Monday, April 9, through Sunday, April 15, 2012: Visiting the Other Utah Parks:
We headed for Torrey, Utah, early on Monday morning. It was going to be only a 100-mile trip so we took our sweet time. We went through some more beautiful Utah countryside, and ended up at Torrey (population: 180) just after noon. We are staying at the Thousand Lakes RV Park.


It’s very nice. (It has a terrific gift shop, so Becky is ecstatic.)

Torrey is the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park, We’ve been here only once before---in 2002, before we became road warriors. We made a quick visit to Capitol Reef Monday afternoon,


as a prelude to really touring the park on Tuesday. We arranged with the RV park to rent a Jeep Liberty on Tuesday so we could take the dirt-road tour of the park.

We loaded up (with Ramsey along) at 9:00 Tuesday morning and headed for the park. Capitol Reef is a magnificent smorgasbord of geological sights. The sedimentary mountains have grown and risen and fallen and folded and eroded over millions of years, and are just fascinating to tour. The tour covered 136 miles.




We got back to the RV park after 4:00PM. (It would have been a little earlier but I had to wash the Jeep before turning it in.) Later, I was able to squeeze in at the next-door barber for a much-needed haircut. We had already planned to have dinner at the Café Diablo, a local restaurant known nationally for its creative menu and delicious food.


We had eaten there when we were here in 2002. We were only the second party there when we arrived, but the place filled up in a hurry. We split a beef tenderloin dinner, a calamari salad, and a cheesecake dessert. Very yummy.

Wednesday morning we headed for nearby Loa to wash our truck and do some grocery shopping---and pick up two movies from the Red Box there.


We watched The Iron Lady and The Descendants Wednesday afternoon. (It was raining, so there was nothing else to do. It was really clever of me to wash the truck this morning.) Both films were well-done, but I liked The Descendants more. It was very complicated, with a plot full of surprises, but riveting. The Iron Lady was a bit disappointing to me because they portrayed Margaret Thatcher as a little wacko even while she was serving as Prime Minister, and they spent too much time showing how addled she is now. (Her present condition is irrelevant to what should be her legacy.) In any event, Meryl Streep definitely deserved her Oscar.

Thursday morning we woke up to a temperature of 34 degrees and a dusting of snow. No problem. We took off early for Moab, a 170-mile trip through more of the beautiful Utah countryside. We arrived before noon at the Canyonlands Campground RV Park right in the middle of town.


We stayed here ten years ago. It‘s a very nice place. I was able to get the truck lubed and its oil changed, and our propane replenished before the end of the day. We also went shopping for food. (It’s nice to be in a town with an array of stores.) We bought mussels for dinner. Yum.

On Friday afternoon, we drove to Red Cliffs Lodge. It's about 20 miles outside of Moab. Red Cliffs Lodge is in a beautiful canyon, along the Colorado River.




It's also home to the Castle Creek Winery.


It was one of the first wineries in the state of Utah. When we worked at Zion Lodge, Castle Creek was added to the dining room's wine list.

Moab (population: about 5,500) is the gateway to both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, so we will get a twofer for Becky's National Park Passport. We headed for Canyonlands Saturday morning.



It was cold and overcast. Canyonlands is a strange park. You have to drive far into the park to see anything. We went no further than the Visitor Center (a 130-mile roundtrip at that) because it was 12 miles more to get to anything worth seeing. And from pictures we have seen at the Visitor Center and elsewhere, what's in the park is pretty much what you can see outside the park on the BLM land that surrounds the whole area.


And because of the weather, the flat light would not give us a very good look at the colors in the formations. (One more thought that we processed: When we visited the area ten years ago we were advised not to bother with Canyonlands because, we were told, it was pretty much just more of what we would otherwise see in the area.)

Saturday afternoon, we watched War Horse, another Red Box movie. It was a bit disappointing, except for the scenes involving the horse. They were pretty spectacular.

On Sunday, after we had pancakes across the street at the Pancake Haus,


we headed for Arches.


The weather was cold but clear and the scenery was terrific.


