Running the Traps - With a Twist

Our days have been routine since returning to our volunteer assignment after the mini “vacation” to Zion.  Just running the traps, scooping fire pits in the morning, checking in campers in the afternoon, generator checks in the evening and quiet hours checks after 10:00pm.  It was on one of the evening generator checks that something not so routine, shall we say, presented itself.

With Arizona not participating in daylight savings time the sun sets just a few minutes after 7:30 and with our heavily wooded campground, it gets dark quick.  At 8:00pm we walk the campground to do the generator check because the vehicles currently at our disposal are louder than any generator (except those el-cheepos from Harbor Freight & Northern Tool.  You can hear those things over a jet engine.)  We have to carry flashlights lest we step in a hole or run into a tree.  But in the first few minutes of our rounds we can manage on the twilight, and that is just what we were doing on this day.  Our walk starts at the top of the campground and we make our way around the perimeter road, following the giant oval until we are back at our camper.  Half way through, at the bottom of the oval the light had begun to fail us.  RVs, tents and people were reduced to just shadowy figures.  Until that is, a flashlight from within a campsite changed that.

There was a momentary illumination immediately to our left and we both turned our heads in that direction just as there was some anxious voices in the language of the Netherlands.  I don’t speak that language but I am pretty sure it was something to the effect of; “For God’s sake, turn off that light!”  At that point Cyndee’s voice came through the returned darkness saying; “Was that man naked?” 

Yes, yes he was.  But by this time we had taken a few steps forward and now his RV blocked our view of him.  I was able to see a stream of water running from beneath the RV though.  We both realized that this guy was using his RV’s outdoor water sprayer to take a shower.  I know that the European’s views on nudity are a little more relaxed than what we Americans are accustomed to but this guy was standing in his campsite butt-naked taking a shower in full view of anybody with half-decent night vision.  He had a perfectly good shower inside his RV but he just had to take full advantage of being in the great outdoors.  Too bad he did not heed the rules about no outdoor showers or release of any water onto the ground.  Actually, it was too bad for me.  I was the one that had to go back and hit him with my flashlight beam to let him know he had been observed committing a federal crime.  Like a deer in headlights he stood there holding a towel in front of him (his northern-clime-white backside reflecting even the faintest starlight for all the campsites behind to see).   I think I detected a glow of red at the picnic table behind him.  My guess is that this was the teenage son that made the mistake of illuminating dad to begin with.  Or maybe it was no mistake at all and he was just trying not to bust a gut as I was educating dad about the rules.

We’ll never know.  By the time we did first rounds the next morning at 6:00am, they were packed up and gone.

Zion National Park, What a Beauty!

You would think that as retirees and full time RVers the idea of taking a vacation would be a bit odd.  After all, are we not on vacation all the time?  Well, not exactly, but still, the idea of taking a vacation feels odd to us.  But we did think about it and Cyndee has found us a motel room for two nights a little ways outside the east entrance to Zion National Park.

From our location on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we are about a three hours drive to Zion.  We are still scratching our heads as to why we never made it Zion last year when we were camp hosting at the North Rim.  We did one little overnight trip to Bryce Canyon and that was it.  This year we are making a more concerted effort to get out and about on our days off and see the sights. 
This set of four days off we'll be in a motel for two nights and eating in restaurants for three days, just like real tourists!

So we packed our bags (yep, we kept a couple of duffle bags for just such an occasion) and headed north to Kanab and then just a few more miles north out of Kanab to Mt Carmel, UT where our Motel room awaited us.  Coming down from the North Rim to Mt Carmel was a study in climate change.  We went from the shade-cooled air wafting through ponderosa pines to the furnace of a semi-arid valley.  The trip into the canyon of Zion promised to be even hotter.  And it was.

