Tough Times on the Road

Our life has been complicated for the last few days, as we worry about Mark's Father, Clarence. We have been searching for the best way for Mark to get to Oklahoma City, where his Father is in the hospital.  It seems that the best airport for him to use is four hours north of Moab in Salt Lake City.  So even though we have some misgivings about driving the motor home four more hours away from Oklahoma, we decided that would be best.

We had planned to visit Salt Lake City, so weeks ago Denisa's Mother had purchased a plane ticket to spend some time with us on the road.  We had been looking forward to her visit for a long time, and so continuing to Salt Lake would allow that to happen.

One problem with this plan is that the only campground where we can get reservations is very busy.  They can only promise us a spot for 7 days.  If Mark needs to stay longer, Denisa will have to find a new place to camp and drive the motor home wherever that might be.  That involves taking up camp, hooking up the car, navigating and driving at the same time, and setting up everything at the new place. That's something that neither of us has ever done alone, but Denisa is sure more confident in Mark's abilities rather than her own.  This is a team sport for a reason, and losing half the team is tough.

So we leave the colorful red rocks of Moab, and Denisa drives the motor home a little just to freshen her driving skills.  We realize we are in a white sand desert at 4500 feet in elevation, and comment that it looked like we had landed on the moon.  It's sad when the only thing green in a picture is the mile marker sign.  It's desolate just north of Moab!

As we continue, we climb up to 7400 feet, and we notice that the sagebrush makes the hills look lush in comparison.  We're not sure if the words "lush" and "sagebrush" has ever appeared in the same sentence.  We had planned to stay in a campground here in the mountains, but today we'll hurry on by because Mark has a plane to catch. 

Miles further, as we get close to Mapleton, Utah, we assume that many of these trees are maples.  We're shocked to see that some of them are turning orange and red.  It looks like fall is already beginning to show here.

Just a few miles before we get on I-15 we see the wildlife for the day--a herd of wind turbines.  We know that this means we are going through windy country, and it reminds us of the turbines back in windy Western Oklahoma.

There is road construction up and down the interstate and Mark gets practice dodging the orange barrels that have inched their way closer into our narrow lane.  Denisa is trying to stay calm, knowing  that she will get to dodge those same barrels if she has to drive the motor home to a new location.  The motor home GPS alerts of two accidents on I-15 ahead, something that we have never seen in the last seven months of using this GPS.  That makes Denisa's confidence meter go down another notch.

Denisa sets up camp in our new spot at Mountain Shadows campground, because she needs the practice.  She sometimes helps with the outside chores, but her main duty involves setting up things inside.  She unhooks the car from the motor home.  Then she gets some fast tutoring about all things sewer, water and electrical, and it looks like she is home for a week.  

Then it's time to zip onto I-15 again for the trip to take Mark to the airport.  Mark is experienced at tackling an unfamiliar city's traffic, but he also has Denisa manning the GPS and maps for directions.  Denisa is still trying to stay calm, knowing that she will both navigate and drive in this city she's never seen--starting soon with that 20-mile drive back from the airport as rush hour nears.  There will be another trip to the airport in this unfamiliar territory tomorrow evening to pick up her Mom, but in the dark just to make it more challenging.

To add to the list of challenges, Denisa soon discovers that the air-conditioners in the motor home won't work.  It was a frustrating day of learning about amps, and legs, and power monitor systems, and which air-conditioner runs off which leg, and . . . To make a very long and frustrating story shorter, she finds out from the maintenance man that we're sitting at the end of the power line at this campground.  When it heats up and everyone turns on their air-conditioners, there's not enough amps left to run even one of our two air-conditioners.  With highs forecast in the upper 90's, it got very hot in our little metal home.

So this travel blog entry is just a reminder that there are some tough times on the road, and this has been one of them.  All of this would be minor inconveniences, but we're really concerned about Mark's parents.  Today Denisa is glad that she had to take that awful Texas CDL driving exam because she has some experience driving the motor home.  She just hopes that Clarence will be better soon and Mark will be home so she doesn't have to use those skills driving solo!