Monday we left Provo around 5 am and, due to my lack of sleep, ended up taking the really long way to Arches. Instead of going in the diagonal line that mapquest told me to do, I completely forgot and ended up going down I-15 until I hit Scipio and took Route 50 to get to I-70. We ended up losing about an hour because of that mistake. Oh well. We arrived at the park and drove to the Landscape Arch hike and hiked further on to Double O Arches. It was a 4.4 mile hike and we weren't quite prepared for it. We brought enough water and food, but we should have taken a warm up hike first. We were wiped out by the time we got back. I learned several things on this hike, most importantly that Marie is deathly afraid of heights and jumping over cracks between rocks. This is understandable, and she got through it all well, I just had to help calm her down and hold her at certain points in the hike. I also learned that Marie really loves animals more than earthly features such as arches. She liked to stop and look at and point out the many lizards and squirrels we encountered on our many hikes. She even fed a few squirrels some honey nut Cheerios. She did really like the arches too. On this hike we saw Landscape Arch, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch and Double O Arches. After this hike we figured we should get to the campsite and set up for the night. The campsite was 13 miles south of Monticello (where Arches is just north of Moab and Monticello is about 55 miles south of Moab) and was pretty nice. We only had problems at night when we wanted to use the bathroom or the water pump to clean dishes. We would hear rattles as we approached, warning us of rattlesnakes nearby. Other than that we were safe. I think we had Spaghetti O's that night for dinner.
Tuesday morning I woke up to find that my rear driver side tire had gone flat. This is when I found out even more about Marie and she found out even more about me. I have never changed a flat before, but I had seen it done and knew the basics. Marie assumed I knew what I was doing and just watched. I started out by jacking the car up and taking the wheel cover off. Good so far. Then I tried to unscrew the bolts unsuccessfully because the tire kept spinning when I tried to wrench them off. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out and got pretty frustrated. I'm sure Marie was glad there was no one watching her poor dumb husband attempt such a feat. Anyways, it finally dawned on me to put the e-brake on and I continued on my way. Marie had learned how to change a flat in Young Women's as a requirement for something I can't remember. I think we might have been better off with her changing it. Oh well. The rest was ok from there as we had a full size spare left over from a previous accident so we went out in search of a shower so we could do some temple work at the Monticello Temple. It costs a lot to take a shower I guess, as we paid $5 to do so for 1 hour. We acted as proxy for sealings that day and then went to Arches again to see the visitor's center and hike 3.5 miles to Delicate Arch. It was another tough hike but fun. That night we roasted hot dogs on the fire and later had roasted marshmallows.
Wednesday we broke camp pretty early so we could get to the Monticello Temple again so we could act as the witness couple in an endowment session at 10 am. After that we drove to Zion Canyon National Park to camp within the park. As we set up camp, several mule deer came down in the middle of the camp site. They didn't seem to mind people all that much as I came within arms reach of them a few times. There were a lot of annoying things about this site though. 1.)There were tons of bugs (caterpillars falling from over hanging trees, gnats, mosquitoes, flies, etc.). 2.)There were some people who decided to bring their baby camping and it decided to cry all night long. 3.)We were camped in a grove of cottonwood trees and both Marie and my allergies flared up severely, causing sleep problems and breathing problems.
Thursday morning, we hiked the 1 mile Canyonview trail in Zion. We ate lunch as we sat on some rocks overlooking the valley several thousand feet below. Marie is not as deathly afraid of heights as my father is. When I took him on this same hike, he inched up to the railing where the cliff is, all the time leaning backwards away from the cliff. When his hand finally touched the rail, he looked briefly over, still leaning backwards, and then scampered away from the edge. Marie was very cool about it but still didn't go as far as me, leaning over the rail to see the cliff drop off better. After that, we went to the St. George Temple, hoping to shower in the church building across from it for free because it was a stake center, but we found that there were no showers to be found there. We didn't want to go into the temple smelly and dirty so I tried to call a few of the people I know in the area but didn't find anyone home. Finally, Marie remembers that I had another friend down there that we were trying to stay with but things fell through. I called him up and we had our shower hookup for the next 2 days! After serving as the witness couple yet again, we went to our favorite restaurant, Mongolian BBQ. We took the friend with us to repay him for letting us use his showers. After dinner, I found out that a very good friend that I served my mission with was living in the area. We visited with him for several hours and enjoyed catching up on each other's lives.
Friday, we broke camp and took the shuttle around Zion and saw most of the peaks and did a few short hikes such as Weeping Rock and the 3 Patriarchs. We also went to the visitor center and saw a short film on the creation of the park. After that, we again went to the St. George Temple and performed sealings. After the temple, we went to our camp site out side of Bryce Canyon National Park. It was fun trying to find the camp site-- it was 5.5 miles down a gravel road and the signs with the name of our campground suddenly disappeared once we reached the campground and were replaced by other campground names. Luckily the campsite host was found and kindly pointed us in the right direction. I must say that this campsite had the cleanest camp bathrooms I've ever seen. They looked new and were not infested with rattlesnakes. We had eaten dinner at Iceberg in St. George before we came to camp and read until nightfall.
Saturday morning we drove to the end of Bryce (Rainbow Point) and proceeded to stop at all the lookout points along the way to the visitor's center. We neglected to put on sunscreen that day and regretted it. I got the worst of it, with Marie taunting me by saying how she didn't have to wear blush the following sunday because she had just the right amount of sunburn for it to look natural. Grrr.... I on the other hand turned into a well-done lobster. That evening we found to my immense dismay that another tire was leaking-- this one had a hole and we could hear it going flat. So I used the wisdom gained from my first tire-changing experience only a few days earlier to change this tire also while Marie heated up some yummy chicken and sausage gumbo soup. We were so glad to have listened to the Spirit and filled our other tire before reaching our campsite that night.
Sunday morning we checked the tires and to our delight, they were all filled. We had been saying several prayers the entire week that our car would function completely and well and specifically included the tires the last few days with the impending danger of the gravel road. We checked the tires again after we made it past the gravel road and listened to each one to make sure they weren't leaking. Again, nothing. We made it to Provo about an hour and a half before church and cleaned up and enjoyed church, well, my neck didn't like the collared shirt and tie, but I endured.
Memorable Marie Quotes from the Week:
"I love the feel of photosynthesis in the morning!"
"HORSIES!!!! THEY'RE NOT COWS!"
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