Last night, Brent made chocolate chip cookies from
scratch and Evelyn and I watched "Mary Poppins" while Kailyn slept
cuddled up on my chest. Halloween lights glowed over the mantle and the
fireplace flickered below. I felt Brent looking over at us and met his eyes to
find a smile written all over his face. There is such a simple happiness to be
found in this-- sitting in our 6x10 ft living room and spending better time
together than we had in our old life.
We're in St. George, Utah, parked in a huge and popular
RV Park. We saw nothing of the town the first two days we were here. We spent
the first day enjoying some simple amenities like running water and electricity
and barely left our 400 square foot home. Brent washed and vacuumed the truck.
I took pictures of Kailyn for her 2 month birthday and uploaded pictures to
Shutterfly for our new webpage. Evelyn played in her play loft. Later in the
afternoon, I put Kailyn's car seat in our collapsible wagon and walked with
Evelyn to the pool. She played the afternoon away with other RVer kids and
chatted it up with RVer retired couples. I browsed Amazon from my phone while
Kailyn napped in the wagon next to me. We were in no rush to do anything or see
anything, though we felt this pressing obligation to see Zion and Bryce while
we're here. The thing is, when you're living an adventure, the down time is
pretty amazing, too.
As you saw in my previous entry, I was getting a bit
tired of the desert. Not to say Utah isn't still desert, but leaving the desert desert and driving into Utah was
uplifting. The pressures the desert had left on my shoulders lifted the greener
the landscape became. More green stretched out ahead of us. The white rock and
cliffs turns to peach and red. The earthy red hills combined with green lacing
of the foliage surrounding lifted my heart. I could once again appreciate the
landscape outside the windows; in fact, I marveled at it. Utah, so far, was
beautiful.
We found a quaint and friendly RV park, The Hitch n Post, in Kanab, Utah after the first RV park we had tried told us Evelyn could be seen but not heard. The camp hosts at The Hitch n Post helped us back in, welcomed us personally, recommended the pizza place next door to eat, and loved Evelyn and the dogs. Using this as our base, we should have headed for Zion the next day. Instead, we went to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which called to my heart much louder than did any national park.
 |
| So excited to be here!! |
 |
| Evelyn at the Wishing Pond at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary |
 |
| The girls are ready for the tour! |
Our tour guide had a special history there: his
grandfather owned the canyon and sold it to Best Friends. Our tour guide,
Byron, had grown up in the canyon. The office and visiting area was once his
grandfather's house. The largest cave near the office had been blown out there
to house his grandfather's RV. We got to hear stories about the films that had
been shot there. We saw "the pass", as in "Cut 'em off at the
pass!" from old Westerns. Zorro and Lassie had been shot in this canyon.
We also got to hear a story of nearly the entire town of Kanab being hired as
extras in a film; all of them were Indians on horseback. They were offered an
extra $20 (a lot then!) to fall off their horse when shot at. In the next shot,
when a cowboy fired his gun, every
Indian fell off his horse! Needless to say, they had to shoot that scene again.
Haha!
The canyon had its own folklore and history, including
Cortez being fabled to hide gold in a small lake with a cave and local people
storing food and protecting animals in caves near the stream that runs the
valley of the canyon. It was a destination in itself and Best Friends and its
animal residents are lucky enough to call it home.
 |
| Us with our tour guide and a Best Friends canine resident. |
Best Friends is paving the way toward a no-kill future
for animals. Their place is a haven, but their network runs far and wide. Their
Society spans the country now, and their educational program is increasing
awareness and adoption rates across the country. I was somewhere between
glowing and crying all day. I felt at home-- to be around others who love
animals as I do and are dedicating their lives to making the present and future
better. Here, it was just common knowledge that the animals are that important.
We were in good company.
 |
| Evelyn petting cats at the Sanctuary |
 |
| Inside a Dogtown Octagon |
 |
| She loved playing with the cats! |
 |
| We also got to meet a Dogtown resident. She was approved for patio dining in town! |
 |
| Seeing some of the horse facilities on the tour. |
We shopped the shop and left a donation after the tour and headed up to Angel Village for lunch. In Best Friends' own buffet style cafeteria, we paid $5 each for the best vegetarian meal (only vegetarian/vegan food is served on their entire property...awesome!). We had a large salad with all the fixings along with vegan pazole and chimichangas. We enjoyed our meal from the deck, which overlooked the horse area and canyon-- stunning!
  |
| Lunch at Angel Village |
Our stay in Kanab wasn't long, but not because we
wouldn't have to liked to stay; there just wasn't a spot available for the next
two nights in the small park we had found refuge. We had to move on, but not
before learning that our next door neighbor is from Costa Mesa. She had sold
everything and bought a fifth wheel to live in Kanab and work at Best Friends
Sanctuary!
When we set out the next day, we had NO idea where we
were headed. We hadn't made plans at all. We had a vague intent of primitive
camping again if we simply saw an area we liked as we headed out of town. We
had briefly explored some coral sand dunes near Best Friends Sanctuary the day
before and knew there were other areas like it a little farther out of town. We
figured we'd head toward St. George and find somewhere to park it for a couple
of days so we could make our requisite visit to Zion.
 |
| Brent and Emmy in the park |
 |
| Evelyn being a kid! |
 |
| Heritage Park in Hurricane, Utah |
We stopped in at Sand Hollow State Park, not far from
Hurricane, where they had primitive camping available; we would just find a
spot on the sand near the lake and make it our own for $18 a night. Though this
option offered freedom for the dogs and Evelyn and opportunities for boat and
ATV rental, we felt we really should find a place with hook-ups if possible.
Our batteries had taken kind of a beating at Lake Powell because our solar
panels were facing a bad direction for collection of light and we didn't want
to take chances of losing the heater at night or further damaging our
batteries. So, we made a few calls and landed a spot in St. George.
