Utah | FabGrandma

Our First Trip To Kanab

April 26, 2012 By Fab Grandma 7 Comments

Our first trip of the season to Kanab, Utah came a little earlier than planned.Both Fabgrandpa and our friend, Geogypsy, were sick and needed to go to the doctor at the clinic in town. I drove the ambulance, I mean, truck. As we left the North Rim, it was a gorgeous day. Because the road is not open yet, there was very little traffic out there. The only people we passed were people who work up here, and Arizona DOT employees where were spraying oil on the road. Everyone is getting ready for opening day.

A beautiful day

When we got to the scenic view on Hwy 89A, we saw clouds that were raining, but the rain was not touching the ground. I learned from Geogypsy that this is called virga. I have never known that it had a name.

Virga--rain that doesn't touch the ground.

We got into town and went straight to the Kane County Medical Clinic, where the two of them had appointments. They were seen promptly, diagnosed, and sent on their way with prescriptions in hand. Fabgrandpa has bronchitis. We went over to the pharmacy and dropped off the prescriptions, and went to lunch at Houston’s Trails End. It was too late for breakfast, so we ordered hamburgers (mine with no bun as usual). After lunch we picked up the meds, did a bit of grocery shopping, and headed back up the plateau.

Near the Utah/Arizona border

The sky was looking a little more fierce but the rain was still evaporating before it got to the ground. We saw several lightening strikes in that storm.

Dark skies in northern Arizona

The farther we went down the road, the darker the sky got, but the rain was still not falling all the way to the ground. We probably only had twenty drops of rain hit the windshield the whole day.

Virga in Northern Arizona

We got back home around 4:30, with no rain to speak of. I am happy to report that both patients are recovering nicely from their respective ailments.

Filed Under: Arizona, Life on the road, Utah

Road Trip! A Whirlwind Trip To Mesquite, Nevada

July 28, 2011 By Fab Grandma 4 Comments

We both had a pretty rough week, so at the end of the day on Tuesday, which was our “Friday”, we loaded up in the truck and took off for a night at Casablanca, our favorite casino in Mesquite, Nevada. They have some fun slots, free cocktails while you play, and a restaurant that serves a 16 oz. porterhouse steak 24 hours a day.

On the drive down the Kaibab Plateau on 89A, there had been a rainstorm that dumped over an inch of rain, leaving the best view of the area I have had in the four years we have been coming here.

that is the same road we are on, further down the plateau.

The air was so clean and sweet, with no pollution or dust. The sun set was fabulous, and everything just looked so fresh!

Last week I got a Flip Video camera from Klout and Visa, so I used to take a couple of videos while we were driving to Mesquite. This is the one I liked the best (You might want to turn the sound down because of the wind. I was holding the camera out the window):

We got to Mesquite and checked in at the casino, and played until 2:00 a.m! Then we went to the restaurant, only to find out it was the one day of the month when they close the grill early to clean it, so we had to order a sandwich or a salad–no portherhouse for us! Booo!

The next morning, we got up early, ate breakfast, and took off for Kanab, Utah, where I had my doctor’s appointment to get that shot in my foot for the plantar fasciitis. Let me just tell you, if you have never had a needle stuck in your foot, just the to rear of the arch, you have not lived! That thing hurt like a S.O.B! (son of Bob, if you must know). I could feel it all the way to my toes! It has helped already, though, as my foot did not hurt today, except for from the shot itself. I have to stay off my feet as much as possible for the next few days, though. Today is my normal day off, and tomorrow is a sick day, then I have two days at the campground where I can sit all day. I don’t have to go to the entrance station until Monday. That gives me a total of 5 days not standing all day to help my foot heal.

After the shot, I had an appointment at the dentist for a fitting for my partial plate. That did not take long–he just inserted the metal part to see if it fit right, then he put in a wax replica of the teeth part, and me bite down on it to make an impress of my bite. It wasn’t even nasty like the stuff they used for the impressions.

We also had to buy groceries, so I was on one of those little handicap electric carts with a basket on the front. It was hard to get around on that thing, and people kept getting in the way of it. Let me tell you, if you see someone on one of those things, give them some room. They may not be handicapped every day, you know. Also ask them if they need some help reaching things. I kept having to get up to reach stuff on the upper shelves. That was an eye opener for sure.

The last stop before coming home was at the produce guy who has a garden in the back of his house. He doesn’t pick anything until you get there so all his stuff is really fresh. I got some more potatoes, some carrots, some green beans and some yellow squash. I can not wait to cook those carrots! I have never had them fresh from the garden before. They still had the tops and dirt on them.Here they are all cleaned up:

Carrots fresh from the farm!

Filed Under: General, Life on the road, Utah

Adventures In Eating Out

June 21, 2011 By Fab Grandma 3 Comments

The new toilet

Our plan for our day off this week was to go to Kanab, Utah with our good friend, Gaelyn to shop for groceries, peruse the thrift stores, and eat some tacos at the local Mexican joint. The plans changed abruptly during the night, after my late night trip to the bathroom was interrupted by a puddle of water in the floor, leaking from a broken valve at the top of the toilet.

