave the trailer at our new storage spot.

Short people problem!

5th trip – Day 14-17, Oct 2020, Brigham City/Perry KOA, Utah

My parents have been wanting to camp with us so I decided to set up this camping trip to include them.

Kevin and I stayed in our travel trailer and Mom & Dad rented a deluxe cabin there at KOA. There are smaller Kamping Kabins, but this one had a bathroom inside. We went up Thursday evening. Kevin and I have been to this campground at least three other times over the past years. We like it and remember wagon rides and ice cream socials. Well, those aren’t happening right now due to Covid. Mom & Dad’s cabin has a small stove and a fridge. She made her Baked Beans and brought them for Thursday night supper. I made corn muffins at home and brought them for this meal. We ate outside their cabin.

Charla’s parents & Kevin enjoying a fire.

Friday I played games with Mom & Dad. Friday evening Ben came up and stayed in the cabin. Meals were at our campsite table. We sat around our fire pit that evening.

Camping Brigham City/Perry KOA, UT Oct 8-11, 2020

Saturday we got in Mom & Dad’s van and Kevin drove us to Bear Lake. The idea was to see the Autumn leaves in Logan Canyon. They didn’t disappoint! So beautiful and all colors. While driving up there, I got a text from a friend. She and her husband were camping at Bear Lake but heading down the canyon while we were going up to have lunch with granddaughter at USU. For fun, we found their trailer, took a pic and sent it to them saying “No one is home.” They got a great kick out of it. We didn’t drive too far around the lake. Drove back to Logan and had a picnic lunch of sandwiches that Mom and Kevin made that morning. We ate at a park just below USU main building. It was a lovely day.

Traveler’s Quilt Book stop was at “Village Dry Goods” in Brigham City. I bought some fabric that is gray and white that says things like “sewing is my happy place.” The ladies tried to sign “thank you” but ended up signing “never” and I so appreciated their attempt.

Dad wanted to stop at Smith’s & Edwards. It is the huge store mentioned in a previous post. Back to camp for naps. That evening Kevin made his now famous Smashburgers.

Mom got excited and told me she wants to buy a camper van.

“Kids” Terry & Barbara Kester, on their phones.

One day I went to use our bathroom in our trailer. “Someone” put the toilet paper on the top of the highest shelf in the bathroom. I can’t reach it! 🙂 THAT is a short person problem. Actually, it was a tall, husband problem because he got in trouble. HAHA What did I do? As soon as I was home, I bought a toilet paper stand for the bathroom. Problem solved 🙂

Someone is in trouble for placing the toilet paper on the highest shelf in the bathroom!

Sunday we had a nice relaxing and lazy morning. Then we all headed home.

Dry-camping Delight

4th trip, Day 11-13, Oct 2-4, 2020 North Fork Campground, Eden, UT

This was a fun camping trip. We went with my cousin, Duane and his wife (and my wonderful friend) Jennette. We followed the GPS, which rightly took us to North Ogden, over North Ogden Canyon Rd. and over the North Ogden Divide. The divide is 6 miles long and goes from 4501 ft to 6190 ft and then down to 5167 ft above sea level. It is a narrow but paved road that is steep. Our truck and trailer handled it with no problems at all. It was a gorgeous drive. We had a hard time finding the actual campsite and turned around on the Eden road (to very fancy houses!) two times. We laughed and said we were “practicing” backing up and turning around in the middle of the street. 🙂 We ended up calling Jennette and Duane to get directions to the specific campsite. They had gone up the night before. Incidentally, when we left, we went out an entirely different and much easier way. Ha

Beautiful double site. North Fork Park Campground, Oct 2-4, 2020

We got settled in quickly in our nice double campsite. Totally dry camping and that is fine because we have batteries, water, and sewer all onboard. Jennette made chicken wrapped bacon, red potatoes, and chocolate cake all in Dutch Oven. So nice to arrive and dinner was cooking. It was delcious! We enjoyed a nice campfire that evening.

Outside view from inside our trailer. Stunning autumn colors!

