6/13/21 Escalante/Boulder/Capital Reef

OUR RV ADVENTURES: Sunday, June 13, 2021
We have spent the last three nights in the most beautiful place ever, and we have driven on the most beautiful highway ever - Highway 12. As far as the eye can see. On top of the world. Breathtaking. On a motorcycle it is spectacular. Oh my goodness!

But can I tell you, pulling a camper has been a learning curve. Muscles tense. Can we do this?Will we make it? We have both had to hold our breath several times the last few days. It started out when we traveled up the Escalante Staircase. Steep. Narrow. Never-ending. Always going higher. Our truck struggled to keep going. We pulled over as often as we could to let it rest. So by the time we got to Boulder, Utah, we were ready to find a place and stop. Any place. We knew that all the land after Boulder was Dixie National Forest land, so we could stop anywhere, but we couldn’t see anything. Then about ten miles out of town, we saw two campers to the right, so we pulled into a drop off from the pavement to the dirt road. Then we went on further. Do we go to the right or to the left? We chose the right, and it was the lessor of two evils, but OH MY GOODNESS! Would we ever get out? We would worry about that later. We pulled into a meadow of blooming flowers with mule deer watching us. Gorgeous. What we found out later is that just a hundred yards further would have put us into camping areas that had a paved entrances. It would have been SO MUCH EASIER! We were at mile marker 93. At mile marker 103 is a turn out that overlooks the entire world. There was only enough room for one camper, but WOW! Then at mile markers 106 and 111, there are Dixie Forest Campgrounds, and there are several places in between. I have to insert here that we found out that there are black bear in this area. My husband met a man who won the lottery, so he gets to shoot one black bear and one bull elk. We never saw one, though. Lyndyl kept looking.

Right now we are on Hwy 24 past Capital Reef National Park. Glorious. We went to the park yesterday, but this is just as beautiful. We are on our way to Canyonland RV Campground. It is between Canyonland National Park and Arches. We will go to those places in the next couple of days, then head to Estes Park, Colorado, where we will have a family reunion. So excited.

We are driving thorough a place in Utah right now that looks like Mars. No vegetation. Just gray rock and sand. Desolate. Deserted. We can see where four wheelers and dirt bikes have had a blast.

RV LIFE:

I have not done laundry in over two weeks. I am on my last pair of underwear. I know you wanted to hear that. Since we left Colorado, grocery stores and anything else we have needed have been few and far between. We bought our last groceries at Family Dollar. Page, AZ and Kanab, Utah have been the only large towns we have been through. We have been packing sack lunches when we go out because we don’t know if we will be able to find was anything or not. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Apples. Oranges. Chips. America!

Two nights ago, I woke up to our carbon monoxide detector going off. Two shrill beeps. Then two more shrill beeps. And my husband sleeps through it all. He cannot hear that high of a pitch. I woke him up, and we decided that the detector was faulty. We put it out on the front steps where it went off all night long. We have to get another on. So now we don’t have a smoke detector (it kept going off when i cooked), and we don’t have carbon monoxide deal. Really we do. There is one in the kitchen.

OH THE PLACES WE GO!

CAPITAL REEF NATIONAL PARK: Yesterday we rode the motorcycle to Capital Reef. Mainly we wanted to know what kind of road we would be going down with our camper. Gorgeous! Green. Vast panoramic views. On top of the world. Downhill the whole way. Yay! When we got to Capital Reef, it was after lunch 1-2. 95 degrees. We were still sore from the hike up Angels Landing, so we didn’t want to do anything strenuous. Go in. Ride around. Get the patch. There was a scenic drive just past the Visitor’s Center, and at the end of that road, there was a one mile hike through Capital Gorge. OK. Doable. So we parked our motorcycle and headed out. What we didn’t realize is that there was a 2.5 mile dirt road that you had to take before you get to the gorge. After walking about 3/4 of a mile, Lyndyl said, “Go sit under that tree while I go get the motorcycle.” I did. He came back with the bike, but the road was too rocky. We finally turned around and went to the Gifford House. This is a place inside the park that sells homemade strawberry/rhubarb pies, jams, ice cream. Everything was gone by the time we got there, but it was cool. Next time.

WITNESS HIM NOW:

While I was sitting under the tree waiting for Lyndyl to come back, there was a cool breeze and flies buzzing and heat coming up from the rock I was sitting on, and this took me back to my childhood. Aspermont, Texas. When I was young, we would have family reunions out at Little Grandma and Little Grandpa’s house. They were my great- grandparents. I don’t remember anything about them except the memories at this house. The house had no running water. There was a well out on the back porch. A bath house. An outhouse. And there were people everywhere. Little Grandma and Little Grandpa had twelve? kids. Then all the cousins - my dad’s generation. Then all of the grandkids - us.

And such a thankfulness came over me for my inheritance. I took off my shoes, anointed that rock I was sitting on, and I worshiped God. Howells. Lots of Howells, and so many of them love Jesus. Inheritance. Good people. All of them were good people. A wide river of grace that flowing through my veins. Deep and wide. LORD, thank you for those who went before us, who prepared the way. I know, LORD, that You began a good work in us, and You will complete it until you come back. So LORD, send an intense hunger and thirst for righteousness into the hearts of this family. Redeem that which was lost or stolen. Heal that which was broken. Set free those who are in bondage. Buy back Your people. Send light and truth. Send mercy and grace. Send Your unfailing love. Dry bones, hear the Word of the LORD. Breathe O four winds on these who are slain so that they might live. Graves, open up. Lazaros, come forth. LORD, don’t let any fall through the cracks. Holy Spirit, draw, woo. Put a longing in the hearts of Your people for more.

So I began to cry out for Howells. Then I started crying out for Whites. Then Jeneweins. Then Greens. My bloodline. Holy. LORD, rend the heavens and pour out righteousness. Hearts, open wide and receive. Let righteousness and salvation spring up together. Open up you gates, you everlasting doors and let the King of Glory in. Open up you gates, you everlasting doors and let the King of Glory in. And who is the King of Glory? The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the LORD mighty in battle - He is the King of Glory. Heal. Mend. Set free. Send life, health, hope. Send Your unfailing love. Reach far and wide. I am asking this in the Mighty Name of JESUS!
​
So the land has been speaking to me. Mostly through words, but yesterday, it spoke to me through nature. LORD, hear my cry.