Zen In A Camper

We have some of our best adventures by looking at the Atlas, opening Google maps and taking off. Such was the case with Las Cruces. Not so much with San Antonio.

Don’t get me wrong. San Antonio is a beautiful city with lots to see and do. It’s just hard to see and do those things when Fiesta San Antonio is in full swing. Lasting for​ 11 days, it’s an extravagant citywide party.

April 28 – Day 19: The four of us hop in the truck and head for the River Walk. Our plan is to find a place to park, explore downtown and maybe pick out a place to eat dinner that night. As we enter downtown, we are prepared for traffic but not THIS much traffic. Something’s going on. There are cops everywhere. Lawn chairs, coolers and chairs line the street. It’s a HUUUGE tailgate party. I ask Mr. Google what’s going on in San Antonio today. He tells me that The Fiesta Flambeau Parade is taking place today. The highlight of Fiesta San Antonio, it’s an illuminated parade that will be viewed by 750,000+ spectators. Steve and I look at one another. It’s mutual. Let’s get the heck out of here.

We go back to the campground, take a nice walk, and spend the rest of the afternoon chilling and looking at the huge campers that are staying here.

April 29 – Day 20: It’s Sunday. The River Walk has got to be less crowded so off we go…on the city bus this time. No more fighting traffic for Steve. We eat breakfast at Schilo’s, the oldest restaurant in San Antonio and spend the next couple of hours strolling along the River Walk. Someone we know (Cough. Cough. Young Son) described the River Walk as a big concrete ditch. I happen to disagree but will let you decide for yourself.

Back in the campground, we start preparing for the 3-day drive home. If you don’t see another blog, it’s because we got home without incident. We hope that is the case, but I’m not holding my breath. As we know, life is always an adventure with Steve Fisher. Either way, thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

Our trip to the Grand Canyon by way of Utah is planned. We have an itinerary for days 1 – 14 and we follow it pretty closely. As far as the return trip goes, all we know is that Steve doesn’t like to travel the same route twice.

S (studying the Atlas): So how far is Las Cruces, New Mexico?

M (opening Google Maps): It’s 514 miles. It’ll be a long day, but we can do it. What’s there?

S: There’s some BLM land and White Sands National Monument.

M: Sounds good.

And, that’s how we end up in Las Cruces.

April 25 – Day 16: We visit the Visitor Center in Dripping Springs Natural Area, thinking we’ll take a nice hike up to Dripping Springs but the volunteer working there reminds us that we are in a dessert and there’s not much dripping going on up there. She suggests a ride through the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and WOW! The off-road ride through Grand Staircase was awesome. The Grand Canyon? Well, duh. It’s one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But the scenery in the Organ Mountains hands down took my breath away. The Organs, which rise to over 900 feet above the Chihuahuan Desert, are so named because their peaks resemble the pipes of an organ. Cal and Trixie love their off-leash time. Can you blame them?

April 26 – Day 17: We spend the morning driving Dunes Drive, an eight-mile scenic drive in White Sands National Monument. I won’t bore you with the science behind these white gypsum sand dunes. I will tell you that they are huge. They are easier to walk on than beach sand. They don’t get hot like beach sand so you can walk barefoot without burning your feet. And…you can sled down them! We pass on the sledding. Instead, we just wander and marvel.

That afternoon, we go to Mesilla, a small, historic town just west of Las Cruces. Art galleries and “boutiquey” shops line the plaza. Cute and quaint, but not really our thing. We are there to eat at La Posta de Mesilla, named one of the 10 great Mexican restaurants in America by USA Today. They are right. It is yummy!

Thanks, Las Cruces, we had a blast! Now, it’s on to San Antonio!

April 22 – Day 13: We are staying in Trailer Park Village in the Grand Canyon. It’s a really cool campground. The elk are everywhere!

 

We hike the eastern part of the south rim in the morning and take a bike tour of the western part in the afternoon. Even the squirrels get close to the edge for a better view.

As usual the pictures don’t do it justice, but we took a lot anyway.

April 23 – Day 14: The one thing Steve says we have to do when we’re in the Grand Canyon is take a helicopter tour. He took one on a previous visit, but at $300 a person, I am the one who is agonizing about spending that much money. My wonderful husband takes one for the bank account and sends me up by myself. I am SO glad he did. It was breathtaking. You can not grasp the enormity and diverseness of the canyon until you see it from above. I take lots of pictures but am disappointed that they didn’t come anywhere near close to capturing what I saw. I take a video as we enter the canyon. I wish I had known that it turned out as good as it did because I would have just videoed the whole tour.

Author’s Note: Steve says the slide shows I’m posting are a little boring and that I should snazz them up a bit. See below for my first attempt. You can watch one of two ways. Click on the video itself or for a full screen viewing click on the link to YouTube.

