We topped off the day at Slickrock with a pizza at Eddie McStiff's with Renee, after meeting her most cool parents. The long day ended after midnight, and you can rest assured that we rested very well, and obviously didn't head off to Colorado that night.
Landscape Arch—one of the world's longest.
On Tuesday we planned to head back to the snow, but first we cruised the few miles to Arches National Park, where we hiked among the world famous rock formations in awe. In addition to the amazing natural sights, we also got a bit of culture. As we hiked up the canyon towards Landscape Arch, we noticed a few different young girls pass us on the trail. Each wore long dresses, with long sleeves and long johns underneath. Each had long blond hair in a perfect braid hanging down. Once, we rounded a bend in the trail and saw six girls fitting the same description all together, followed closely by an older woman and man, three young boys wearing long sleeves (it was quite warm outside, which was why this was a bit odd) and a baby.
We met another couple under one of the arches, and inquired about the group.
"They are probably Polygamists," the lady replied. "They've broken off from the Mormon church to live in a more orthodox way, since polygamy is now illegal and mainstream Mormons do not want to be associated with the practice. The women always wear dresses with long underwear, and the men never wear short sleeves."
Extreme silliness.
When we returned from the hike, there were five large vehicles parked in front of our rig, and all were occupied by these folks. They were all picnicing, all with braided hair, and all in dresses. We only saw one grown man among probably 30 women and children. Which of course brought up all sorts of questions about sleeping arrangements, but we were left to wonder among ourselves as we drove back into Moab.
Aryn under Arches.
Unfortunately, after the steep descent out of Arches National Park, the Ford F-250 we call The Beast decided it was time to stop running for a while. We gave him fuel. We gave him encouragement. But The Beast decided he didn't like going down steep hills and he needed to rest, and that was that. We made an appointment at the Ford dealership for the morning and made a much needed visit to the washing machines.
As these things tend to happen in clusters, the visit to Ford revealed the problem part, (which we purchased to install later), and then the generator on the camper stopped working. We headed out to Colorado anyway, and happened across an Onan generator dealer on the way into Grand Junction. The diagnostic revealed the need for a new electronic board, which they would have to order in from Denver. So to the tune of the cash register and with the assurance that the part would arrive by 10am on Thursday, we settled in Grand Junction to wait for FedEx.
Hopefully snow will once again be in the forecast for Thursday.
