Bryce Canyon NP

Inspiration Point - Wow!!

Fillmore, UT

We're spending the night at the KOA
here in Fillmore. The county is named
Millard - really!

On The Road Again

Rest break off I80 in northeast Utah on
our way to Bryce Canyon National
Park.

Summer's Over

Yesterday was our last working day of the 2009 summer season here at the Bear Lake KOA. We are, like almost everyone else who works here, exhausted. We're sad to be leaving the new friends that we made but we're really looking forward to getting back to Mesa. We'll be taking about 2 weeks to get back there. We're going to spend some time in Bryce National Park, Zion Nation Park and Las Vegas. Today we'll be packing up the Casita and Xterra and tomorrow morning we hit the road.

	The outside of the campground's office (duh) where we spent most of our time this summer.
	On the left side of this picture is the registration desk. The 2 computers are where we would check in arriving campers. Over the course of the summer we became VERY familiar with KOA's software, Kampsight.
	A group of our fellow workers in the backroom of the store. In front is Elise, in the back (left to right) are Tashina, Shelby, Tawai, Alicia, Brandon and Parker. These are just a few of the large crew we worked with this summer.

Stuck Skidster

A few weeks ago Curtis (one of the owners of the KOA) decided to use the campground's new Case skidster to dig up 3 bushes next to our Casita. That would create a nice parking space for a vehicle next to us. When he went in for the middle bush the skidster's wheels dug into the soft ground and it got stuck. He used the campground's Farm All tractor to pull it out. So what did we learn?

1) Don't use heavy machinery on soft ground.
2) Have a rescue plan ready.
3) This campground has some REALLY COOL machines!!

	Curtis in the stuck skidster. The main concern was not damaging the water supply pipe (which we use for our Casita!) right next to it. Happily it didn't get hurt.
	Pulling out the skidster with the Farm All tractor.

Yellow

Yellow is the color of KOA.

Bike Rack Solution

Normally when we want to take our bikes somewhere we use our bike rack which fits into the hitch receiver on our Xterra. But when we're trailing our Casita that isn't an option. We explored ways to take our bikes with us when traveling in the Casita and most ideas we came across were either too expensive (like a roof top rack for the Xterra) too involved (like welding a receiver on the Casita's bumper frame) or too unstable (like a dual receiver adapter.) After some thought and searching we came up with a good solution for us.

We purchased 2 bike fork mounts at our local bike shop in Mesa. These are meant to be bolted to the bed of a pickup truck but we used them in a slightly different way. We got a piece of pine wood that was about the same width as the mounts. The piece was long enough that, when cut in two, it would serve as bases for the two mounts. We needed the mounts offset otherwise the bike handlebars would interfere with each other. After cutting the board in two it was a simple matter of bolting the mounts to the board. The front wheels of the bikes are removed and the forks are attached to the mounts. We then run a nylon strap through the bike frames and attach it to the seat post. The bikes are very stable and do not move at all. The total cost of making this mounting system was less than $60.

We used our bike mounts to take our bikes with us from Mesa to Garden City, UT via Las Vegas, a trip of 860 miles without the slightest problem. The bikes are a bit of a pain to get into the rear of the Xterra and their forks mounted but we only use this system when hauling the bikes long distances.

	The bike fork mounts with the forks attached.
	The bikes mounted in the rear of the Xterra.

Beach Trip

We're at the beach right now having
lunch. Karen went in to wade around.
I stayed on shore to document the
Excitement.

New Experience

We got to try something new today, ATV riding. ATVs are VERY popular in this part of Utah. We'd guess that about 1/3 of the campers that stay here have them. The campground owns 2 ATVs and was kind enough to loan them to us for the day. While fairly simple to operate they still do require some knowledge that we only partially possessed. After a few minutes of getting used to the shifting and throttle operations we took off into the hills behind the campground and spent a couple of hours exploring. At the top of one of the hills we climbed we found a huge concrete storage tank (don't know what's in it) and had lunch next to it. By the end of our time out we felt very comfortable operating the ATVs. One surprise is how fuel efficient they are. After riding for a couple of hours they only took 1/2 gallon of gas - together!

We enjoyed riding the ATVs and really enjoyed the new experience. But we doubt we'll be buying any soon. It's a good way to get from point A to point B quickly, but we prefer hiking. By the end of the day we had had enough of the noise, dust and vibrations.

	Karen on the yellow Honda Recon ATV.
	Ross on the red Honda Recon ATV.

