Cedar City, Utah

What a windy drive! We picked an adventurous time to drive through Utah. Most of the state is covered by a storm front with high winds. We've had winds over 20 mph with horrible gusts, and one rogue gust just about blew us off the road yesterday. I found out that the words "God help!" fly out of my mouth real quick when the motorhome is suddenly 5 feet to the right of the white line. Abe didn't overcorrect, and we were back in our lane almost immediately.

Since it was Friday, we decided to see if we could stay in a church parking lot, so we looked up a local Seventh Day Adventist church and drove to it since we couldn't reach anyone to ask if we could park there. It was a small church, with a short row of parking spaces in the front and on the side, and we didn't know if we were allowed to park across the street so we went to a free campsite not far away. Once again, I was glad for the 36 foot RV instead of the 40 footer I was wanting. We just fit. I watched from the outside as the RV tipped precariously from side to side. I'm sure it looked worse that it was, and we're quite bottom heavy, so my nerves were just overreacting - probably from the stress of being tossed around by the wind. I'm glad Abe is doing the driving, although I need to learn to drive this beast eventually.

The spot we were at was gorgeous. We were parked about ten feet away from a ten food cliff that led down to a stream. The dirt everywhere was pink, and the ground was littered with red, pink, and green rocks. I used to go on walks with my boys on the dirt road we lived on when they were little, and we'd pick up cool, interesting, or pretty rocks that we found. I wanted to gather a bunch of rocks to take back to them in the summer. Instead, I settled for sending them pictures. We didn't spend much time outside. The sun went down not too long after we parked and got the RV (mostly) level. Abe built a small campfire that we let burn for about half an hour before letting it go out, then he kicked the coals down below where there was nothing but rocks, sand, and water. It was dark out by that time, and we could see a spattering of bright red embers in black down below. I should have taken a picture, but figured it wouldn't turn out.

I read the other day that sauerkraut is really simple to make, so we bought a head of cabbage so I could give it a shot. That was a fun way to use up some time in the evening, so I got to work. I sliced 1/2 of the head as thin as I could, added a tablespoon of salt and some caraway seeds, and started squeezing. It didn't do anything. But then, it started getting soft, and before I knew it, there was cabbage juice in the bottom of the bowl. I kept squeezing it until I got enough juice that I could cover the cabbage with it in a mason jar. That was easier than expected, so I repeated the process with the second half, only adding garlic and dill instead of caraway. I will see if it's any good in two weeks.

In the morning, we went to the Cedar City SDA Church. It was a small group of maybe fifteen people, but they did say there were several missing people that day. We were invited to one of the members' houses for lunch, and I am so glad we accepted! I had made a pot of rice with lentils in my instant pot during church, so I took that to add to the haystacks (a taco salad with beans instead of meat), apple pie, strawberries, and frozen yogurt. The food was really good food, but the people were wonderful! It was a perfect church to be the first one that we visited. I like people, but I'm pretty shy and uncomfortable around them most of the time. It was wonderful to be around a warm, friendly group of people that made me feel totally comfortable. I didn't realize until after leaving that I didn't have my normal nervousness, self-consciousness, and stress.

We were planning on driving out to see Abe's uncle in St. George after church, but the visit got postponed so we went to a dispersed camping site next to the Hurricane Cliffs, near the entrance to Zion National Park. The view here is absolutely breathtaking!

Once we got set up, we took the dogs for a short walk down into the canyon. It's a fun place to take a 4x4, but I wouldn't want to take a nice 4x4 down there. There were occasional auto parts scattered on the ground that people lost during their adventures. There were also more awesome rocks, little caves, and some of the plants that grow around here. And I found a little piece of petrified wood.

Tomorrow we'll pull out our mountain bikes. It's been a long time since we've done any mountain biking, but the trails here are made for Jeeps and pick-ups, so nothing to tough. We'll probably head to St. George tomorrow to see Abe's uncle, and after that we'll drive until we decide to stop. I look forward to whatever we see next.