Elena's trip log; days 89 - 116

MAY 1st

Day 89 in Robson's Runabout
Today, Mama went into Jerome in the car, and the men and I went fishing. We didn't get anything. We walked over to the dock where a large family fishing trip was going on. For the 40 of them, they caught 20 catfish, using chicken liver! There, we caught three inch long sunfish. We went and got some chicken liver at Walmart and got some for tomorrow, and also got Isaac a new bike, some extra lures for our fishing poles, a fishing pole for me, and some bubble blowers. When we got back to the RV, we ate dinner with who we then found out were the Allen's, the neighbors we'd been eating with every night. That night, we watched “Hotel for Dogs”, and Dada and Mr. Allen went out to a bar to watch a hockey game. The remaining Allen's left around 10:00 again, and we went to bed. Dada got home REALLY late, and was a little loopy.

Day 90 in Robson's Runabout
Today, Dada had told me that he'd go fishing early with me, but he didn't get up. I was mad. We went to a small church in Cottonwood, and when we got back, we went fishing again. We caught two little sunfish, and almost caught a trout. He got the bait, but not the hook. We ate with the Allen's again. After dinner, we watched the Squeakuel, which the Allen's hadn't seen. When they left, we went to bed.

Day 91 in Robson's Runabout
Today, my day started at 6:00 when Dada and I went fishing. We didn't get anything but leaves. We saw some big ones, but they weren't biting. When we got back to the RV, Mama went running with Mrs. Allen for 2 hours. When she got back, we left for a national forest a few hours from the Grand Canyon. Before we got there, we walked around Sunset Crater Volcano. After that, we went and walked around Native Ruins, big buildings made out of mud and stone. When we got to the National Forest, we ate dinner, and watched the Squeakuel again so Dada could see it. Then we went to bed.

Day 92 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we drove the remaining few hours to the Grand Canyon. When we got there, we ate lunch, and then some ice cream. After the ice cream, we walked around and took a bus around the rim of the canyon until dinnertime. Then we went to the RV and ate dinner, read, and went to bed.

Day 93 in Robson's Runabout
Today, Mama went for a run first, then Dada ans I walked around the rim for a little bit, and then went into the canyon for a few minutes. After our walks, we drove to Page, and stayed at a Lake Powell campground. It had a hotel and a walking trail leading to it, so we went to check out the pool. We didn't go in, but it looked good enough for tomorrow. When we got back to the RV, Dada, Isaac and I watched the stars on a blanket. When we went inside, I fell onto my pillow.

Day 94 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to the hotel pool. We played for a few hours, went back to the RV. After Mama and Dada had a rest, we went down to Antelope Point Marina, the place that we would rent a boat from tomorrow. They gave us a golf cart ride down to the dock, which was my favorite part of the day. We looked at the boats, and decided to get a deck boat tomorrow. After checking the boats out, we went to the floating restaurant. The food was really good. After getting a ride back to our car, we went to Horseshoe Point, a big bend in the river more than a thousand feet below us. After a few other detours, we went back to the RV and went to bed.

Day 95 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to Antelope Point Marina and got a ride to the dock. We rented our boat, and set off. Once we got five minutes into our journey, the “check engine” light and beeper went on. We called the marina, and some one came out with another boat for us and gave us a free extra hour. Next, we went into Antelope Canyon, and when we went to the end of it, ate lunch. Then we drove over to a beach with such soft sand, we didn't want to leave. It was so red, it looked like it was dyed, and so soft, when it was wet it felt like silk. We made sand castles, and then went into Navajo Canyon. The rock deposits made pictures on the walls and we conversed on what we thought they looked like. We saw things from dinosaurs fighting to cats breathing fire. We even saw the theatrical masks. After that, we went back to the marina and filled up on gas, then got a golf cart ride up the dock to the house boat on display, and I said that we should go with our aunts, uncles, cousins, Nana and Papa, everyone, on a vacation in Navajo Canyon, and watch the stars every night. After looking in there, we went back to the RV to see the Allen's next to our RV in theirs. We ate dinner with them, and went to the pool. When we got back to the RVs, we stayed up late chatting, but I went to bed when it was just Dada and Mr. Allen talking about hockey.