Carp 'N Llama

A few days ago we rode our bikes to the Bear Lake Marina, a Utah state park, which is only about 1/2 mile from the Bear Lake KOA. It's a nice place to ride around and look at boats. We walked down to the floating dock that has a restaurant on it and were amazed to see dozens of large carp following us! They all came to the edge of the dock and stuck their months out of the water in anticipation of being fed. We didn't feed them but we did take their picture.

On the ride back we saw that one of the llamas from the farm behind the KOA had jumped the fence again and was grazing on the other side of the road. This same llama keeps jumping over the fence and even ended up here in the campground a few weeks ago!

	Carp at the Bear Lake Marina begging for food.
	Our neighbor, the llama.

Shhhhh!

Strange camera angle. Jake's paws aren't really that big.

Bear Lake Boat Ride

On Tuesday Curtis invited us for a boat ride on Bear Lake with his wife Rebecca and their 4 children. They have a ski boat that comfortably held all of us. Curtis and Rebecca each skied for a few minutes. They both wore full wetsuits which tells you how warm Bear Lake gets. The water near the surface was actually not too cold. We were out on the lake for about 2 hours and had a great time. Thanks for the boat ride Curtis and Rebecca!

Curtis, Rebecca and their 4 children out on Bear Lake. Notice how blue the water is.

New Casita A/C

The air conditioner on our Casita died. The compressor would try starting but would cut out after a couple of seconds. Today we took the Casita to a Camping World in Kaysville, UT, north of Salt Lake City and about 100 miles from here. They installed a new A/C on the Casita in a little over an hour. We now have cold air again - yeah! It's like electricity - you don't really miss it until you have to do without it.

	Our Casita, on the right, with a slightly larger RV, on the left, waiting to get a new A/C installed.
	Our Casita with its new A/C back at our site at the Bear Lake KOA in Garden City, UT.

Facebook

We're now on Facebook as Ross Goldman. Take a look and become our friend! Because of Facebook we won't be tweeting on Twitter anymore. It's too time consuming and, really, who cares what we're doing in real time? We'll continue updating this blog.

Harold Goldman 1929-2009 RIP

Very sad news to report. Ross's father, Harold Goldman, passed away on Thursday, July 2 after a brief illness. We traveled to Detroit from Utah and were lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of days seeing him in the hospital before he died. We've stayed on to help out Ross's mother and are planning on heading back to Utah on Thursday.

	Dad was very proud of being a US Marine so we were very happy that a Marine Corp Honor Guard was at his funeral.
	Flag folding ceremony.
	Marine Corp bugler playing taps.

Rainbow

Garden City got hit with some nasty
weather on Sunday. We were treated
to a nice rainbow as we left work that
evening.

Minnetonka Cave

Today we visited the Minnetonka Cave. It's about 15 or 20 minutes from here in the Cache National Forest. The cave tour costs $5.00 per person and our tour lasted almost 1 1/2 hours. This would be a good cave to visit if you have never toured a cave before, but since we've been to both Carlsbad Caverns and Mammoth Cave this cave was a little disappointing. Our main memory of this cave will always be the stairs. We went up and down an AWFUL LOT of stairs! The cave is a constant 40 degrees F so we were both cold from the temperate and sweating from climbing the stairs :-) There were a few interesting cave formations and we did see a bat flying through one of the rooms. The funniest part of the visit was on the road leading to and from the cave. There were cattle wandering around in the middle of the road! They did move out of the way when we moved the Xterra slowly towards them.

	Karen at the entrance to the Minnetonka Cave.
	Cave formations.
	Cattle on the road moving out of our way.

One Scoop

We went to Logan yesterday to see a movie and have dinner. After dinner we went to an ice cream shop for dessert. Ross got a shake and Karen ordered one scoop of ice cream. Here's that ice cream shop's version of one scoop:

"One scoop."

Improvisation

Karen lifts weights to help keep strong. We didn't bring her weights with us from Mesa and we're too cheap to buy another set for the Casita. The solution - a couple of empty gallon milk jugs filled with water! They weigh 8 pounds each and are close enough to the 10 pound weights she uses back in Mesa. Cost - nothing as the jugs are left over from the milk we buy anyways.

Karen lifting "weights" behind the Casita. Those are our bikes under the silver tarp.

We're Now On Twitter

We're now tweeting on Twitter. You
can follow us at www.twitter.com. Our
name there is RossandKaren.