Day 80 Moab, Ut - September 17 - Gail's Birthday

Got up this morning and found a familiar sight right next door. Apparently they snuck in last night about 10:45. That's after my bed time.

It was Gail's birthday so she made us all get up early, 8:30, and go to Denny's so she could get her free breakfast.

So, all the tourists are back together. Lets Go!  

Like life, it's all about balance.

This would never work in Oklahoma. The wind would blow it off.

                                                             

To appreciate how massive these rocks are, click on the picture and notice the motor home on the road at the bottom of the picture.

Here's Lon trying to take Pam's picture, while she tries to tell him what he is doing wrong.

                                                                    Hey, girlfriend!

                                                                 Unrelenting beauty.

                                                                      The 3 gossips.

                                                                     The 4 amigos.

                                                                            An arch,

                                                                    and more arches.

                  We're starting to get an idea where they came up with the name for this national park.

                                                                       Panoramic.

                               A man alone with his thoughts......................Some kids never grow up.

I was concerned about this. I didn't think this was going to work.

But her friends came and greased her thighs, then dangled a twinky in front of her.

                                             I think we parked the car over in that direction.

At 5000 ft., Lon practiced his rock climbing skills.

                                                         Can you see him up there?

                         A momentary pause to change film rolls.... oh yeah, that's right - digital.

                                                                           Sand Arch.

                      This area was the most fun part of the park,  at least that was accessible to seniors.

Arched out we headed back to camp.

                                                         Then it was time for social hour.

                 Pam had a dinner party in honor of the birthday girl.  Shrimp Alfredo, fettuccine.  Yum!

As much as we'd like to stay another day and do Canyons National Park, the ball joint fiasco cost us a couple days.  We have to keep pushing towards Medicine Lodge, KS.  So tomorrow it's on to Durango, CO.        MAYBE

Day 79 B - Salt Lake City - September 16, 2011

Up at the crack of 5:30 am we had the Britton coach to the repair facility by 7:15.  We hoped that this was a good sign.

                                            They got around to getting started about 9 am.

                                                       At least they served a free breakfast.

Pam went and did some more shopping.  Then she came back to pick up Lon to go to lunch.  The vaguely  suggested completed time of around 12 to 1 looked very much in doubt.

                                    We looked for a restaurant and found this place by accident.

Turns out that it was featured on Guy Fieri's; Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  It was packed.  They had a blues artist playing.  We could really relate, we had the blues.

              Pam had the Rib Tips and Lon had the Burnt Ends (served on Fridays only).  It was delicious.

Back to the repair garage for more waiting.  At 2 pm, Tim finally came and said "good news, bad news".   The left side was done and that was the main culprit.  It took so long because of the rusted condition of the lower ball joint which was close to seizing.  He offered to let us go and take the new right side parts with us for future installation or we could have them finish it up doing the right side.  We opted to have them do the right side as long as we were here, they had the parts and tools.  No sense kicking the can down the road.  Besides if we stay here much longer we can go next door and watch the Utah Jazz play. When does the NBA season start?

                                                          We took this as another good sign.

Then Tim came in and said it'd be just another 5 minutes or so.  I went to settle up the bill and found where the end of all those rainbows were - at the cashiers office - and the gold wasn't ours.  Well, it used to be.  While Pam appeared quite content, it was finally time to roll.

We departed SLC at 5:30 pm in a rush hour traffic jam for Moab to catch up with J,G&H.  It rained most of the way.  Night fell with no moon and overcast, winding, twisting, mountain roads and no street lights. We arrived exhausted at 10:45 but happy to be on the road again.