Temple View RV Park is packed and popular. We're parked
on pavement and gravel right up next to and behind other rigs, but that's ok!
It's been nice to treat this as home and Evelyn has had a chance to ride her
bike and scooter. It's actually kind of nice to be surrounded by other people
and Evelyn is overjoyed at all the kids here. She's pet people's dogs as
they're walking by and made new friends all over the park.
 |
| Evelyn hanging out with new friends at the pool. |
 |
| Heading home from the pool-- that's how we roll! |
 |
| Polygamy Porter-- it was really good! |
We ventured out late the first day and had lunch at
George's, in the heart of Downtown St. George. We started learning about the
history of the community and their pride in the "Dixie" nickname. I
enjoyed a Polygamy Porter and browsed the local paper featuring Zion. In
talking to locals and considering the visit to Zion more, we started to get the
feeling it would be very, very crowded. Exploring the park seemed more
difficult that we could wrap our heads around and it started to feel more an
obligation than a desire. We made the decision right there and then at George's
that we wouldn't visit Zion. We wanted to live the family life for a couple of
days, and if that meant more time at the pool and riding bikes in the RV park,
then that's what we'd be doing.
I went to Target and Ross that evening and took my time
browsing. I was impressed by the friendliness of the people and the cleanliness
of the stores. I shook off my California protective layer because I could--
people smiled and held doors and said things like "Excuse me"! The
energy around me was not a defensive or tense one as it is back home. People
were happy and courteous. Running errands and browsing clothing racks was not a
chore-- it was a pleasant way to spend the evening!
The next day, we had a little trouble in that we wanted
to extend our stay at Temple View RV Park but they were sold out. We opted to
take up their offer of staying in what was basically their storage area behind
the park, not ideal but at least was a place to park, and spent the morning
packing to move. Packing to move takes a long time-- at least two hours, we've
discovered-- and it was getting hot. I wasn't thrilled about our new place in
the park and my back was aching from little sleep the night before. Afterall,
we do still have an infant on an infant schedule in the house! My temper and lack
of patience were creating a challenge for me that morning. To make matters
worse, when we got all the slides in and the jacks lifted, Brent went to start
the truck and nothing happened. He had drained the battery by listening to the
radio without running it the night before. Park staff attempted to help jump
start our truck to no avail. Brent finally finagled something on his own--
don't ask me what... he works magic like MacGyver sometimes!--and finally, the
truck started up. We had hitched and were half way pulled out of our spot an
hour after deadline when staff pulled up in a golf cart and told us there'd
been a cancellation and we didn't have to move! Hallelujah!
We backed right back in and made ourselves at home again
for the weekend. We did some cleaning and vacuuming inside and I worked on some
writing. Then, we spent an afternoon in the St. George Town Square.
We visited the Children's Museum, where for $11 entry for
all of us we enjoyed an amazing, fun, and clean
kind of paradise for kids! There were three levels of fun there. We spent our
entire time on the lower level and still had more to explore there alone! I
wished we had discovered the place sooner as Evelyn could have spent two entire
days at the museum alone! There was a prehistoric room, where there were sand
pits to dig and dust for fossils and an active volcano puffing smoke (which
terrified Evelyn just the tiniest bit) with a roller coaster kind of slide ride
where kids could roll down the lava flow on a log. There was a desert and
mining room, which featured a pulley system where kids could load buckets with
boulders and crank them over a pond and to a receiving area. There was also a
large fish tank and mines to explore in this room. In another room, kids could
attempt to play basketball in wheelchairs. In another, there were all kind of
ways to make music from pan drums to organs to harps. In another room, the
theme was castle life, a fairy tale made real with a dragon peering in overhead
and princess and prince costumes to wear. In another room, kids could
experiment with bubbles, watch a skeleton hand mirror their own motion turning
a doorknob, or create a shadow on a phosphorous wall. In yet another room, kids
could explore a simulated submarine, looking through a periscope or navigating
through a pilot's seat and interactive monitor. There was more there can I can
list in one paragraph alone, and it was hard to leave, but it was closing time.
Outside the Children's Museum was the Town Square, where
we had seen the large splash pad the day before and come prepared with bathing
suit and towel. We hadn't seen, however, the rest of the park! Behind the tower
where we'd seen the splash pad was a water play area, where kids could wade
through a red river adorned with natural looking red rocks on which to climb.
Upstream from the river was a larger pond-like area that received its water
from small waterfalls and more rocks on which kids could climb and explore. Some
very clean and aesthetic restroom building separated the water play area from the
rest of the park, a large green area and a shaded foliage area featuring a
carousel! The entire park was in use: people lounged, played, and picnicked all
around.
It was clean, beautiful, and friendly.
If this was what this community invested in its public
space, I was interested to know what else it had to offer! As always, in
considering a possible move from California through our journey, each town
offers a "what if". It's hot here and it is still desert, but it's a
world away from what we've always known. Friendly people, family-friendly fun,
and a sense of history exist here in an overall real possibility as a place to
raise our kids. It's only about five hours from home, as it turns out, so it's
not impossible to get back to California when we'd like. In fact, at the pool
Brent met a man living here in the park while his house is being built here in
St. George. He's from Riverside! We're not the only Californians seeking
transplant elsewhere!
Utah has been easy to treat as home. We've enjoyed our down
time and even made a Halloween craft while we've been here. This lifestyle is
one of constant movement, so it's been nice to stay put for a bit and enjoy the
luxuries of family life and community. So we didn't see Zion. What we did see, though, is the
beauty of family time together. Thank you, St. George!
 |
| Making home a little homier in Utah |
No comments:
Post a Comment