Utah Excursion

My friend Lynne and I headed to Utah on a 10 day excursion. We flew on Breeze Airways from Jacksonville to Las Vegas because they were the only direct flight. The flight got off to a late start exiting the jetway and then we sat on the tarmac because there were allegedly F22’s doing touch and gos. We waited and never saw them. Eventually, the invisible F22’s finished their touch and go’s and we were off. One and half hours out from Las Vegas, the flight attendant announced the toilets were full and could not be used. I have never had that happen before. Lynne and I were concerned during landing they might spill over.

After waiting eons to get the bags, we had to figure out how to get to the car. When I asked directions on my cell phone, it said it was 1 hour and 58 minutes away walking. That did not sound good. We managed to find the shuttle and go to the other end of town to get our Jeep Rubicon. It probably took 20 minutes to get it going. There was no user manual in the car and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it from being upset about the back seats where some of our gear was located. We relocated ALL the gear to the very back and was able to get the car started and exit the garage.

We arrived safely at our room in Springdale just as the sun was setting. The next day, we drove through Zion National Park to scope it out. We had plans to hike up Angel’s Landing even if we couldn’t make it to the top. During regular season, you can’t drive through the canyon. You must take the shuttle. The season starts March 7 so we were able to drive. We stopped at the Visitor Center on the way out and found that there was ice on the trail to Angel’s Landing and spikes were suggested. We both have them but left them at home. Also, there is a lottery to get to the top. The icy conditions nixed our plans. It is hard enough to do this without ice.

Since we nixed the Angel Landing hike, we chose to do the hike to the Emerald Pools the next day. Following is a video:

It’s 3 miles round trip and we were particularly beat at the end. We took the afternoon off and enjoyed the local rock squirrels and other wildlife.

I felt increasingly bad as the day wore on and realized I had a fever. I looked for a local clinic of which there is no such thing. I found something in a town 25 miles away that was open on Saturday. Lynne was also feeling poorly. We went to bed super early and our health did not improve during the night. We headed to the clinic in time for it to open and it turns out it was open from 8-7, not 7-8. We sat around in the parking lot and picked up at least one life bird while waiting.

We were the first ones in and got taken care of with prescriptions to improve our situation. We stopped at Walgreens to pick them up and swallowed the first dose in the parking lot. By the time we got back to the lodge, we already felt better. The excursion was saved!! We lazed around all afternoon and I started to read a book on how to draw and it suggests drawing upside down. Here is one of my free hand drawings done upside down. I’m pretty excited that I may be able to improve on my non-existent drawing skills.