There are more than 2,500 arches in the park


(thus, the name) and they are surrounded by fabulous sandstone formations. (The park's signature arch---Delicate Arch---appears on Utah license plates.)


We agreed that Arches is well worth visiting.

The rest of Sunday was just relaxing (and walking Ramsey, of course, and getting ready to leave.

Thursday, April 5, through Sunday, April 8, 2012: At Manti (sort of):
The 200-mile trip to Manti (pronounced Man-tie) was easy. Some high winds were due today, but fortunately didn't materialize until late afternoon, as expected. Manti is on US Hwy. 89, the former main route all the way to Salt Lake City. We came through here with the Wheelers three years ago on our way to Park City for Emily's bat mitzvah. (We remember it because the other patrons---local Mormons all, we assumed---stared at us while we had lunch in a local diner.) It's a small town (population 3,700) with a huge, beautiful Mormon temple



(the third one built in Utah). We were told that their annual "Mormon Miracle Pageant" every June draws 30,000 people to the area from all over the world.

We are here on our way to eastern Utah and several national parks, with a side-trip to Park City (without the trailer) to see Donna, David, and Emily. We will get there on Friday, just in time for Seder.

We are staying at the Temple Hill RV Park, located just behind the temple grounds.


It's a simple but decent place, under new ownership, with very nice people who are anxious to please.

We had a nice dinner at Dirk's Farmhouse Restaurant in town, then settled in for the evening---preparing to leave for Park City on Friday.

The 125-mile trip to Park City was interesting---some snow, some rain, some fog, some blue skies---but uneventful. We arrived at Donna's house about 2:00PM. Park City was very cold, having had about six inches of snow overnight, but the roads were clear.


We had Ramsey with us and had to be very careful to keep him downstairs in our room, to avoid confrontations with Donna and David's two dogs, Norman and Coconut.

Donna had invited others for the Seder dinner, and they started showing up around 5:00PM. Among the guests were some school and volleyball friends of Emily


and a friend of Donna's going all the way back to grade school. In all, there were 15 people for dinner. Donna did a great job and we all had a good time celebrating the first night of Passover.



Some of Emily's friends spent the night.

Saturday morning we headed to Salt Lake City to Emily's volleyball tournament. The gym had 11 courts, all of which were holding games every minute. That meant there were 11 referees' whistles blowing all the time. It was very loud and chaotic, but interesting to watch.


Emily's team wasn't doing very well, losing some very close games. We stayed for about four hours, then went back to Donna's house.

We all went to dinner at a sushi place in Park City. I had a chicken curry dish. Delicious. It was a long day and Emily deservedly fell asleep at dinner.


Later that evening, we risked putting Ramsey and Norman together for the first time. It turned out to be no big deal. They got along just fine, and, later, even Coconut was OK having this new dog in the house. It was quite a relief.


Late Sunday morning, we started the return trip to Manti. By this time, the weather had returned to spring-like. We arrived at Manti to 80 degrees and sunshine. It was welcome after the cold in Park City.

Monday, March 26, through Wednesday, April 5, 2012: At St. George:
The 198-mile trip to St. George, Utah was easy and we were so used to the area we didn't even need to use our GPS. We are staying at the St. George RV Resort (it has a Hurricane address, but is actually in Harrisburg---almost a ghost town just outside Hurricane).


We've been here several times so it was familiar to us. It's only a little better than so-so, but it's conveniently located near the Quail Lake Reservoir and across the highway from Red Cliffs Recreation Area. Since it was a travel day, we didn't do much after setting up.

Tuesday was the first day of our hitting the Utah parks. Our primary goal was Bryce Canyon, but we started with Zion (which we didn’t need to go to since Becky already had her passport stamped there some time ago), but we went there for old time’s sake. It turned out to be a bonanza of seeing old friends---Daisy,


Kent, Kelly, Kirsten, Larry & Claudette, Matt, Jim, and Ron. And the scenery was as magnificent as ever. We exited through the tunnel on the East side and headed to Bryce. The park is open but the lodge is closed until March 31, so we mainly just went to the Visitor Center.