April 19 – Day 10: We visit Zion National Park. One of the most popular National Parks, parking is limited and a shuttle bus takes you on a tour of the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. The canyon is beautiful but even with cloudy skies, the drive through the park itself is impressive. See for yourself.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the day was Steve’s experience with the Zion – Mt. Carmel Tunnel. A 1.1 mile long tunnel that connects Zion Canyon to the east side of the park, it was built in the 1920s when vehicles were a lot smaller than they are today. The tunnel is arch-shaped and if your vehicles is taller than 11’4” and wider than 7’10, you can’t travel in a single lane through the tunnel. The rangers have to stop traffic and escort you through the middle of the tunnel where the clearance is higher.

Bottom line, it’s a long narrow tunnel and Steve is a not a big fan of tunnels. We’re in a long line of cars when we enter. Steve is surprised that the truck headlights don’t’ come on since they are set to “AUTO”. He turns them to “ON” and flicks his bright lights on and off.

S (frantically fiddling with the lights): My lights aren’t working. I can’t see s*@t.

M: What do you mean? I can see fine.

Steve continues to fiddle with the lights and is getting increasingly “agitated”. I’m about to crawl in his lap and drive us through the tunnel and then I notice something.

M: Perhaps you could see better if you took your sunglasses off.

S (ripping his sunglasses off his head and spewing an expletive or two): Perhaps, you’re right.

April 20 – Day 11 If you’re an animal lover like me, you cannot visit Kanab, UT without touring Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. If you’re Steve, you go because you love your wife.

Located in Angel Canyon, Best Friends goal is to make our country no-kill by 2025. Caring for about 1600 horses, pigs, goats, sheep, birds, cats and dogs, it’s an impressive operation. We take a 2 hour tour of the entire sanctuary. I choose that tour because it includes hands on time in both Cat World and Dogtown. Yay! What I don’t understand when booking the tour is that there are many different cat “worlds” and dog “towns”. There are the “worlds” and “towns” full of cute kittens, puppies, cats and dogs. And then there are areas for the senior and special needs cats and dogs, the ones who are hard to adopt. Guess where we go for our hands on time? That’s right. Best Friends pulls a fast one on us, hoping that one of these cats or dogs will tug on the heart strings of one of the tour participants and find its forever home.

I enjoy the cat area. The cats all seem to be living a pretty good life.

The dog area is tough. Most of the dogs we see have behavior issues, many triggered by neurological conditions. Some of the dogs are eligible for adoption but a lot of them have purple collars, meaning that their forever home is the Sanctuary.

Best Friends believes in a better world through kindness to animals. While it’s hard to believe that the doggy world of these purple collar dogs is good, it is a little better. And knowing that, my world is a little better, too.

 

April 18 – Day 9: Visits to Bryce Cannon and Zion National Parks are on the itinerary but after asking Mr. Google what else there is to do here in Kanab, we decide to drive Cottonwood Canyon Road. It’s 47 miles of “unimproved” road full of ups, downs, and switchbacks in the Paria River Valley desert.

Cottonwood Canyon Road is located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Monument is not a National Park. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management whose mission is “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” They are also dog friendly!

The drive was amazing, don’t you think?

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There is a trailhead that lies 25 miles up Cottonwood Canyon road called the Cottonwood Wash Narrow. It’s 1.5 miles of impressive rock formations and towering Navajo sandstone walls, a great hike for the 4 of us. Parts of it are very narrow forcing us to walk single file and parts are so steep that we had to carry Cal and Trixie up and down the rocks. We were the only ones in the narrows so we let them off their leash (shhh…don’t tell anyone we broke the “dogs must be on a leash that’s no longer than six feet at all times” rule). Definitely the best day of the trip so far!

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April 15 – Day 6: The four of us visit Arches National Park to see a few of the more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches. It’s a beautiful day and the pictures speak for themselves.

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April 16 – Day 7: Canyonlands National Park is next. There are four districts in the park. We visited Island in the Sky, a huge, flat-topped mesa with panoramic overlooks. I was a little freaked out because someone likes to stand a little close to the edge.

I finally gave up worrying about him falling and did a little exploring on my own.

It was overcast so the pictures aren’t as crisp but still pretty impressive.

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On the way out, we had to wait for the cows to go home

 

When we lived on FNR, we quickly came to the conclusion that we were Dock Queens. After a couple of days visiting National Parks, we realize we are half-day park people. We go, we look, we leave. This is actually a good thing since Cal and Trixie aren’t allowed in National Parks. Half day visiting a park, half day making sure Cal and Trixie have some fun.

After two days in Moab, we’re ready to head to Kanab and on the way, guess what? It snows.

However, we can’t complain too much since we enjoy this view while eating lunch.

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This blog post is dedicated to Rootie, one of the two dogs we left behind when we moved aboard FNR. Luckily, both dogs stayed with family. Each daughter took one. Sadly, Rootie went to the Rainbow Bridge today. He was the best dog ever. Rest in peace, sweet Rooter! YMLY!!

April 10 – Day 1: We leave.

 

 

We arrive in Smithville, TN to spend the night with the Unc and Auntie.

