Moab 2015

So after the usual 2-3 visits to the mechanic and enduring questions about whether or not we were going to "try" to drive Sylvia to Moab, we hit the road. Destination? Moab. As we detected new taps and clacks along the way we spent the first driving day playing the "What's the Noise, Boys?" game. As the day progressed my anxiety rose and my throat intermittently tightened and began to close. Does that mean I suffer from PTSD from all of our random strandings and breakdowns along the road in the camper van? I wonder why all of our friends unbelievingly ask us if we're taking her on yet another long distance trip? What? Last trip was only a small fire, a flat tire, a dead battery and the beginning sounds of a failing CV joint. And the time before that it was a new engine....and the time before that the wheel almost fell off....and the time before that it was an engine rebuild....and....maybe I can see their point. But we love Sylvia and they way she makes us feel...when she's not acting up. So here we are again.

Happily, in spite of the new clacks, we made it to Moab without incident. After snagging the last campsite in the uber-busy Slickrock campground, we didn't waste any time and hit Slickrock the first afternoon in two parties, Isaac and Jason on bikes, and Aaron and I on foot. My wrist isn't healed enough to bike so it was hiking only for me this trip. The following morning was consumed by a work meeting and skyping into the boys' computer science class. In the afternoon we managed to squeeze in a hike up Moonflower canyon and then hiked Mill Creek Canyon where we witnessed drunk college students plunging off of cliffs into a pool of water below a waterfall. Scary. The next morning Isaac and Jason biked the whole Slickrock loop. It was Isaac's first time completing the whole loop and he totally rocked it. Yay Isaac! We spent the afternoon in Arches at Sand Dune Arch where the boys launched themselves repeatedly off of a giant boulder into the deep sand. We spent the following morning stuck at a gas station with our mechanic on the line trying to figure out why Sylvia wasn't starting. When she finally started running again we anxiously crept down the steep and winding Kane Creek road to Hunter Canyon where we enjoyed a lovely hike along the creek bottom among budding trees and the sounds of canyon wrens. The following morning we got stuck parked on the street outside the restaurant where we had eaten lunch when Sylvia, again, wouldn't start. There was another Westy parked in front of us so I compared stranding stories with its owner while Jason searched the Internet for a fix. Luckily he brilliantly found a fix and we were up and running again. This time we decided to stay on paths well-travelled since Sylvia was intermittently not starting so we headed to the Corona Arch hike.




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