We also stopped at Ruby’s Inn to replace a few pieces of winter clothing. We came home via Highway 20 (picked up North of Panguitch) and I-15 (through Cedar City). I had never gone that way; great scenery. We got home at 6:00 PM, after a 254-mile roundtrip. It was a long day, but the dogs were great travelers so it was not difficult.

Wednesday morning we went to our audiologist, Kimball Forbes, to have our hearing devices tuned up and to see if our hearing had deteriorated in the past 15 months. It hadn't.


We celebrated by going to Walmart. Yippee! We also rented "J. Edgar" at the Red Box.

On Thursday, we met Larry and Claudette Van Dusen at the Red Lobster in St. George. They had just finished their season working at the Zion Lodge and were getting some work done on their RV before heading out on a two-month tour before landing at Yellowstone National Park for a new season.


We also got around to watching J. Edgar. The film was definitely not one of Clint Eastwood’s best. It was (or at least seemed) too long, the flashbacks were confusing, there was little reason given to care about the characters, and some of the makeup (other than Leo DiCaprio’s) was terrible.

Friday (the 30th anniversary of the day I quit smoking, by the way) started out as a normal day---we had blood drawn in anticipation of our regular doctors’ visits next week and saw our dermatologist


for our regular checkups---and ended up being very sad. We had to take Daisy to the vet for what turned out to be her last time.

Becky’s tribute:

Full Circle

Eight years ago --- March 2004 --- we adopted five year old “Darling Daisy” from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. We enjoyed that adorable Dalmatian so very much. Daisy used to run like the wind. She loved to massage her face in the grass. She would roll on her back and wiggle in the grass or in the snow. She enjoyed digging in the soft ground at Zion. She would chase lizards. When off leash, she would run after rabbits. Daisy was intrigued by the Zion wild turkeys. At the North Rim, she spent the night in the woods (and rain) with Becky and Pat Wheeler, and she listened attentively to the howling coyotes. At the South Rim, she would sometimes get out and play hide-and-seek in the RV park. She loved chasing cats! Our darling Daisy was such a joy. Even until the end, she was always curious and attentive.


She opened her heart, and ours, to Ramsey, her new brother, in October, 2010. He was seven years younger than she, so he challenged and stimulated her. Daisy was determined to be involved whenever Ramsey was around. She was stubborn this way. More than a year ago, Daisy’s kidneys began to weaken. So did her hind legs. She was put on various medications to make things more comfortable. When Ramsey went on a walk, she was determined to go on the walk. Her back legs began to collapse. She would be propped up and would continue the walk. Last September, we thought we would lose her. The veterinarian painted a bleak picture, but she was not ready. She hung on another six months. We have now come full circle. On March 26, we returned to Southern Utah. Three days ago, we all visited Zion Lodge and the Anasazi Plateau.


This is where it all began. She was able to experience again the sights, sounds, and smells of her first home with us. Our darling Daisy is now gone. Once again, she is running like the wind --- this time in heaven. She is rubbing her face in the clouds. She will be chasing lizards, turkeys, and kitty cats forever. We miss her dearly, and will love her always.

On Saturday, Becky got a 1 1/2-hour massage, after which we saw Act of Valor in an actual theater!!! It was a good movie. Sunday it rained on and off all day, so we didn't do much. Monday started out with short (for me) and slightly longer (for Becky and Ramsey) hikes in the Red Cliffs National Recreation Area


(the entrance is across the street from our RV park). The scenery is very reminiscent of that at Zion NP, and, therefore, magnificent. After the hike, we stopped at Silver Reefs (a couple of miles up the road) a historical site that was a booming silver mining area around the time of the Civil War. There's an interesting museum there, in what was the Wells Fargo wagon stop back when the town was hot.

On Tuesday, we had our sort-of-annual medical appointments with Dr. Joshus Frame in St. George. All was well, notwithstanding our advanced ages and strange lifestyle.

