Wiebe's Wanderings: Bryce Canyon

We departed home on October 15. We got up early and I got busy winterizing the house while Lori headed out to the dentist for a filling replacement. The appointment was supposed to have been on the previous Friday but a freak snowstorm with massive power loss across the province resulted in her dentist office closing due to a lack of electricity. We headed over to Town & Country Campground where I had parked the trailer for loading and some much needed cleaning. We left about noon with our first destination being Regina.

An uneventful drive and pulled into a mostly empty campground on the outskirts of Regina. We spent the night and started hooking up in the morning for our trip to Lethbridge. I was pulling in the slides when a fuse blew. No power to raise the rear stabilizing jacks or bring in the slides. Fortunately this had happened to us before and I knew where the fuse was located. Then I started looking through my tool box for my collection of fuses. I looked everywhere, well almost everywhere, and could not find the replacement fuses. I remembered packing them but I also remember reorganizing and repacking a number of items and thought I may have forgot to put the fuses back into the trailer. I ended up scavenging a fuse from another circuit in the panel with a view to buy some new fuses in Lethbridge. I ended up finding my spare fuses later that day while setting up in Lethbridge.

Once we were set up we headed over to Jeff and Carrie's place for dinner and a visit with them and Oscar, Jack and Milo. How fast they are growing. Oscars voice has dropped a couple of octaves and has his learners drivers license. Will be nice once he gets his full license this winter, turned 16 on Dec 6. With the boys all in different sports leagues and music lessons an extra driver will certainly help getting everyone to their destination on time. So proud of Jeff and Carrie for the family they have created.

We got to Butte, Mt the next day and that's where the toilet broke. A small plastic tab on the flushing mechanism broke off. After a few phone calls we located a Camping World in Idaho Falls which had the model we needed in stock. It was on our route south so we stopped in and picked up the replacement and headed on to Pocatello, Id. for the night.

The Cowboy RV park in Pocatello was almost full up and the only spot we could get was a double long site and we were parked in the rear site. Once set up my truck would be sandwiched between our trailer and the 5th wheel in front of us. Not great but ok for an overnighter. The real challenge was the length of our site did not allow me to pull the truck clear of the trailer after unhooking. I unhooked and pulled the truck ahead enough to clear the hitch and planned to lower the pin to about 1" above the bed of the truck. We would still be nose high but it was the best I could do. So I'm busy watching the pin as I lower the nose of the trailer. I'm getting close to stopping but for some reason the distance between the pin and the truck bed isn't getting any smaller. I still have my finger on the switch to lower the trailer but the gap isn't getting any smaller. What the hell is happening. Then I look up and see what the problem is. Since I couldn't pull the truck up far enough for the pinbox to clear the truck bed the nose of the trailer ended up resting on the side rails of the truck. Once the two met the weight of the trailer was pushing on the truck rails and compressing the trucks suspension. I expressed my frustration with a few colourful words, not to be repeated here, and reversed the front landing gear. Thankfully no damage was done to the rails of the truck. Stupid Stupid Stupid.

Each year in our travels there is always something which causes additional stress to the travels. Some of my favourite:
Pulling into a gas station where the canopy is an inch too low, cracking the air conditioner shroud. Then not finding out about it until driving down the interstate in heavy traffic and watching in my sideview mirror as the shroud flies into the air, tumbling down onto the roadway just in front of a semi. Thank goodness only my pride was damaged.
Then there was the time we hooked up, left our TV antenna up and ended up having to replace the antenna at our next stop. Later in the same trip while in a campground heading to our RV site I pulled over to the side of a narrow roadway to allow someone to pass. I knew I would be brushing up against some small branches of some very large Lilac bushes however I wasn't worried as it was mostly small twigs and leaves. Then I heard the rip. Unbeknownst to me there was a light standard hiding overhead in the bushes and it ripped the rubber roof.
On one trip down, just after we had had the trailer into our RV dealer to install a new battery, we stopped in York, NE. It was cold and we had our propane furnace running which runs off of 12 volt power as do most of our lights. Then the lights started to dim. Next to go would be the blower on the furnace. Turns out the RV Dealer had crossed the wires when installing our new battery and we had just run it dead and blew the main fuses in our surge suppressor. Luckily there was a Walmart close by and I bought a battery charger. After switching the wires on the battery terminals I hooked up the charger and we had light and heat.
Last year was probably the scariest. We had been going down some serious downgrades in New Mexico when I heard a change in the pitch of the engine. I looked at Lori and said "That doesn't sound good". Everything still seemed to be operating ok so we continued on. Next rest stop our travel companions pointed out the my truck was smoking. What the hell. I checked all the fluid levels, slid underneath and looked around. Not sure what I was looking for but thought it was the thing to do. We babied the truck into Tucson and turns out during one of those downgrades the truck shifted hard into 3rd gear and blew the rear differential seal. Fixed under warranty but all it takes is mechanical problems to turn an otherwise enjoyable trip into a headache.
There have been other more minor things and all RVers have their stories to tell. At least no blown tires at highway speed, fingers crossed, or other life threatening incidents. But the culmination of these incidents plus a few other items has caused the romance of pulling 14,000 lbs. down the highway to slowly disappear. We still enjoy seeing new wonderful sights but the day we drive through the front gates of Gold Canyon RV & Golf resort we each take a breath of relief with a collective feeling that we are home. Each year we discuss the switch to buying a park model and selling the truck and trailer. This year we made the leap. More on this in later posts but this will be our last year of RVing as we are now owners of a park model. A new chapter with new opportunities and no doubt new challenges.

So on to some pictures from our trip down.

One of our stops was in Fillmore, UT. Not particularly notable however there was an old pasture behind our trailer with a sky full of menacing clouds but with enough room left for the setting sun to shine through.

Our first major stop on the way down was at Bryce Canyon National Park. We have now hit 4 of the big 5 National Parks in Utah. The only one eluding us so far is Capitol Reef. All of them have been jaw dropping with Zion probably being our favourite but Arches and Bryce Canyon are not far behind.

Seeing Bryce Canyon can be done simply by driving up the highway along the rim of the canyons. View points along the 18 mile journey are often right on the side of the highway so all one needs to do is park, get out of the car, walk a few feet and take in amazing views. The first lookout is at 7758 ft with the last at 9115 ft. Of course if one wants to be a little more adventurous there are plenty of hikes down to the canyon floor. We went down a few, at least part way, but we were not in hiking shape just yet and the walk back up involves plenty of stops and lots of huffing and puffing trying to calm the racing heart.
I will break up the pictures by each of the Canyon Views.

Agua Canyon at an elevation of 8800 ft. The valley floor below is probably about a 2000 ft drop. I can only imagine what the views are like from the floor. The pictures were taken on Oct 24 at about 9:00 AM. Still get the amazing soft morning light which really brings out the colours.