Day 96 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to Lower Antelope Canyon, a big slot canyon, which our Navajo guide says is better than the higher Antelope Canyon. After that, we went to the floating restaurant again with the Allen's. The food was really good again. After getting a golf cart back up the dock, we went to the RVs and the adult's rested. After that, we went to the pool with the Allen's, and afterwards we ate with them. At the RV, we watched the “Princess and the Frog” as our movie. When that was over, the Allen's went to their RV and we went to bed.

Day 97 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to a small church a few minutes away after celebrating mothers day with hugs, kisses, cards, and blueberry pancakes. Next, we went back to the RV and to the pool after the adults rested again. The Allen's didn't stay at the pool long, because they had to go to a boat tour for mothers day. After they got back and we were at the RV, we ate with them. Just as a family, we watched the odd movie, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”. It was late when we went to bed.

Day 98 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we said goodbye to the Allen's, who were headed to Zion, and then we said goodbye to the campground. We drove for about 4 hours to a campground in Durango, Colorado. The whole time we drove through a huge dust storm, and saw bison and wild horses. When we got there, we ate dinner in town, at a place called the Quiet Lady's Tavern. After dinner, we went to get dessert. Mama and I split a delicious caramel, snickers and chocolate drizzled apple, from a local chocolate shop, and the boys got ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. Afterwards, we drove around for a while, and during that time saw some deer. When driving back to the RV, we saw a goat farm, with our favorite kind of goat: Nubian. At the RV, we read, and then went to bed.

Day 99 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to Mesa Verde, a National Park with lots of Ancestral Indian Cliff Dwellings. We got a tour of Cliff Palace after lunch. Isaac got famous, and if that isn't enough, he got a Junior Ranger Badge without doing the booklet! I did my booklet, unlike the two ruffians. After that, we went to exchange my booklet to get my badge. Next, we ran down the trail to the Spruce Tree House, another Cliff Dwelling. We had to run up the hill to get to our next tour, Balcony House, which would be my favorite. It started with climbing down a ton of stairs, and then bending through a tunnel, then stopping and listening to the ranger, and then crawling through a tunnel, and climbing up a 30-40 foot ladder, and then walking up a narrow and uneven stone carved staircase. The only problem was that Isaac got famous again. On the ride back, we ate at a restaurant, and played in a playground before getting back to the RV, reading, and going to bed.

Day 100 (!) in Robson's Runabout
Today, we got up at 6:40 to get ready for our train ride from Durango to Silverton. We had to dress very warmly, because it was very cold out, and the train wasn't heated. We were supposed to be seeing lots of wildlife, but the only thing I saw was trees, a river, snow, and ice. The boys saw Big Horn sheep, but Mama and I missed them. When we got to Silverton, we ate lunch at a place I picked out, called Handlebars, like the mustache. After lunch, we went souvenir hunting. Isaac got a pin, but Jonah cried because he didn't get anything. We couldn't find Mama, so we looked all over for her. She eventually found us, with a wish for an expensive pair of earrings. I went with her, and she got the earrings, spending $140 on them. She said that they were the most expensive thing she'd ever bought for herself. When we got back on the train, the boys had been crying, thinking we wouldn't make it on time. On the ride back, Isaac drank 7 cups of hot chocolate, twice as much as he and I had shared on the ride up. The drinks and refills came free with the souvenir cup we bought at the station. The wildlife we saw on the way back was a big pack of elk, standing and lying in the woods. During the ride back, I asked Mama if we could go ask the man with the goat farm to see his goats, and sure enough, when we got back to the RV and changed our shoes, then Mama, Jonah, and I walked over to the farm and asked him, after being encouraged by the woman at the front desk of the campground saying how nice he was. He let us into the pen, and into the nursery barn as well. He had 14 mother goats, and there were more kids than mothers! In the nursery barn was 2 mothers with twins, and one mother with triplets. He let us in with the triplets, and I picked them up. They were ADORABLE!!! Their little floppy ears and little heads and bodies were soft and warm. He asked if we wanted to buy one, repeating what he'd said yesterday while we drove by and talked with when we stopped to look. He was delightful too, and although he was arthritic, he kept at his work. He shows and breeds his goats, and used to sell milk, getting $7 a gallon. When we left the farm, I wished that we'd stayed longer. When we got back to the RV, we ate pizza, and read. Then we went to bed.