On Wednesday, we both got pedicures at Wal-Mart (and Becky got a manicure, as well), and we finally got to Samurai 21,


the sushi restaurant we used to frequent whenever we were in St. George. (I was clever enough to leave my American Express card there, which I didn't realize until the next day---200 miles away).

The rest of the time involved a little hiking in the nearby mountains, a little shopping, and a little relaxing.

Wednesday, March 21, through Sunday, March 25, 2012: On Our Way to the Utah Parks:
The 234-mile drive to our first stop on the way to the Utah parks, Pahrump, Nevada, was pleasant and easy, and took us through some desert areas we’d never seen before. Quite striking sedimentary layers on the surrounding mountains. We are staying at the Preferred RV Resort, just a block from the center of activity (that is, two casinos) in Pahrump (population 37,000). Pahrump is in the middle of nowhere, halfway between Las Vegas and Death Valley.


The park is very nice and we have a good site.

On setting up, I realized the valve on the black tank was stuck in an open position. That’s not good. I found a local mobile RV repairman, who diagnosed the problem and we agreed on an appropriate solution. Unfortunately, the manufacturer of our rig didn’t agree with our proposal, and we are having a warranty fight as this is written. The repairman is due back on Saturday to fix the valve problem, and to replace a seal in our toilet.

The next order of business was to get Becky a new band for one of her watches, and to pick up an early dinner at the local Panda Express. (Travel days are so exhausting.) Early Thursday morning we headed for the Furnace Creek area of Death Valley, a 120-mile roundtrip.




We needed to get Becky’s National Park Passport stamped. We also wanted to see if any of our buddies from Xanterra days were available. It turns out they (Alma and Mike Norman and Jerry Smith) were not working that day so we had no way to see them. We left them notes, though.

Early Friday we had an appointment to tour our RV park facilities and listen to a sales pitch. We were very impressed and decided to become members.


It gives us a nice alternative to hanging around Southern California all winter. Then we had a late breakfast at Terrible’s Town (one of the casinos), I picked up a prescription for Daisy, rented “My Week With Marilyn” at the Red Box outside Walgreen’s, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. I thought the movie was interesting and well done.

Saturday morning, Becky headed for Las Vegas to drop off some of our stuff at our storage place, and to have lunch with Paula Browne.


Paula was one of Becky’s people when Becky was the manager of the Union Bank branch in Santa Monica in the ‘80s. Paula has now been a commercial banker with a multi-state territory, based at Wells Fargo branch in Las Vegas for many years.

While she was there, I “helped” the repairman (Jesse Rosson, of 1st Choice RV Service), who spent almost five hours working around our trailer. He got everything done. He had a very professional way about him (he was a former Marine, after all) and was quite knowledgeable. Altogether it was a nice experience.

Saturday night we ventured across the street to the Nugget Hotel & Casino, to have a free dinner at the buffet---a treat given to us for having gone through the sales pitch at our RV park. The meal was only so-so, but since it was free that's OK. It also happened to be the eleventh anniversary of the hotel's opening, and we each got a free T-shirt as a bonus.


Whoopee!

When we got home, we watched one of the 60 "The Closer" episodes we have on our DVR. (Saturday night TV is so boring.) On Sunday, we visited one of the two local wineries and restocked our "cellar" with some of their nice stuff. We also hit the Red Box for "Tower Heist" which was pretty good (some very funny dialog) but a bit too unbelievable for a caper movie.

Thursday, March 1, through Tuesday, March 20, 2012: At Soledad Canyon:
The 139-mile trip to the Thousand Trails preserve in Soledad Canyon, at Acton, California, was a piece of cake, as usual. We had considered delaying the trip for one day due to some wind alerts. We decided, though, that the winds were due in areas on only the edges of which we would go, so we got an early start and had only brief winds of any consequence. We set up in our favorite site, B46, and spent the rest of the day unwinding. That night, we had Chinese food from a local place---Wences Bistro---owned by a local Latino who does a great job serving (strangely) Chinese, Italian, and Mexican food.

We are at Soledad primarily to have the easiest access to Los Angeles, so we can see a bunch of family and old friends before we head out on our next substantial trips out of the area.