Hwy 389 on the way to St. George, Utah

So, instead of Kanab, we wound up going to St. George to buy a new toilet. As if that was not enough of a “crappy” day, when we stopped for breakfast at Jacob Lake Inn, both FabGrandpa’s and Gaelyn’s breakfasts included burnt sausage. Now, we have eaten at this place on almost every trip down the Kaibab Plateau in the last three seasons, and have always gotten good service and good food. But today, we couldn’t get a refill on our coffee, and when after the waitress returned the sausage to the kitchen, we never saw another one. And Gaelyn’s scrambled eggs were nauseatingly runny.

On the road to St. George Utah

FabGrandpa rarely complains in a restaurant, and it is even rarer for him to send food back. But when something is burned, he is not that tolerant. So, when the waitress finally came back to bring our check, he told her to adjust it to take off the two burned sausages and the scrambled eggs. And she said, “I can get you some more sausage.” No, breakfast is over. Move on.

On the road to St. George, Utah

We got back on the road to St. George, and when we arrived at the RV parts store, we bought our Thetford Aqua Magic V Foot Flush Toilet and were on our way very quickly. We decided to go to Red Robin in Washington City for lunch.

Soggy table at Red Robin

We were seated right away, and our drinks and appetizer ordered. When the waitress brought our drinks to the table, she spilled an entire glass of water on Gaelyn’s side of the table, and an entire glass of Coke right in FabGrandpa’s lap. Now, it is a wonderous thing that FabGrandpa had a very good sense of humor about that, as his pants and underwear were soaked with ice cold liquid. He was making “cold nuts” jokes, and talking about people being able to hear him walk to the restroom because of his “sticky balls”. The manager of the place did come out and tell us he was going to comp the appetizer because of the “unfortunate turn of events.”

Coming into Hurricane Utah

After lunch, we headed for Hurricane, Utah, to Wal-Mart, to buy our groceries, then back up to the North Rim to go home. We decided to stop at Jacob Lake Inn again to get a milkshake, which is a sort of ritual with us, as there are not many places to get ice cream up here, and they are pretty famous in the area for their milkshakes. I ordered FabGrandpa’s ‘regular chocolate double raspberry” and my “thick chocolate raspberry” shakes, and waited for them to be prepared. When the clerk delivered them to me, FabGrandpa’s was a “vanilla double raspberry.” I was almost afraid to give it to him.

Filed Under: Life on the road, Utah

Our Drive To The Grocery Store

April 27, 2011 By Fab Grandma 4 Comments

I am amazed every time we go to the grocery store that I get to see this wonderful landscape. It just seems so weird that you drive through such scenic wonderment on the way to buy a bag of rice and some ground beef:

Filed Under: North Rim, Utah Tagged With: kaibab, Utah, vlog

Getting Ready To Roll Again

October 19, 2010 By Fab Grandma 3 Comments

My last day to work for this season was Saturday. I spent Sunday doing as little as possible–all I did was work on that baby quilt. Then on Monday, I spent all day cleaning out closets, drawers, cubby holes, and the pantry. I do this every time before we leave on a road trip so that everything is all neat and clean, and to get rid of extra weight of the things we have accumulated over the season. I was planning to finish up the quilt today, but….

Last week when FabGrandpa went to town, he made an appointment for work to be done on the truck, thinking he would be off on Tuesday. Well, he is not off on Tuesday, and hasn’t been all season, so I was elected to go and take care of business. I was ok with going, but I have so many things on my “TO DO” list Iwasn’t really happy about it. This morning, I got up at 4:30 A.M. and drove to Utah to the mechanic. It was sooo foggy out there it was hard to see, but I did ok.

Fog in the Kaibab Forest

That photo was taken on the side of the road at about 5:45 A.M., before the sun came up. It was getting lighter outside, but still hard to see in the fog. Had breakfast at Jacob Lake, then headed on down the plateau towards Kanab. The sun was out and shining on the Vermillion Cliffs—I think this is the best photo I have ever been able to get of them since it had rained the night before and washed all the dust out of the air.

Vermillion Cliffs on Hwy 89A in Arizona

I love seeing this area, it looks different every day, in every light. I got to Kanab about 8:30 A.M. Utah time, (7:30 AZ time). It’s kind of like going from Carrollton, Georgia to Anniston, Alabama—it’s just over the state line, but in a different time zone. I dropped off the truck, and my friend Chris picked me up. The first place we headed was the coffee shop! I NEEDED coffee!

After a french vanilla cappucino, we went to the fabric store. Need I say more? I didn’t get a lot of stuff, but did get what I needed to finish up the quilt I am working on:

Kona cotton solid pink

I got a batting and this solid pink Kona Cotton for the back. Now I can sit down tomorrow and finish this little jewel up!