Zion is a park of few roads.  There is the one that connects the east entrance to the south entrance and then there is one that branches off this road that parallels the Virgin River and goes up-canyon to the Lodge.  This up-canyon road is restricted to shuttle buses and lodge guests.  If you want to see the lodge or the most famous parts of the canyon you either have to walk, ride a bike or take the shuttle.  But when it got down to it, the shuttle was a pretty sweet deal.  It was free, it stopped at all the trail heads and you never had to wait more than a couple minutes for one to come by.

Coming in from the east entrance affords a special treat.  There are two tunnels, one that is short in length but tall and wide in clearance.  The other, built a very long time ago is almost a mile long (at the time it was built it was the longest tunnel in the country) but its height and width clearance is not so impressive.  Back then all they had to worry about for vehicle size was touring cars and small delivery trucks.  They never envisioned the eighteen wheelers or the monster trucks and RV's that are so common today.  Consequently, if you drive an RV, so long as it is shorter than 13 feet tall, you have to pay a $15 fee to pass through the tunnel under "controlled access".  There are little huts at each end of the tunnel with rangers stationed at them.  They allow two-way traffic to pass through the tunnel as long as they are motorcycles, passenger cars, vans and such.  But as soon as a dual rear wheel anything or a trailer shows up, they stop traffic from entering the tunnel in both directions, let the tunnel get clear of any vehicles in it and then allow oversized traffic in one direction to proceed with the instructions to drive in the middle, straddling the center stripe.

When we pulled up in Big Gulp there was no hesitation, the stop signs went up and radio calls were made to the other end.  Traffic started backing up on both ends of the tunnel while they coordinated the "dance" that had to be done to get large vehicles from one side to the other. 

That's a little hole in a big rock.

But as soon as they see Big Gulp the Rangers come out and the stop signs go up.

Now we wait for a mile's worth of traffic coming from the other way to clear the tunnel.

It is almost time to go.  Gotta shed the sunglasses and turn on the driving lights.

And here we go.  I really wanted to honk the air horns in the tunnel but Cyndee convinced me it was probably not a good idea.

As you pass through the tunnel you get a brief look at several galleries that have been cut in the tunnel and look out over the canyon you are about to descend into when you exit the tunnel.  Back in the day, traffic was so minimal that visitors could stop in the tunnel, get out and enjoy the giant windows in the rock.  Not today, stopping in the tunnel is strictly forbidden.

But just a short distance from the west exit side of the tunnel is a turnout that gives a great view of Zion Arch and the last gallery before exiting the tunnel.

On this outing we did something a little bit different.  Rather than just take still photographs, we also took a number of videos.  Then, upon returning home, we fused the stills and video into a "movie".  I am embedding that movie here and going to let you folks try it out to see how it works.

After working with it for nearly two weeks I came to realize that the water in Zion really captured my attention.  I guess after being in arid environments for nearly eighteen months I was taken with running water.  Hence, lots of water pictures/video in the movie.

The movie illustrates just how much of an amateur I am at this video stuff.  I'll have to get much better at it if I am to post more of them.

Just for Grins

We recently had cycled into one of our three day weekends, which for us is a Mon, Tues, Wed.  Having not made any plans to do anything definite we had only made a brief trip up to one of the big overlooks one afternoon.  More time was spent doing housekeeping and laundry as well as some time writing on this blog.

But we also do not miss the opportunity to enjoy the moments of absolutely gorgeous weather regularly bestowed upon us.  It is quite enjoyable to sit in our camp chairs and watch the light as the sun finds ever changing paths through the ponderosa pines.

On one of these mornings we had been sitting quietly for some time, the campground was unusually empty and the people that were here were making themselves scarce.  The silence was noticeable and we were drinking it in.  Just about then movement caught our eye.  A golden mantle squirrel (somewhat rare and found only in places with habitat similar to the North Rim) and a chipmunk started foraging around the trees directly in front of us.  They would sniff around, dig and come up with a nut they buried last fall.  Nothing unusual about that but the squirrel soon got really close, and eventually took interest in what I was doing.  Which was nothing more than watching what he was doing.

