Seconds With Steff

This morning we got to sleep in! Sleep we did… I actually made it to almost 7 o’clock, and I had to hurry Hunter along because I barely left enough time to pack the car! When we had arrived in Moab, I completely emptied the car to reorganize and readied everything last night, but waited to pack ’til this morning… don’t know why, other than I was tired. But we got everything in and were out the door with a non-egg breakfast of waffles, and we made our way to Wild West Voyages — a whole six minutes from our hotel.

While planning this trip, sister-wife (my ex’s second ex) practically insisted that we go white water rafting on the Colorado River; however, the bursitis in my right shoulder strongly disagreed with that, so I found a place that would row for you. And despite having two forms of BioFreeze, Salon Pas, and a brace with a freezer insert with me, I really do not want to aggravate it. So, at 9:00, Hunter and I were taken down the same road Mark told us to drive last night, but we went a little bit past the ranch to launch the raft. It was just Hunter, me, a really nice young man named Ben, and the oarsman (I have no idea if that is the correct term), Constance (I really hope that’s right… my hearing gave out at the end of her name). She was super nice and extraordinarily knowledgeable about the history and geography of the area. I feel like everybody who works in Moab has some sort of specialized geography degree.

The absolute highlight of the entire trip occurred early on with me pointing out a rock formation to H, when Constance asked if I was showing him the bald eagle in the tree… WHAT?!?!?!?! So we all proceeded to take pictures of this one bald eagle with the sun in our eyes. I’m not even sure if I was getting pictures of anything! We rowed closer and closer, and she said, “But if you look in that tree, I think there’s the eaglet.” That’s when I said, “Wait… what tree are you both looking at? Because I’ve been looking at that tree the whole time. What are you looking at?” Constance and Ben were looking at one eagle in one tree, and I had one in a different tree! But then we all found another behind the eaglet!!!! So we found the whole family — mom, dad, and baby. Absolutely amazing… I mean really and truly, truly! And what I learned from going to The Wilds in Ohio is that if there is a bald eagle in nature, it means that there is a very healthy ecosystem — so way to go, Moab! PS – I am quite proud of that first pictures…the formation behind it is the one I was pointing to at the start of the story, and I learned is called The Priest and The Nuns.

We also saw some blue heron and Canada geese, but their Canada geese are far smaller than northeastern ones… think quarter horse comparison to a regular horse.

The other highlight was seeing the butte where Blaze of Glory was shot….I linked it if you want to go down memory lane or discover something new!

It was a great time, but of course, Hunter was not as enthralled with the water as I was and just wanted to get back to land.

Once we drove back to Moab, Hunter suddenly insisted on getting lunch at a restaurant. That wasn’t on my radar, other than picking up a snack at our next stop where Mark had told us the chicken strips were next level, but he absolutely insisted that we drive the one block into town to eat very specifically at a restaurant called ZAX. I mean, insistent because they had pasta. I don’t know why he thought that… no idea where he got the idea from, and he will not/cannot tell me. Andddddd they did not have pasta. Ok… they had four pasta dishes, of which only one was kind of appropriate for him — mac & cheese — but it was covered with a bunch of stuff (jalapeños, bacon, bleu cheese crumbles), so they removed all of that, and he was perfectly happy. I got a small salad, and I was perfectly happy too! Then we were quickly on our way.

Our next stop was Moab Giants, which was a fairly nice tourist attraction — a place you would bring your kids if you were in Moab. They have a really well-put-together interactive museum with a half-mile dinosaur walk, and for little kids, dig sites and fun things to do along the way. The only problem is that at 102°, the walk was brutal. So for the $18 ticket, it was about a half hour of our time. But again, the museum was really nice. Very small, but well done.

On a “they could have done this better” note: the observation tower required a quarter to use the telescope, so it would’ve been nice if they had a change machine anywhere, or that information posted, or a dollar trade/add-on at the ticket booth.

Moving on, we stopped at Copper Ridge Trailhead to see some actual dinosaur footprints in nature. After a third-of-a-mile uphill hike, we found the dinosaur footprints by taking a right turn. I have Hunter standing in different footprints so you can actually see where they are. I’m not sure if I got all the footprints, but I did what I could. It’s really cool. It’s not a museum. It’s not fake. It’s not in a museum. It’s actually where a dinosaur lived, breathed, and walked… just ridiculously amazing.

It’s not a road trip without a silly roadside attraction — I give you, The Second Largest Watermelon Slice.

When I first started looking into Hanksville as a place to stay, one friend said that it was amazing that Boss Hogg was a real person. Hank’s name is everywhere. We checked into our digs for the night, and once again, I will extol the virtues of checking out RV parks and campgrounds. This cabin was something like $10 cheaper than the motel next door!

Then we were off to check out the Bentonite Hills. I found the Bentonite Hills late in the planning of the trip, and once I saw it was near The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), I couldn’t resist. We don’t have a drone, so my pics aren’t nearly what they are online — so google away or click on – Kevin Eassa – he is my favourite! … by the way, after all of that research, the manager of the RV park gave me super easy directions.

And sidenote — not everything is sunshine and rainbows… at this point, Hunter is giving me an incredibly hard time about going for dinner because I know he wants his phone. So I ask, would he rather be on the trip or in his room at home on his phone… his answer made me see red! And then I got over it… autism… it’s fine.

We ate dinner at — you guessed it — Duke’s Slick Rock Grill, and Hunter pinned our hometown on the map.

Unreliable Summary — Rafting, Dinosaurs, and Purple Mountains.