On Friday, Becky had lunch at the Green Street restaurant in Pasadena with Tom Trine,


an old friend from her banking days. Tom recently lost his wife to a wholly unexpected heart attack. Sad.

On Saturday, we dropped off the dogs and headed to Becky’s dad’s home for a brief visit and ended up taking him on a field trip to drive by our old house and his old house---both in Pasadena (and to get some gas in his car).

We followed that by heading to Manhattan Beach to attend the “First Saturday” party at the home of Diane Chierichetti and Paul Basile.


We had already conned them into letting us spend the night, so we had a wonderful, unrestricted time at the party. Among the guests were Barbara Coad and Chris and Alan Buckelew. Alan is the CEO of the Princess Cruise line. Because Princess and its affiliates (Carnival and Costa Concordia) have had some unfortunate incidents lately, known worldwide, involving Alan in some serious damage control, we were careful not to ask Alan about any current events. It was refreshing (probably for all of us) not to talk business with him. We did, though, tell him we enjoyed our Princess Cruise in Asia last November.


It was fun seeing all of them---and, as usual, Paul made a delicious dinner.

On Sunday, we headed to Surfside, a gated community on the beach just south of Seal Beach, to visit Nora and Brian Straight, old friends we hadn’t seen in several years.


Brian built their home there ten years ago. It is a dazzling place sited right on the beach, in the first row (of three rows) of houses in the small community. Their son Ivan, who was one day short of his 19th birthday, was there. Their other son, Adrian, is at school at UC Santa Barbara, so he was absent. We had a great time catching up on our respective lives since we were last together---six years ago at Ivan‘s bar mitzvah, we recalled.


We spent Sunday night at the Jonathan Club in downtown LA, having takeout sushi from the nearby Ralph’s market, and relaxing after the busy weekend. I had an appointment Monday morning with Dr. Michael Burton in Los Feliz to get some prescription renewals. Dr. Burton was my regular doctor when we lived in the area (until 1998) and it was nice to see him again. While in the area, we called Judie Carson (a long-time friend and former neighbor) and ended up having lunch (sushi again) at En Sushi on Hillhurst Avenue with Judie and her grandson, Henry.


Tuesday, we really unwound.

On Wednesday, we met Don and Elaine LaMarr at their home in La Canada, and went with them to dinner at Cafe Sole near their home.


I had linguini arrabiatta, as usual. And it was very tasty, as usual. Don and Elaine are old Junior Chamber buddies of Becky's. (Factoid: On our first date, on December 3, 1982, Becky and I stumbled into the LaMarrs at the Carl's Jr. in Mojave, on our way to a ski weekend at Mammoth Mountain.) Don is days away from retiring, and they have planned a long, cross-country road trip (by car, not by RV, but we're sure they will eventually succumb to the joys of RVing). Welcome to the nomadic lifestyle.

Thursday was Becky's family's day to meet with Bill's doctor for an update on his progress. As it turned out, the results of a battery of tests---which were to be the subject of the meeting---did not get to the doctor's office in time, so the meeting was not as fruitful as anticipated. But lunch at the Brookside Golf Club with the gang was a hit, according to Becky.

Saturday began with dropping off Daisy and Ramsey at the local kennel so we could spend Saturday night at the Jonathan Club in downtown LA. We leisurely headed for LA, stopping in Studio City to have our truck washed for the first time in months,


and---about a mile from downtown---realized that we had not put my suitcase in the truck. We had to turn around and head back to Soledad Canyon, a 100-mile roundtrip, and race back to get ready for dinner and the show we had planned. Dinner was to be at Ammo, a restaurant in Hollywood (on Highland Avenue, north of Santa Monica Boulevard) recommended by Honoria Vivell. According to Becky, the place had a dress code, and, since we were going to the Pantages Theater later, I was to wear "hard" shoes, which was a change from my daily tennis shoes. I dutifully packed my shoes, but, when we unpacked at the Jonathan Club, I realized I had forgotten to pack any appropriate socks. The alternative choices were to wear my tennis shoes, gym socks with my hard shoes, or my hard shoes with no socks at all.


