RV LESSON #3

RV travel is not the cheap way to go. Filling up this guy takes about $150 and that lasts about three days at about 8 mpg.
KOA’s cost $40. We can prepare meals but unexpected trouble with the fridge made that plan not work all that well. So driving a 30mpg car and staying in motels is cheaper, but not the same experience. It’s fun seeing the landscape go by from over the heads of the other vehicles. All the gas stations, rest stops and even restaurants along the way have bus and RV parking. And when you stop for the night, no unpacking, everything is yours, it’s easy to settle in and start cocktail hour.

…---…/…---…/…---… SOS,SOS,SOS

So we’re heading south from the dino tracks and still have half the day to scrub off so that we don’t end up in Las Vegas during rush hour traffic. We decide to look for the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum in St George. I googled the directions on my blackberry and read the directions to Tom. It gets us off the freeway, into town and then onto more and more narrow residential streets. Now keep in mind that we are driving a vehicle as big as an entire neighborhood. I’m getting the instructions off the phone, yelling them to Tom and we are both getting pretty excited. He’s sweating, I’m freaking out and suddenly there is a roundabout in front of us! By a divine miracle (more on that in a few minutes) there is a huge parking space just in front of us. It’s marked “Busses Only” but we are in no mood. We sit there for a few seconds, taking inventory of our senses and suddenly a lovely man with a beatific smile appears at the side door. He’s holding a book in his hand. My first guess, Jehovah’s Witness. Better guess since we are in Utah, he’s the caretaker of the Brigham Young museum which we have just parked in front of. So he gave us a tour and let us keep the parking space. We learned many things. When the Mormons first came to this area, it was during the civil war which interrupted the flow of cotton to the west. So Young and his buds marked off plots of home sites in the little new town, gave a plot to every man who wanted to come and set everyone to work planting cotton, growing mulberry trees for silk worms and planting vineyards for wine. And I know what you’re thinking. Mormons don’t drink wine. But, as Brother James carefully explained, that was before. Now is after. Ahhh… Anyhoo, the cotton explains why every third business in St George has the word Dixie in it.

Interesting detail, Young was St George’s first snowbird, taking refuge from Salt Lake City’s winter in the place where “the sun spends the winter.” Not only that, he was the possibly the world’s first telecommuter. Because of the telegraph lines that finally made their way from Salt Lake to St George, he didn’t have to be in freezing Salt Lake for the winter. And he could be far more productive and look after his 55 or so wives in a more comfortable setting.

MY LIST

I’ve had a “list” for quite a long time. Long before it was called a bucket list. Inspired by my friend Diana King, I started one in 1983. And the first thing on the list is to see Dinosaur Footprints. I hadn’t even heard of them until a trip to Lake Powell. I saw them on a map but didn’t get to see them. So they started my list which by now is a pretty long list. As we checked out of the KOA in Cedar City, I asked about things to do in the area. And that’s how I learned that there were dino prints right there in southern Utah.
Discovered in 2000, this site, is “going to be the most important in the world for the researchers working on early Jurassic footprints.” --Gerard Gierlinski, Polish Geological Institute, Warsaw, Poland

The back story is that a retired eye doctor wanted to level his roadside property so that he could put in a 7-11 or something like that. As he bulldozed, he noticed that the sandstone was coming off in big blocks, like caked mud, which at first he sold to his neighbors for patio paving and such. Finally, he realized that there was something interesting, very interesting, on the surface of the pieces he was excavating. Why, they looked like footprints of some huge birds!

This is photo of a remarkable thing to see: The actual dinosaur footprint next to a positive cast of the print. Both slabs of stone are nearly 200 million years old. The dinosaur made the original tracks in the wet mud on the shore of a prehistoric lake, then sand blew onto the tracks, and later more mud flowed over the tracks. Then time and pressure fossilized this sandwich. In 2000 AD the positive cast block was lifted off the negative original footprint. And here they both sit, for us all to gape at. --Tom

Luckily for us, his stepson was a paleontologist at the local university who immediately identified them and today you can see thousands of these Early Jurassic period dino prints from 195-198 million years ago. The site is covered by a huge building and it costs just $7 to visit. ($10 for a year pass) I would have paid $70!

This is the original footprint of a small dinosaur, still in the ground where it was made millions of years ago!

Imagine the muddy edge of a lake. Lots of creatures of various sizes are frolicking or fighting or fishing in the mud there. Something sudden happens, they all leave and the area is covered with sand, more mud, then thirty feet of mountain over the next 190 million years. All the foot prints, tail prints, swimming traces, even raindrops are there, preserving a moment in time. Swim tracks of a dinosaur! (The positive cast)

In one area, you can actually see how a creature, about 6 feet tall at the shoulder, came down to the water, sat down in the mud, put his hands down at his sides, got up and walked to higher ground, dragging his tail. You can actually see fifteen of his steps, in a straight line.

Awesome, tears in eyes. So dinosaurs are really true. And this creature actually existed! www.dinotrax.com

RV LESSON #2

Remember lesson #1 (Ouch dammit!)

RV LESSON #1

Stand out of the way of the electric steps when you are opening the door.

FIRST, TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS

The RV is a 34 ft Fleetwood Discovery. The two cup holders that are provided not only hold your drink but keep it cold or hot, at your pleasure, at the push of a clever rocker switch. Inside is very spacious with a slide out kitchen/living room section that gives you just enough floor space to make it all feel quite roomy. Then there is a bathroom with an enclosed shower and beyond that the bedroom with a double bed and cubbyholes everywhere for clothes, etc. In fact, there are nooks and crannies of storage everywhere, making a huge project out of finding things. (I know I packed the garlic press!) The kitchen is nice with an ice-maker fridge, convection/microwave oven, lots of storage and a built-in dining area.
There is a rear-view camera with a monitor on the dash, giving it an airplane-cockpit look. Outside there are various inlets for water, electricity, diesel, propane, etc. There are also outlets for water (grey and black) which has to be dealt with from time to time by someone besides me. There is also lots of storage under the coach, just like a bus. The engine is in the back, which makes the floor space good all the way up to the driver and passenger seats. It also keeps the noise of the diesel engine in the back.

TRIAL TRIP

We planned a two-week RV trip from Las Vegas to Iowa, though Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, the Badlands and Minnesota. The original purpose of the trip was to deliver the RV to Tom’s dad in Iowa so that they could use it for the summer. Up until this time, we had driven the RV by ourselves exactly four hours. Two trips to Searchlight, an hour South of Las Vegas. So, at Tom’s dad’s suggestion, we decided to try a shakedown trip. And we are so glad we did! We booked a night at a KOA in Cedar City Utah, about four hours north of Las Vegas.
The actual travel went well, aside from getting used to the sheer size of this vehicle which I don’t think there is any getting used to. Not only is it long, but it’s also wide, seeming to take up the entire lane. It’s difficult to know where you are in the lane when it seems you are taking up two. We did some trial cooking, showers, etc and made even more lists of things we needed.