April 11 – Day 2:  Leave Smithville, TN. Arrive 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters, MO. A really, really, really nice city-owned 140-acre recreational lake with camping, fishing, boating, hiking and biking.

 

April 12 – Day 2: Leave St. Peters, MO. Arrive WaKeeney, KS. Nothing much to see along the way except the Gateway Arch, a pretty impressive bridge and some windmills. Steve fought some mean head winds and some of us slept.

April 13 – Day 4: Leave WaKeeney, KS. Arrive Parachute, CO.

This is a Friday as in Friday the 13th. I have never been overly superstitious but I may think twice before traveling on Friday the 13th going forward.

We check the weather. Blizzard warnings have been posted in parts of the central Plains and Midwest. We are in Kansas. Kansas is in the Midwest. We need to get the hell out of WaKeeney.

We are on the road before 7:00 AM. It’s snowing by 8:30 AM. The wind is blowing snow, tumbleweeds, and us across the interstate. But once a sailor, always a sailor so Captain Steve battens down the hatches and pilots us across Colorado.

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Ten hours later, the snow is behind us, and we stop for a much needed break. Steve walks the dogs and I go into the camper to get us something to eat. Uh oh. There’s water on the floor. I look in the bathroom and look up. What??? Who left the #$@&%*! vent open? I reach for the handle to crank it closed. What??? Where’s the #$@&%*! handle? I look around. Why is the #$@&%*! handle on the floor?

Steve comes in. We assume the wind caught the vent cover with enough force to break the handle. Steve removes the screen, the fan blades and the motor and pulls the vent cover closed. He uses twist ties to secure it. I mop up water.

Exhausted, we decide to get a hotel room for the night. I make a reservation. About 20 miles out, a guy in a truck zooms up beside us, honking and pointing frantically at the camper. We stop. We look. We have a flat tire.

We check into the hotel at 6:00 PM. Tired, but not discouraged because now I have something to blog about!

April 14 – Day 4: Leave Parachute, CO. Arrive Moab, UT where the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

And, this my dear readers, is Zen In A Camper!

As most of you know, in March of 2015, Steve and I got tired of working so we quit our jobs, sold our home, got rid of most of our stuff, and moved aboard FNR, our 33′ sailboat.

Sadly, Steve got sick and almost died…not once, but TWICE! We bid FNR a bittersweet farewell and moved back on land.

Happily, Steve got better so we bought a camper, and I get to blog again because we’re our way to the Grand Canyon with Cal the Schnauzer, and Trixie the Chiweenie.

Welcome to Zen On A Boat In a Camper, the Adventures Resume!

We spend 3 nights in Beaufort, SC. This was a “planned” stop. A fellow blogger was staying there and I wanted to meet him, his wife, and Honey, their dog.

I’ve been following Mike’s blog Bimini Dream shortly after he and Pam moved aboard their Pacific Seacraft 34 late last summer. They were up in the Chesapeake and had plans to go south. While Steve and I were complaining about how awful the weather was, Mike and Pam were dealing with one boat catastrophe after the other. I can’t tell you how many times I’d start reading one of Mike’s posts and just shake my head in disbelief. It took them about 6 months to get from Cambridge, MD to Beaufort, SC.

In one of his blogs, Mike mentioned (as a good husband should) Pam’s blog about Honey, Something Wagging This Way Comes. Honey became my virtual dog and I enjoyed reading about her adventures.

We have a nice visit getting to know one another “in person”. We are impressed by their commitment to the cruising lifestyle

Steve and I aren’t so committed. Living on FNR is hard. Making the bed is hard. Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night is hard. Flushing the head is hard. Explaining how to flush the head is even harder. Getting into tight places to fix things when you are 6’2” is hard. Having to remember where you put things so you don’t have to tear the whole boat apart looking for them is hard. Watching the stock market put a dent in the cruising kitty is hard. But to be honest, it’s probably not harder than we thought it would be.  It’s just harder than we want to live.

So, a year in, FNR goes on eBay and sells to someone who has never seen her and who doesn’t know how to sail.

Steve patiently answers all the guy’s questions and believe me, he has plenty. They talk so often that I accuse Steve of having an eBay wife. No, he says. This guy has our money in his pocket and I’m trying to get him to turn it loose. The negotiations start in Stuart and finally end in Myrtle Beach leaving us officially homeless. Luckily, our children feel sorry for us and we have 2-week stays scheduled at each of their 3 houses. That should give us enough time to find permanent housing in the Raleigh area.

Folks ask Steve if he’s sad to see FNR go. No, he emphatically answers and then goes on to explain that cruising has been a dream of his for 30 years. He needed to live this dream. He’s glad he did it because he got it out of his system. And, just in case you’re wondering, he will tell you that it’s him and not me who cut this adventure short .

Once we get settled, we plan to find part-time jobs and replenish what we now call the adventure kitty. Life’s always an adventure with Steve Fisher but I have an adventure or two in me. I know a Morgan 38 that needs some loving and after that Zen on a Boat may get rebranded. Stay tuned. Zen in an RV is just an RV away.