Day 101 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we drove for six hours to Assuipe/Leafhead/Uncle Evan's house in Denver, CO (Leafhead is found in the days of the Keys of FL too). When we got there, we ate a delicious chicken chili, and played ping-pong for a while, until it was time to watch “The Incredibles” with Uncle Evan. After the movie, we went to the camper to grab sleeping bags, blankets, pj's, pillows, and toothbrushes. Then we went to bed in Leafhead's odds-and-ends room, while Mama and Dada slept in the guest bedroom on a real bed. Humph.

Day 102 in Robson's Runabout
Today, the boys and I found balloons before breakfast, and after asking permission, I blew them up and labeled them as Star Wars villains. Then I wrote instructions and credits on Popsicle sticks, things like “please do not pop!” and “Blower: Elena, Labeler: Elena, Helpers: Isaac and Jonah”. Then, I got my Ipod and Idog from the RV, and played some of the Beatles while dropping everything on the adults heads. Afterwards, we went to the Coors Factory in Golden. It smelled funny in there, but the free glasses of beer for the adults and lemonade, root beer, diet Pepsi and other soft drinks for the younger of us made it worth the stench. After the tour, we went to a restaurant in an old building. Next, we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum near his grave. It was pretty cool, but my favorite part of that place was seeing the deer in the woods trot, not run mind you, trot, away from some well behaved dogs walking up the trail to the grave. When we got back to the house, we watched a movie while the adults took naps. When they got up, Leafhead and Dada got ready for a party. The rest of us just hung around the house, ate dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed at 10:00, the same as last night.

Day 103 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to a church 40 minutes away. When we got there, we saw a bunch of nice people, and we saw Mrs. Tanner's parents. After church, we went back to the house, and ate lunch. After lunch, the adults rested, and we watched a movie. Leafhead woke up he came and watched with us. When Dada got up, he kissed us and drove himself to the airport to catch his plane to Cincinnati for work. Mama had told him to tell us to tell Leafhead that we could got to the playground without her. So we did. We walked the couple blocks to the playground and played tag. Note to self: Leafhead is a much faster tagger than Dada, and a better and hardier one too. After that, we went back to the house and ate Leafhead's special sausage spaghetti. Then we watched a movie and went to bed.

Day 104 in Robson's Runabout
Today, Mama took us on a walk on a little path in the woods. After that, we drove for about 1 hour to a big cat and bear sanctuary. I'm ashamed that, even though it inspired me so much, I can't remember the name of it. We saw lots of big cats like lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), lynxes, bobcats, leopards, all who had 20 acres to roam in with their friends. While we were there, we watched a movie that we ended up buying, called Growing Up, Black Leopard. It is an inspiring story of the family who raised a black leopard when his parents didn't know how to. That show made me want to give, give, give to this sanctuary, which I now believe is called the Wildlife Sanctuary. It's right next to the Rockies. After we left the sanctuary, we went back to the house, and waited for Dada to get back. When he and Leafhead were back at the house, we went to a great rib place for dinner. When we had gotten our fill there, we went and got our first frozen custard ever. When we got back to the house, we got ready for bed.

Day 105 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we woke up early and said goodbye to Leafhead before he went to work, and after he left, we cleaned up the house and left too. We drove a very long time to Glenwood Springs, a natural hot spring near where we were stopping for the night. We spent about an hour there, in the warm water, jumping off the diving board, the first time for the boys and I. When we left, we drove to an RV park. We ate, and watched a movie. Then we went to bed.

Day 106 in Robson's Runabout
Today, at around lunchtime (it was a rainy day; I made Ramen Noodles with eggs for lunch, yummy!) Jonah got a huge stomach ache. We figured out he was just constipated. After the few not tummy-acher's had lunch, I went and read to Jonah from his lego book. When I got tired, I blew up the air mattress in the living room for him so that he could watch a movie with Isey and I while Mama and Dada napped. When they got up, Jonah was saying, “I'm 99% better.” Then we went to a place with 3 huge waterfalls. Dada went one way, and the boys and I brought our flashlights and explored pitch black caves. Afterwards, we went to find Dada. Shortly after that, we left. When we got back to the camper, we played a board game. Then we read and went to bed.