Saturday morning Kevin made breakfast for everyone. He used the Blackstone Griddle and made hash browns, bacon, and eggs. Delicious! Everyone had seconds.

Can you believe the stunning colors behind Kevin?!!!

Kevin and I then went on a hike. There are lots of trails around there used for walking, bike and horses. The colors of the changing leaves were very pretty. There is a ribbon of granite running along the mountain with bits of Evergreens and trees with autumn leaves. It was beauty to behold. We walked about two hours. Kevin said it was extremely quiet and with no wind, silent.

Back at camp, Duane was whittling wood figures and Jennette was working on crocheting.

Lunch was on our own; Kevin and I had sandwiches and fixings. After lunch, Jennette and I worked on her puzzle. In the afternoon, their daughter, Susanna, and husband Nick, came up. They are a fun couple and we enjoyed visiting with them. She knows some ASL so that was super nice.

Susanna & Charla having a good laugh while working on a puzzle.

For supper, Kevin made everyone Smashburgers. Delicious! It was a hit. Campfire and S’mores that evening.

Sunday was lazying around. Took our time getting packed up since check out was at noon. The drive home was really nice. Duane and Jennette said they want to camp with us again. That is a good sign! HAHA

Jennette is an amazing quilter and embroiderer. Her business name is The Masked Embroiderer and you can find her on Etsy at: themaskedembroiderer and on Facebook. She makes the cutest masks, towels, yard flags, etc. Check it out.

Do we have gas?

Catchy title, huh? It is not what you think! Propane keeps your RV warm, gives you hot water, stove and oven, and in some cases your refrigerator. It is a big challenge in winter is to make sure you have enough propane. You need it to keep yourself warm, but also to keep the pipes from freezing and breaking. We have had several different friends that woke up cold in the middle of the night! It is pretty hard to find a place that refills propane at 3 AM!

I have been afraid of this, so erred on the side of caution, and filled my tanks frequently. I knew there had to be a better way. There are guages that you can attach to your tank, but reviews were terrible! They were not accurate at all, and left several people with that 3 AM cold feeling……

There are also stickers that you can put on the side of the propane tank, but they only work well when the temperature is just right. Also, we have a plastic tank cover that would make reading these stickers pretty hard.

After digging around some more I found a better solution. It is the LP Tank Check with monitor. It has sensors that fit by magnet on the bottom of the tanks. Then there is a monitor that you can mount near your switches inside your RV. The best thing is an app on your phone that you can check the level of your tanks with amazing accuracy. It connects to the monitor or to your phone via bluetooth – so you have to be within 50 feet of your tanks.

Installation went very well. I went to Tractor Supply, and had my tanks filled. Then, before putting them back on HOWE (home on wheels) I turned the tank over, and cleaned the bottom. I put a bit of the dielectric grease on the bottom and stuck the sensor on. It has a strong magnet that holds the sensor on.

The only challenge is with the install of the standoffs, or risers to lift the tanks up for a bit. The sensor is thick enough that the bottom flange of the tank needs to be a little taller. They include aluminum standoffs that increase the height of the tank. They press on, and don’t stay on as well as I would have liked.

Pairing them was so easy that I forgot how it went. There were great instructions, and it was super fast.

screenshot of what it looks like on my iPhone

After installing these devices, I do not have to worry any more if I have gas or not.

Willard Bay State Park

3rd trip – Day 8-10, Sept 25-27 Willard Bay State Park, South Marina, Utah

We found this place from a camping app. A few days prior to going, I looked at reviews and they were awful! People, sometimes full-timers, said it was the worst campground they had ever been to. Some of the reviews were this month. I was a bit wondering. I even checked on availability at a KOA campground in Brigham City in case we needed to leave. 🙂 It wasn’t bad at all. The South Marina is a “parking lot” with grass (dead grass this time of year) behind the trailers with nice picnic tables and fire pits. We picked a site on the end and had lots of lovely trees around. Other tables that didn’t have shade had nice covers. Yes, there were a few mosquitoes but what do you except, you are by a lake. They weren’t bad at all. A few gnats but more in Helper than here (see other post). I know in the summer the bugs can get really bad around the lake.

