Day 183

Cathedral Gorge State Park  to Echo Canyon State Park.   Spent 2 weeks at Cathedral Gorge because of the weather.  Our original plan was just for 1 week, but a huge storm rolled through and we decided to stay the extra week.  We were going to head to Ely, but it’s supposed to snow there tonight and the State parks are about 1200 feet higher in altitude.  Decided that we could hold off for another few days.
Had a great time there and we saw a lot of wildlife.  Jack rabbits, lizards, whistle pigs, hawks and SNAKES!  Not to mention all of the different kinds of birds. 
The first weekend we were there the park hosted an astronomy watch party.  I have never seen such large telescopes.  Really high tech.
Our new generator quit working when we were at Kershaw-Ryan state park, so we had to go back to Harbor Freight and exchange it.  Did I mention that the closest Harbor Freight was in Cedar City, Utah? 90 miles one way? So we planned out our trip.  Smith’s (a Kroger store) for prescription refills, Harbor Freight, the liquor store (because there is only a handful of places that sell liquor where we are and the prices are a lot higher), car wash and Walmart.  The bonus was finding a Deseret Industries Thrift Store in the same area that we were in.  Found some lamps and stuff that would work better for our trailer.  Picked up a new ice maker at Walmart because the old one was possessed.  It would only make ice at night, nothing during the day.
This of course led us to have a bunch of stuff that we no longer needed, so I asked the park rangers if it was ok to set it out for free.  No problem with that, as long as we weren’t selling it.  Asked them if they needed anything like lamps or maybe a possessed ice maker.  He’s like “does it work?”  I’m like, ‘yeah, but only at night.”  Told him it was dirty from sitting and I was running some lime juice through it to clean it.  He looked at it and it was making ice, right there in the middle of the day.  He was so happy to have it.
Had a pretty good No Pay Yard Sale.  Got rid of a bunch of stuff.  Happy customers, happy me.  One lady came by on Mother’s day and I gave her 2 camp chairs, a picnic plate condiment holder and a garbage bag holder.  She couldn’t believe that I was just giving them to her.  She called her 2 teenage boys over to carry the chairs.  They were so polite and happy.  They kept thanking me and asking if I was sure I didn’t want any money. 
Funny story about waving to people.  My dad taught me to wave at people when driving down a country road, because who knew, you might have trouble and they will remember the wave and will stop to help you.  So I wave at everyone that goes by.  Some wave (one lady even held up her dog to wave at Dinky), some smile, some ignore and some even stop to see if I am having trouble.  This happened on Mothers day.  An older couple stopped to check on me.  I said that I just wanted to say hi, have a good day and to have a safe trip.  The lady was so happy.  It made my day. 
Dinky Dawg has discovered a new delicacy.  Grass Hoppers.  He caught one and carried it for quite a while.  I asked him if he was taking it back to camp for sister and he looked at me then proceeded to eat it.  My warm fuzzy feeling that Dinky was thinking of Bristol flew right out the window….
Bristol spent a lot of time outside.  Exploring and rolling in the dirt.  We just let her be, that is until she started stalking the Jack Rabbit.  Really!?! That rabbit was almost twice as big as her.  I scared the rabbit away and made her go inside the trailer (I know, I am a mean mom).
We must have looked like we were someone important because we spent this last weekend answering questions and giving directions to people.  I guess that they thought we were camp hosts.  I think I might like having a job like that.
In case you are wondering, I am still as sweet as I have always been.  Have about 20 mosquito bites on my legs.  Bit by 3 in a row last night, standing next to Lee Todd and he didn’t get bit at all.  (I am wondering, can you get West Nile Virus more than once?!?) Yep, I am still sweet…