The decision was no socks with my hard shoes. I thought I looked like a hick. I later found out that style was very hot currently. Lucky for me. The dinner was superb, by the way.

After dinner we headed for the theater to see William Shatner's one-man show "Shatner's World, We Just Live in It."


He spends an uninterrupted two hours on stage just talking about his life. Mostly funny, sometimes serious. Some video clips and pictures. It was very entertaining. Footnote: As a sign of his immense popularity, he got a standing ovation when he first entered the stage.

We returned to the Jonathan Club to sleep after a long day. We lost an hour because Daylight Savings Time began at 2:00 AM Sunday morning. We had a 10:00 AM meeting time at Becky's dad's house for a field trip, so we couldn't sleep in. We arrived on time, and Barbara Coad joined the three of us for a trip to the Huntington Library. I had heard of the place for years, but had never been there. Wow!!! It's a marvelous collection of museums and gardens, on 208 acres in the center of a beautiful residential neighborhood in upscale San Marino. It had been the home of Henry Huntington, a railroad mogul who passed away in 1927. His home is one of the museums. He built a second museum on the property before he died. And a few more were added later. The highlight for us was the magnificent Chinese Garden.


We all remarked how it reminded us of one we saw in Shanghai last November. We had lunch at the cafe adjacent to the Chinese Garden.

By late afternoon Sunday we were exhausted, so we picked up the dogs and crashed for the evening.

On Monday, we had lunch at Mimis Café in Valencia with Mark Brown, a long-time friend, fellow attorney, occasional client, and one-time employee of my old law firm.

We hadn’t seen him since he and his significant other, Pat Thomas, visited us at Zion NP in July of 2004. (Pat was visiting her mother in Maryland, or she would have joined us.) It was fun seeing him again and catching up.

On Tuesday, we rested. (Thank you.)

On Wednesday, Becky had lunch in Sherman Oaks with Shelley Gibson and Aileen Garrigues, friends of hers from her banking days,

while I shepherded the dogs. Exhausting. On Thursday, Becky returned to Los Angeles to have a facial and haircut. I, of course, stayed back to keep the dogs happy. Exhausting, again.

Friday was a busy day, starting with Becky seeing her chiropractor, Mark Adachi, while I met with Wendy and John, her sister and brother, and Bill, her father, to meet with Bill’s doctor to get (again) the results of his series of tests. Again, the written results were not yet available, but Dr. Chien gave us the oral report.

Then we all met for lunch at the La Fiesta Grande restaurant in Pasadena,



followed by a trip to Costco in Santa Clarita by Becky and me, to load up---and to cash our annual refund check from American Express.

While in the doctor's office, we were given a brochure advertising the fancy device that had been used for the tests. In my usual "word nerd" fashion, I read the brochure critically, noting typos and other errors (not understanding the medical jargon, of course). When I got back to our trailer, I sent an email to the company pointing out the errors and suggesting that they might want to update their brochure. Within 15 minutes, I received a response from the doctor who owns the testing company saying they were just days away from updating the brochure due to some technical improvements in the equipment, and thanking me for my input. I think he was appreciative.

Saturday brought rain, all day long, and some miserable walks with two very wet dogs. But we survived. Becky also took Ramsey to a shot clinic to start on a rattlesnake-prevention regimen. (The vet thought it wouldn't matter with Daisy since she's so old anyway. How rude!) The rest of the weekend and Monday were uneventful, except for a couple of shopping sprees at Costco and other chic establishments. Another project for Monday was to create a poster map of our 2012 Spring and Summer Trip. Becky presented this to her Dad so that he would be able to follow our seven month journey of over 12,000 miles---from Southern California through the Canadian border provinces. We will be travelling as far east as Montreal in Canada and as far east as Niagara Falls in the United States.


We had extended our stay for two days so Becky could attend a welcome home party
in Studio City on Tuesday for Shelley Thompson, a buddy from banking days, who just returned to LA from a stint as Vice-Chair at The Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu. The party was at the Studio City home of Mary Bankston, another banking buddy.