Moab, UT August 28 and 29, 2011 continued

Sunday, August 28, 2011

I posted photos to an album called Moab, Utah. They include the RV Park, petroglyphs, and rainbow.

After getting back from town about noon today, I ate lunch and then cooked some chicken that I had been marinating and also some rice so I could have a home cooked dinner and some leftovers. It sure tasted good. I had been eating sandwiches for a few days.

I was sitting outside my camper since it was cooler outside than in it. A lady that I met the other day at the campground named Standing Seal came by to say hi. She is the Native American lady that I think I wrote about the other day. We talked some more today and found out how much more we have in common than when we talked the other day. She is very spiritual and we were able to share stories of a spiritual nature and learn how much more other people have similar experiences and that we have inner voices we listen to that guide us. I told her about some of my stories which lead me to this campground and how if any of those instances had changed I would not be here and we would not have met. It turns out that since we both have been to the same pow wow in November in Florida we know some of the same people.

She told me she has a Native American flute but doesn’t know how to play it. So we both got out our flutes and even though I am not a great flute player, I was able to give her some tips and get her comfortable where she said she is going to be practicing her flute. I left mine out too so maybe I will do the same. I had only taken it out of the storage container under my table twice since I have been on the road. It’s hard to believe I have been on this trip for a little over 2 months already. In some ways, it feels like it’s been longer and this is my only life.

I’ve been here since last Wednesday and I am not used to being in one place very long. I am ready to move on most probably Tuesday when the package arrives. I’m hoping my transmission gets fixed in a day or two so I can get to Mesa Verde National Park by Friday or Saturday and that there are passes I can buy for the tour of Longhouse at the park. They only give tours until Labor Day and it looks interesting. It’s the old ruins of the Native Americans and it’s only accessible with a ranger on a guided tour. The tour stops on Labor Day which is this weekend and there are only a limited number of tickets sold for each of the tours held a few times a day.

The sun is going behind the clouds and it’s just barely cooling off, now that it’s about 7 p.m. It’s been getting dark earlier. It’s dark by a little after 8 p.m. It’s getting light about 7 a.m. I’ve been sleeping a bit later the last week or so, guess it’s because it is not light out at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning anymore. I filled my water tank and emptied my dirty tank so I am ready to head out tomorrow if I can. If not, I will top off the water on Tuesday and empty my tank so I can start the next leg of the trip all supplied. I still have almost ¾ tank of propane so I’m okay with that. It’s helped being plugged into electricity most of the days for the last week. The fridge runs on electric when I’m plugged in, if not, it runs on propane.

I came back to the campsite and I am not able to get my webpage again, so I’m typing this narrative and will upload it when I can access the page.

Monday, August 29th.

I ate breakfast and took a shower and then sat out and enjoyed the cool morning air. I drove to town and had an ice cream cone, the raspberry chocolate chip ice cream at the Wake and Bake is absolutely delicious.  I also met a lady about noon today at a meeting who is from Dallas, and like me has some health issues and left her job to travel like I am doing.  How we met was very interesting, and of course I know it was a God deal.  We got to share our stories which are almost the same and we exchanged phone numbers so we can keep in touch. The interesting thing is we almost did not meet.  Standing Seal the lady at the campground stopped by this morning and asked if I wanted to go with her, her husband, their dogs, and two friends to go jeeping on a mountain for the day.  I didn’t go, it didn’t seem what I needed to do today and I was hoping my package arrived, which it didn’t.  If I had gone jeeping, I would not have been at the place to meet the lady I needed to meet today to talk about our stories and share our experiences which is what we both needed to do, especially since we both are from Texas.

I thought I had a small leak in my black tank because I could smell something and saw a little puddle where something was dripping. One of the guys at the meeting said he would look at it, and there happened to be a mechanic also there that said he would.  We found the source of the leak and also that a bracket was missing. So I went to the mechanics shop and he fixed both things for me and he looked at everything underneath to be sure it was secure and it was. I had a little concern that perhaps something got shaken loose on those bumpy gravel roads, or the dips in the roads and parking lots that wreak havoc on the underneath of vehicles.

So I stopped at McDonald’s once again to upload this blog and now I will go back to the campground in a while and then hopefully the package arrives tomorrow. Cathy said she will call me when it does, then I head south to Cortez, CO for the transmission repair.