Back to Utah

We finally finished all our business in Arizona--house closing, building permit, bids for leveling and grading the site for our pole barn, and ordered the pole barn kit from Sutherland Lumber in Sierra Vista. Time to head home. Steve will go back in about a month when the pole barn kit is delivered. He decided it would be fun to build it himself. Hmmmm. Maybe. I think he's going to try and round up a little help from some of our new friends.

Ellie and Tex knew something was up and didn't want to be left behind; they planted themselves in the doorway of the Royal Palms and watched us as we packed things up and secured the house. We spent the first night on the road at my brother Jeff's in Dewey. He's the one who's built a house and gorgeous home up on a hill overlooking Prescott Valley. Steve built his wine cellar for him. Jeff has bees now, and chickens. Any family member that visits gets to have a chicken named after him or her. So far, there's Little Dawn, Susannah, Lolly, and Car Car. Car Car is me--that's the name my younger brothers started calling me when they were learning to talk. How they got that from "Sandy" is a mystery, but it stuck. I am "Aunt Car" to all my nieces and nephews. That's "my" chicken in the picture. The patio is Jeff's. It's much larger and grander than we will have at the new house, but I can see something like it on a smaller scale, so I took a picture.

We spent the second night at the NFS campground in Red Canyon, between Panguitch and Bryce Canyon National Park. It's a nice little campground right off the highway, and has some nice big pull-through sites that were perfect for us. We were quite a parade--Steve driving the Royal Palms pulling the trailer , followed by Kermit the Truck with me at the wheel. We got settled in our campsite early enough to take a hike in Casto Canyon, just a few miles from the campground. People call it a mini-Bryce Canyon, and they're right. The area has miles of trails suitable for hiking, mountain biking, ATVing, and horseback riding. We were there late in the day, when all the ATVers had gone back to their camps to suck down some beers, and had the place pretty much to ourselves.

That's it for this trip. My next blog entries will probably be in July or August. We plan to head up to Idaho then for some canoeing and kayaking. maybe our friends, Jim and Janice, will join us again.