We got settled into our camp spot and I took a walk-about. I like to see how other people set up their campsites. Next to us was a large motor home with 2 TV’s on the outside. Wow!

We couldn’t see the lake because we are next to a long berm, or dam. But across the bridge and up some stairs and wow, this fresh water lake is huge! There isn’t a beach here on the south side but there is a boat ramp. Several people were fishing. Of course I got my iPhone out and started snapping pictures.

For our evening walk-about we walked along the water on the berm/road. After about 15 minutes we started feeling the mosquitos and goodness, we should have sprayed ourselves. Kevin is sweeter than me and got several bites. I didn’t get bit at all. It was getting dark and we went inside, relaxed, and read. OH boy, we sure sleep great in our trailer! Every night is just like being in our comfy bed at home. The mattress is the same size, a queen, and very comfortable.

The next morning Kevin cooked on the Blackstone Griddle that his brother gave to us. He cooked hash browns, bacon and eggs. Delicious!

After cleaning up, we drove the truck north to the main marina. Kevin wants to try a kayak and we checked into them. They are cheap to rent. But the wind had picked up and it was a bit cold to be on the water. He will try it another time. We drove through the two campgrounds. Back to those reviews, some said the freeway noise was horrible. Kevin agreed. Something with the noise bouncing off the close mountain made it exceptionally noisy. (I wouldn’t know became I am deaf. 🙂 )We found a spot we would like to stay at on the water’s edge. Next time.

Willard Bay State Park, South Marina, Sept 25-27, 2020

Next we headed south to Lifetime Products Factory Outlet. They make hard plastic chairs, tables, play grounds and sheds. We were interested in a shed so we can move yard tools and things out of the garage. That way we have more room to get around our vehicles, and Kevin has more room in his wood shop. We found one we like and asked about “scratch and dent.” We bought one; the only thing that was damaged is the box. We will need to pick up this week. It is a cute one.

This is the finished shed after we put it together. 🙂

I looked up in my Traveler’s Quilt Book and found a few fabric stores in Ogden, where we were. We went to “My Heritage Fabric” and bought some fabric that had cute quilt saying on it. I will make them for my sewing friends for Christmas. As we were checking out, I saw a lady with an amazing panel: a map of the US and then National Parks around the edges. I have been looking for a good National Park fabric, even online, and everywhere was sold out. And I liked this one better than any others I had seen. After she left, I asked the saleslady for it. She said that lady had bought the last 3 panels. Oh, I was so disappointed. She offered to call her “sister store” and see if they have it. They do! We drove to the other side of town and got it. A darling store, in an old house, called, “Bertha & Beulah’s”. I got great fabric to go with the panel. Kevin suggested a quilt for the trailer. Oh yeah!

On the way to our campsite, we stopped in at Smith & Edwards. It started out as a military surplus store. It still has a lot of military surplus, but has expanded to sporting goods, farm supplies – just about everything. It is a huge store. I mean, ridiculously huge. Kevin bought me a hiking pole.

Back to our campsite. After relaxing, armed with my new hiking pole, we walked along the lake for about a mile. The wind had picked up but it wasn’t really cold. We liked to watch the seagulls and the boats. We tried for find a geocache but it looked like it was in the canal. Nope, not going to do that. Back to the trailer and Kevin made smash burgers on the Blackstone. I had them all mixed and prepped in balls at home so it wasn’t so messy. Oh man, they are delicious! After dinner, Kevin made a fire in the fire pit. No bugs, light wind, perfect relaxation. Let me tell you, the sky gave the most amazing sunset. I kept running up to the lake and over to the trees to take pictures. The sky was breathtaking.

Sunday morning I heated up the breakfast from yesterday. The temp outside was 47 but we were nice and warm inside. We didn’t even have to turn on our heater at all this trip. It as a great weekend and we want to come back. We will try the north campground by the lake but not in the summer.

As I look back at photos I have taken, I realize I like old posts. 🙂

History of Smith and Edwards

Willard Bay State Park