I also got this set of fabric:

blues, greens, purples

I really love that green batik, and it looks really good with the others in blues, purples, and greens. I am thinking about making a laptop bag out of it, but really haven’t decided yet. The last thing I got was 4 yards of white on white print just so I will have it for when I need it. I never have enough of solids, especially whites and creams.

After I dragged myself away from the Ace Hardware/Fabric Shop, we went to a couple of thrift stores. Didn’t find much that interested me today there. The last stop with Chris was at Calvin T’s barbecue for lunch. I had a pulled pork sandwich without the bun, and some potato salad. The barbecue was the best I have had in this part of the country (in my opinion, they really don’t know how to do barbecue here but the potato salad was lacking. I always measure potato salad by what my mother makes, and this was not even close.

Finally, the truck was ready to go, so Chris dropped me back at the mechanic shop to pick it up. It was hard to say goodbye because I don’t know when we’ll meet again. Such is the life of a fulltime RV’er, though. There’s always Facebook!

On the way home, I stopped at the Fresh Produce sign, and picked up some corn and tomatoes:

corn and yellow tomatoes

The weird thing is, that those tomatoes weren’t cracked open like that until I got back up the plateau. It happened last time we bought some, too. I think it is the high altitude, over 8800 feet, that does this. But it is weird that ONLY the fresh picked ones do this, not the hard ones from the grocery store. Hmmmmm…….

I had to stop and take this one last picture, because the place just looked so, well, photogenic, today:

Winter is coming

This is on Hwy 67 on the way to the North Rim, in the Warm Fire area. The Warm Fire happened in 2006, started by a lightning strike, and burned about 58,000 acres. In case you can’t get your head around 58,000 acres, you drive through the burned area for 11 miles. Those clouds, with tinge of gray around the edges, and the stark trees, just screamed “WINTER IS COMING!”. I’m glad I’m leaving soon.

Filed Under: Friends, General, North Rim, Utah Tagged With: Friends, kanab, Life on the road, truck

A Visit From Becca and Ken

October 8, 2010 By Fab Grandma 4 Comments

Me, Becca and Ken at the entrance station

My daughter, Becca, and her boyfriend, Ken came to visit us. They live in the Denver area, and spent the weekend in Taos, NM. They arrrived here onMonday night, right about the time we were having horrendous severe weather here at the North Rim. There were 4 tornadoes, and 28 tornado warnings, high winds, hail, lightning, and thunder so loud it shook our trailer on Tuesday. I had to work at the entrance on Tuesday, so they came out there to eat lunch with me. After I got home, the electricity went out for 6 hours. Welcome to the North Rim in October. But seriously, it is not usually that bad.

Becca and I at breakfast on Thursday in Jacob Lake

We had a wonderful visit, even though we did nothing at all on Wednesday, my day off, except for me to rest my poor old tired feet. I cooked dinner at home–I made the last of the catfish we brought with us from Alabama, smothered with sauteed onions. There was a shrimp and avocado salad and some brussels sprouts to round out the meal. We talked most of the day, and half the night while we waited for the electricity to come back on. Even though we still have heat in the RV when the electricity is off, the furnace in the trailer next door where they were staying was broken and did not work.

On Thursday, we got up and went to Zion National Park, stopping for breakfast at Jacob Lake Inn. That is my favorite place to eat in the area–they have good bacon and decent hash browns to go with my two over easy eggs, and I have never gotten a gluten reaction eating there.

Becca and I showing off our Navajo trinkets

We stopped at the scenic overlook to take some pictures and buy some Navajo jewelry. My pictures didn’t come out that good, but just look at those pretty necklaces!

The view along Hwy 89A towards Fredonia

A little further down the road we stopped again to take pictures of The Vermillion Cliffs and these great clouds. The weather was still not cleared up to the east of us, and it showed in these photos. We went over to Hurricane, Utah so that we could buy some groceries and enter Zion National Park through the west gate. On the way, we stopped at Sprindale Fruit Company for some delicious smoothies and some Nauvoo Jam.

Springdale Fruit Company

Springdale Fruit Company has a very good selection of dried fruits, nuts, jams, and jellies. This time of year, you can pick your own apples. We didn’t pick any, but we did buy a few pears and plums, along with a jar of Raspberry Jam. Mmmmm.

Zion was truly amazing, as always, except that they are working on the roads there so we were not able to stop much to take pictures. I did get a few:

Zion

Working on the road at Zion

Zion

Ken taking pictures at Zion National Park

A beautitul sunset over the Kaibab Plateau to end the day

After we drove through Zion, we went to Kanab so Becca could buy cheezy souvineers for the kids she keeps, and then to Nedra’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. I had the carnitas, which were very good, and came with the standard rice, beans, and corn tortillas. As we drove home we were treated to a beautiful sunset to end the day. AndFabGrandpa was laughing, because Becca, Ken and I all had our cameras out, taking pictures as we flew down the road.