Day 107 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we drove for a few hours to Moab, Utah. When we got to our cool campground, I found that there were HUGE sandstone mounds, so, naturally, I said to Jonah, “Hey, Jay. I've got something cool to show you.” I didn't know what that was going to be, yet. We climbed to the top of one of the huge sandstone mounds, and when we got to the top, we saw the whole campground, and the town a few miles away. We saw Dada and Isey following us (Mama was at the store), and they climbed to the top of the highest hill with Jonah and I. Jay and I got there first after going up Mount Shear (We named the one Jonah and I found Mount Robson, and the highest one Mount Funnyface. After Mama pulled back into the campsite with the car, Dada called her on our way down, and we did what we had done over again. We went back to the RV, ate dinner, then we went back up, to watch the sunset. Mama and I went up to Mount Funnyface and chatted, and watched the Jeeps go up hill. When we got back to the RV, we read and went to bed.

Day 108 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we left at 10:30 on a river rafting trip. To say that it was fun is an understatement. It was GREAT! There was one rapid that covered our entire raft and got us all soaked. That was after lunch. When we stopped for lunch, we got burgers, chili, hot dogs, chips, cookies lemonade, everything. When we took off again was when we got wet. And it was a little scary, because you can see by the pictures that we were sitting on the edge of the raft. Dada and I were the only ones brave enough to get in, and it was cold. We went through three 2+ rapids areas, which I loved. When we finished our tour, we got into the bus and ate Popsicles until we got to the building. When we got there, we got to our car. We left and when we got back to the RV, ate, read, and went to bed.

Day 109 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went to Arches National Park. We did a long, tiring, and windy hike to Delicate Arch, where Dada wanted to have lunch. It was so windy, I thought somebody was going to fall off! No one did. Some time during the day the camera was dropped, so we are now without a camera. Afterwards, we went to an ice cream shop to celebrate our hard hike, and I got Rocky Road. It was appropriate. After our ice cream, we went to a rental shower, which was very, very dirty and unkempt, then back to the RV. Then we read, and went to bed.

Day 110 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we had church at the RV because there weren't any churches that we could go to in Moab. After church, we hung around until Dada packed us up to go to Newspaper rock, where we stayed for less then ten minutes. I don't think it changed my life much. When we got back to the RV after a windy and sandy adventure climbing sand mounds at a rest stop, we ate dinner, finding sand in our mouths, noses, ears, eyes, hair, eyelashes, everything. Then we read, and went to bed.

Day 111 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we drove to Capitol Reef, a nice change of scenery, and water hook ups. While trying to find a site, we met Mrs. Schartner, a Christian mom with 10 kids. Her church was RP too, and she, her husband and 10 kids were traveling while the college aged ones could. She said that since their RV was being fixed, they could sleep in there tent while we slept in our RV in their spot. Mama and Dada considered it. The camp host said that we could come back in an hour to maybe get a spot, so we went to a big parking lot to wait. We hadn't waited one minute when a big white RV came and offered us a spot. They said they had to leave on short notice and had already paid for the spot. We went and settled down, and then went for a long walk up a hill. When we were done, we went to the RV, and then four Schartner's coming over, offering to have us over for marshmallows. We went after dinner. We played tag, told stories,watched a herd of deer run across the campground, and ate lots of marshmallows. When we were done, we went to the RV watched more deer, read, and went to bed.

Day 112 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we went on a hike with one of the younger Schartner girls, Amy, to the end of a long, hot trail. It was OK, but I didn't like it because I slid on loose pebbles, then tripped over a rock and fell hard. I got a few nice-sized cuts on my hands. When we got back to the RV which was now parked at the Schartner's spot, I put Band Aids on the three cuts after soaking my hand. After Mama got us mini pies at the gift shop/bakery, we said goodbye to the Schartner's and left. We drove until we got to Bryce Canyon NP. We got a spot and then walked up to the lodge for dinner. Since they were so full, we had to wait 45 minutes before we got a table, so we went for a walk on Sunset Point Trail. When we finally sat down, we ate dinner, then dessert. The dessert was rather disappointing though. At least for me. It was very small. Afterwards, we went for a walk around the campground, which was way bigger than I thought. After that, we read, and went to bed.