Sitting in my camp chair, legs crossed I watched the squirrel get closer and closer.  There were frequent duck-and-retreats but there was always a return, and with each return a closer approach until finally he was standing on my one foot touching the ground.  Once he was on my foot there were no more retreats.  The next move was straight up my leg.

A couple of hops up my leg with a short stop at my thigh just to be sure everything is okay.

Then it is like; "Hey, how you doin'?"

The squirrel's chipmunk buddy did a great job of photo-bombing.

He seemed pretty relaxed but I was keeping my hands away and the camera between him and my face.  These things have been known to inflict serious bites.

After a couple of circles around my lap he was off and back to digging up his cache.

Having spent the morning communing with little forest creatures we got a wild hair and on the spur of a moment decided to drive to Kanab for lunch.  It's only a 170 mile round trip and we have all day - why not?  Besides, we never got our hamburger on the 4th, now seemed as good a time as any to take care of that.

Of course it is not a non-stop drive to Kanab.  We have to stop in and see Betsy and Tyler at the country store.  That's twenty miles out, twenty five more miles and we are at Jacob Lake where we have to stop and get cookies.  Its a law, you can not go past Jacob Lake Inn without getting their home made cookies.  Finally, we make it to Big Al's Thunderbird Drive Inn where we both got grilled chicken sandwiches instead of hamburgers.

The drive-in, in addition to being right under a 3G tower, has a good, free Wi-Fi signal.  While waiting for the sandwiches all the bells and whistles on our phones started going off.  Emails, text messages, app updates, you name it, it came in.

Being in town, a town that has not one but two grocery stores, we took the opportunity to restock fresh strawberries and vegetables.  Our favorite place is getting to be Honey's Marketplace.  They have a pretty good selection of items but the fresh foods have to come so far before they make it to the store's shelves that they are pretty "mature" the moment they are set out.  And, as a bonus my receipt from buying groceries gets me a discount on fuel.  Its a sliding scale from 3 to 15 cents a gallon, depending on how much you spend on groceries.



Honey's is a big step above anything we had access to at Big Bend.  But it is also more than 3 times the distance.

The time in Kanab was short.  We did not leave the North Rim until one in the afternoon and we wanted to get back before the sun went down and the deer came out.  That strategy turned out to be good for more than just the safety aspect.  We were treated to a pretty spectacular sunset just as we were passing through the meadow.

It was amazing how fast the light changed.  At first there was a double rainbow but before I could get stopped and the camera out, it had evaporated.  But in its place were these rays of golden light.  And then, just as quickly it changed again and buffalo got in on the act.

Not a bad day for everything being spur of the moment.

Independence Day on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

As full time RV'ers, retired and doing volunteer work year 'round we have found that the coming and going of weekends and holidays don't feel the same as they used to.  Since starting our adventures in volunteering the middle of last year we have been on duty every single holiday.  And given that we are living in the places that you would go to on vacation, the "rhythm" of anticipating paid days off, the long weekend road trip and the dragging yourself back to work after the holiday, are gone.  I'm not complaining, it is just an observation we have made as we adjust to retirement.  I suspect we are no different than anyone else in this regard that has retired, regardless of whether they are fulltimers or volunteers.  Except maybe the part about living in all the vacation destinations.

So, with our new rhythm not fully developed we woke up one day with talk of a parade, decorating the Polaris and a bar-b-q lunch provided by the concessionaire for park employees.  Wow, it must be the 4th of July or something!  Who knew?  Evidently everybody but us.

National Parks forbid fireworks as a matter of course.  But with us being in a stage 2 fire ban (smokers are required to get inside their vehicles to smoke) there were not even going to be fires for roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.  But the folks with the concessionaire and park service do try to mark the occasion with their own brand of a parade.  They drag out every vehicle that will run and put bunting, streamers, balloons and flags on them.  Then they make a slow loop through the lodge parking lot and past the front entrance of the lodge itself.  The extra twist that they throw in is that they turn the whole thing into a water gun fight.  The lodge gives out squirt guns, super soakers and such to the guests to shoot at the parade as it goes by.  But the parade is armed too.  There are fire trucks and the lodge fills the bar-b-q train with employees that have their own water arsenal.

