Jimmy and I drove down to Salt Lake Friday night to pick my sister, Nicole, up (she stayed with us for the weekend!). We took advantage of being down there to have dinner somewhere new while we waited for her to get there. We’d picked out a cool Vietnamese place we wanted to try, but we didn’t write the address down, so we were just wandering around downtown looking for it. I decided we needed a phone book, and, lo and behold, we saw a phone booth with a big yellow phone book hanging out of it on our left!
Jimmy turned down a street to pull a U-ey (U-ie? youie? uwhie? how the heck do you spell that?), and as we were headed back to the phone booth, we saw 2 guys walking down the street. They gave some money to a homeless guy, which we thought was very nice. As we were approaching the phone booth, one of those guys stepped up to our phone booth . . . and started PEEING! Right on the phone book I was going to use!! It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life. This wasn’t the homeless man, it was just a random guy! We felt like we were on Seinfeld or something. Is that something people do? Is it common for unhygienic young men to pee in phone booths? Should I be afraid to touch anything downtown? Jimmy’s comment was that it gives a new meaning to the term “yellow pages.” Gross.
Jimmy says “digs” is a cool word for an apartment. I hope he’s right. Anyway, we upgraded to this nifty flat (I know that means apartment) just north of Smith’s that is AMAZING! We’re so happy about it that Jimmy took a video tour to show everyone we know. Forgive us for showing off, but it’s just so much better than a one-bedroom, two-car garage with a shower so small you couldn’t raise your elbows - we just couldn’t resist!
The plan was beautiful: drive down to Southern Utah Thursday morning, see Goblin Valley that day and camp there that night, drive over to Arches Friday and camp there, then get back sometime Saturday. We had meals planned down to the salt shakers (Lewis and Natalie even brought stuff for a gourmet Dutch oven teriyaki chicken), the flashlights, the sunscreen, we’d thought of just about everything. So much for great plans.
The drive was great - we had walkie talkies between the cars, which was too much fun - and we got to Goblin Valley without a hitch. Then we got out of the car and were knocked over by the wind - our first warning. Guarding our eyes from the stinging, flying dust, we set up the tents, holding everything down with rocks that we weren’t using at the time. The wind was really strong, so we staked them down better than ever. Those suckers weren’t going anywhere! As we were leaving to go hike, Lewis & Nat’s tent started caving in on itself from the wind - our second warning.
We hiked the Little Wildhorse Canyon trail, which was absolutely stunning! These pictures tell it all:
We were pooped and the girls had had it by the time we got back to camp. This is what we found when we got there:
The picture doesn’t do justice to the damage. The hole by Danika’s left hand is about three feet wide and not along any seam, and the pole she’s holding in her right hand is one of the main support poles for the tent and was completely destroyed in two different places by the wind. The hole next to Jimmy was made by Jimmy after we decided to scrap the tent (silly boys and their knives).
So we left our beautiful 6-man tent in the dumpster at Goblin Valley and went back to Green River to find a cheap motel to share with the Gunters and their 2 kids. It was an eventful night. Abby slept in a drawer and Hailey talked herself to sleep.
The next day, as planned, we did drive to Arches. However, we were all so tired that we decided to just do the drive-thru kind of site seeing. Still breathtaking from the road, but next time I won’t be so pregnant or something and we’ll have to get out and do some hiking.
Overall evaluation of camping trip: While the camping was lame to nonexistant, the trip was still awesomely wonderful.