Day 113 in Robson's Runabout
Today, was to be one of my favorite days on the whole entire trip, Mama's and my half day trail ride. We got up at 6:45, which wasn't bad, and walked over to the lodge to get our tickets for the ride. We were stand-by #3, which meant that we might not be able to go on the ride. But we got on! I rode a beautiful black horse named Blueberry, and Mama rode her lover-boy, Rosco. As soon as we set off, he wouldn't leave her alone; I got to pet him on the head with no effort at all. The first trail marker, the Mule Pool, where every horse/mule goes to the bathroom before leaving. Except Blueberry. She was great. One thing I learned early on was how to make her go at a trot. Kick her; but not too hard. At first it was scary, but I got used to it. She liked to trot. I did too. Cantering made me smile even more though. It's smoother, and faster. If Blueberry and I hadn't had to stay behind the guide right in front of us, in the front of the line, we would have been cantering through the canyon, having the time of our lives. But no. We had to stay behind Joe, on Donna. I can remember the exact order of the line. It went: Jo on Donna who liked Blueberry and Rosco, me on Blueberry who liked Donna and Rosco, Mama on Rosco who loved Blueberry and liked Donna, a Massachusetts Grandma on Ike who tried to scrape his rider off and liked Rowdy, a Massachusetts granddaughter on Rowdy who liked Ike, a URI student and Massachusetts grandson on a brown and white horse, a Massachusetts mom on a mule, a German woman on Blue Ribbon who likes Sandman, and a German man on Sandman who likes Blue Ribbon. Wow, that was a lot! Anyway, we saw lots of stuff on the ride, and my favorite part was Lovers Tunnel, a naturally
man-made tunnel that opens up to a shocking view. When we got two thirds of the way done, I was sad and relieved, sad to leave Blueberry, but relieved because I had gotten so many cuts because Blueberry wanted to be in charge sometimes, so she tried her best (which wasn't very hard) to get the reigns, so I pulled back, and when she gave up, my clenched fists banged into the saddle horn and cut my fingers. At the end of the ride, I got off and pet Blueberry, then we got our pictures for $5. For the rest of the day, Mama and I went to the RV and ate lunch, then when Dada and the boys got back from doing laundry, Mama and Dada took a nap. Sometime during the nap, Dada took Isey for a two hour mule/horse ride which they had to be 30 minutes early for. Dada told Jonah and I that we could wake Mama up in half an hour, so that we could see them off. When we got there, we saw Isaac get on Crazy Alice and Dada on another pretty horse. While they were on there ride, we did more laundry and went back to the RV. They were there already. We saw Isaac's picture, which is better than mine, and then packed up to leave. We drove for a while, until we got to Page, and slept in the parking lot of the place we were getting even more repairs done at.

Day 114 in Robson's Runabout
Today, was FUN. We went to Dam Bar and Grille for lunch, and then walked over to the Columbia Outlet store next door. I got a really pretty dress and a head bandanna, and Mama got a bunch of stuff. We got cool peace sign bracelets for the boys and got Uncle George a funny shirt. After all that, we still needed something else to do, so after checking on the RV, we went to see Shrek Forever After, which wasn't in 3D at the place we saw it at, but hey, we still absolutely LOVED it! Because a lot of people know how much we love Shrek. Anyway, after Shrek, we went back to the RV, and, since it was fixed, we drove and drove for a long time until 11:00 at night, and stayed in a Walmart parking lot where Isaac snored his brains out until Mama rolled him over. Then he was quiet. He's like a radio. He plays loud music (snoring loudly) until you change the channel by rolling him over to make him play quiet music (just sleeping).

Day 115 in Robson's Runabout
Today, we moved the RV to Sand Hollow SP. Mama and Dada took a nap after lunch, and after that, Dada took us to the man-made lake to play in the sand. The water was a little chilly, but that was OK, we're from RI! After that, we ate dinner, and then Mama read, and then we went to bed.

Day 116 in Robson's Runabout
Today, was our beach day. Mama walked to whole two miles to get there. We went and played around in the waves, building castles, and lying in the warm, soft, desert sand. We made a few friends, and they said that we could use their toys, so we used their buckets to have sand castle water wars. When Isaac and Jonah dropped water on my castle called Gloppitop (pronounced Glop-ee-top), they said “Prepare to drop on Gloppitop!” but when it still stood, I said, “But Gloppitop stands forever!” When I dropped on Mordor Castle, which was Isaac and Jonah's Castle, I said, “Attack on Mordor!” and when I stood, Isaac had this long, confusing speech which he only said three times because he got tired. Mama's castle was really cool, and it looked like it had Hoodoo's like in Bryce all over it. She showed the boys how to make them because I already knew. When the day was over, we ate dinner, and read. Then we went to bed.