The Bar-B-Q Train.
Didn't get a photo of it all decorated for the 4th.

The park even had a Smokey The Bear costume that one of the guys from the fire station donned and was the Grand Marshall of the parade, chauffeured at the front of the parade in a Polaris ATV.

We were informed that since we were on duty for the 4th that we had to decorate our Polaris, although we were not encouraged to be part of the parade.  Our Polaris, the all electric one, had just been taken to St. George for some long overdue maintenance.  Among other things, the brakes had been worn all the way down to the caliper pistons and the rotors were ground down to nearly nothing.  In the interim the law enforcement guys had loaned us the use of their gas powered ATV.  It is the one they use to patrol backcountry roads and it had not seen the business end of a water hose and soap bucket in a long, long time.

At 5:30am on the 4th I took the loaner Polaris to the wash bay to see if I could knock off a few layers of mud, trying to get down to paint so we would have something to stick decorations to.  A lot of that mud had become a permanent part of the ATV.  After about an hour I called it good and took it back to the campground where I had some automotive detailing supplies.  There was lots of black plastic trim and its balloon tires that could benefit from some Armor All and tire black.

Using the Armor All and tire black on the patrol ATV is best described as putting lipstick on a pig.  But it did make a difference so I guess it was worth the effort.  We attached flags and stuck on stars and banners.  We were ready to do rounds on the 4th of July.

While the park service used official vehicles like patrol trucks, fire engines and service vehicles, the concessionaire used, in addition to the Bar-B-Q train, panel trucks, recycling trucks and house keeping golf carts.  But there was one entry of a home grown nature.  One of the year 'round maintenance guys (one of only about 4 people that stay all winter and has done it for the last 27 years) has built himself a truck that is made from a mish-mash of all sorts and years of vehicle parts.  This truck has a stake-bed on it and for the occasion of the 4th of July Parade/Squirt Gun Fight he mounted a 300 gallon water tank, complete with pump, hose and spray nozzle that he could operate from the driver's seat.  And to top all that off, he wore an Uncle Sam suit, complete with top hat.

Uncle Sam with the world's largest squirt gun.
The beard is real.

The parade was scheduled for 4pm and the employee bar-b-q was set for 2pm.  Cyndee and I and our camp host counterparts, Ed & Elinore, all piled into their truck for the short drive over to the employee housing area with visions of hot dogs and hamburgers dancing in our heads.  We had not had a drop of rain since Mother's Day weekend, and like so many days before there were a good deal of fair weather clouds building in this early afternoon.  You know, those big, puffy, white clouds that do little more than throw some occasional shade.  But in just the five minutes it took us to drive over to the picnic, the clouds started showing dark bottoms.

Not giving it much thought, the cooks fired up the grills and set out the baked beans, slaw and burger fixins.  They had no more than put patties on the grill and taken the plastic wrap off the trays of side dishes than there was a clap of thunder and the skies opened up.  Everything was water logged in a matter of seconds.  I guess we were getting some help in sticking to our diet.  We made a dash for the truck and went back to the campground to change out of our wet clothes.  The talk on this afternoon was that this rain marked the beginning of the monsoon.  And later that night when we were watching the Phoenix news channel they also declared that the weather pattern had made the distinct shift to monsoon.  I guess it won't be long until the fire ban is lifted and we'll be back to cleaning fire pits.  I may get me a roasted marshmallow yet.

The rain lasted off and on for almost two hours.  There was just enough break so that the parade could get underway at its scheduled time.  Normally it is a hot day and people welcome getting squirted, but today's rain had cooled things down into the low 60's and people were putting on light fleece and rain slickers.  The parade was still a big hit and it even added to its route by including two passes around the outside oval of the campground.