Thanksgiving 2020

 Was I a little out of sorts on Thanksgiving Day?  Of course - everybody was meeting over at Jaime's place and I couldn't go because I was still under quarantine from Glenn's covid.  He was free to go - but said he wouldn't because of me having to stay home.

I prepped my usual food on Wed. and told Glenn to take it over Thursday morning - he insisted I go with him and just stay in the car but I said no - I KNEW what would happen - he would get to visiting with everybody and would want to stay awhile - and that's exactly what happened!!  I was glad he got to see everyone and get in some "guy" time with the son-in-laws!

And me - I made special coffee and actually sat in my recliner with the Macy's parade on - something I never do as I'm always in the kitchen!  Rayna face-timed me for a couple of hours that morning and would walk around showing me what different people were doing and of course I would talk to several of them too so that did make it feel like I was ALMOST there!

The girls were kind enough to text me lots of Thanksgiving pictures so here they are!!

This is the pilgrim set my mom made for me in ceramics - it rarely ever got used because I always decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving!  This year I decided to give it to Jaime since she always hosts Thanksgiving and it looks so cute on her table!

Our 3 beautiful daughters!

These guys all look pretty happy!

Flannel shirts were the dress of the day!

The grand kids - it's amazing to see how much they've grown!

Rayna and Matias

I love shots like this!!  In the background is Bev (Robby's mom) and her boyfriend who usually join us.

And that's my girl helping mom make the punch that I sent over!

After they all ate and got the kitchen cleaned up, a bunch of them came over to our house with our meal that we would eat that evening.  They stayed on ground level and I stood outside up on the porch so we could all talk - it was sure hard not giving hugs!!

Glenn and I enjoyed our meal that evening - it was excellent and proved that the 3 girls can do it all at Thanksgiving, even without mom around!!  But I DON'T plan on missing another one!

And Covid Strikes

 Yes - read that again - covid has hit home!!

The night before Glenn left to go pheasant hunting up in Burlington, CO, he noticed he was losing his voice a little bit and wondered if a cold was coming on!  But he left early Friday to go hunt and stay in a hotel for a couple of nights!  He called Friday night and said he didn't feel great but knew he was just tired!

On Saturday, he got up early to hunt and mid-morning had to come back to the hotel to take a nap as he didn't have any energy - when he called Sat. night, he didn't sound very good and he said he must have picked up a bug somewhere and caught a cold.

He arrived home Sunday afternoon and immediately went to bed to rest!  Said he had a slight cough, no energy, and his chest felt tight.  Monday he felt about the same but had noticed his sense of smell wasn't very good - oh no - that's when we decided he had better get tested for the virus.  Thanksgiving was coming up AND Neal was headed out with his kids for the weekend to pick up 1/2 of the elk.

I had to bring Jaime's car home Tuesday (hers was in the shop getting repaired - Brad was gone hunting in Iowa with one of his trucks and Jaime was driving the other truck - Sunday morning she got up and she must have left something on because it was dead - called me as she HAD to get to work - all I had was Glenn's truck as he wasn't home yet so I raced over there and then she dropped me back off and headed to work in Glenn's truck - Glenn was to go charge the dead truck but he just didn't feel like it - so Jaime stopped by after work and left Glenn's truck and took my car, a little easier to drive and park) and get groceries so I rode in with Glenn and he was just going to drop me off after getting tested.

We arrived 15 minutes early and were already about 12 cars back - the gal came over and I asked her how long to get a test and she said at least an hour!!  I decided to just walk to the repair shop and get Jaime's car and get my errands done!

Glenn ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours to get the test done - and then Thursday the Dept of Health called and told him he was positive - darn!!  

We tracked it back trying to decide where he might have picked it up and all we could come up with was the end of our Utah vacation - but who knows?  He has felt a little better every day and today he even ventured outside to get some work done so I know he's feeling better!  It actually wasn't any worse than a bad cold for a couple of days and he NEVER had a fever as we checked it often - although who knows if he had a fever in Burlington!

Glenn's quarantine is up the 24th which is tomorrow - so on Wed. he is able to be out and about around other people.  Me - I'm not so lucky - although I have NO symptoms, my quarantine has to go an additional 10 days from the date his is done!!!  So I'm stuck at home until Dec. 4th!!

OF course that means I will miss Thanksgiving.....the kids and grand kid are all congregating at Jaime's place and Glenn and I will be home.   Glenn could actually go over there and see everyone and eat with them but he's not going to - he'll stay at home with me.  The girls will bring us plates of food after they're done eating so we'll still get to have all the Thanksgiving trimmings - and I'll still make what I'm supposed to and Glenn will take it over Thursday morning.

If I had a choice to make, I will take Christmas over Thanksgiving any day - so I'm praying everyone is healthy the 3rd weekend of Dec. so we can all celebrate together.

Meanwhile, my house is decorated, almost all of the presents are bought, and most of my projects are done - I do find things to do most mornings and afternoons are spent relaxing and reading.

I almost wish I would have had a couple of symptoms so I could have gotten tested and done Glenn's quarantine right along with him - but they have told us that if you get tested with no symptoms you could get a false reading.  So who knows if I have it or not?

So unless I blog about my daily housekeeping chores or my relaxing afternoons, there will be NOTHING to blog about till I'm off of quarantine - good thing I started taping Hallmark Christmas movies early.....

Final Vacation Plans

 We woke up on our travel day to this beautiful sunrise!

After another good breakfast at the lodge, we finished packing up and headed out!  The highway we took was right through the entire park again - with signs that there wasn't any fuel available for 60 miles!  And there sure wasn't - it was the most desolate place ever!!

Brown and more brown everywhere you looked - it sure wasn't as pretty as those gorgeous red rocks we had just seen!

We had a great travel day heading east and it was nice to get back to the Colorado mountains!  I had made reservations in Pagosa Springs at a place that had a hot springs swimming pool along with a hot tub also!  They had the cute separate  cabins so we indulged and stayed in those!

As soon as we got there, we changed into our swim suits and soaked in the big pool - gosh that felt good!  There were a couple of families there too with kids so after awhile we walked back to the hot tub (that you could only have 5 people in) and soaked there - visited with a nice couple who live in the area and eventually got out!  They also have a private building for men and for women that has a sauna and a tiny pool - I peeked in just to see what it was like - DARK -  as no windows in the "bathing" area and I'm sure I would have gotten claustrophobic because it was SO HOT in there - I guess I shouldn't have said dark because you could certainly see in there but it wasn't a place I would have enjoyed!

By this time it's getting dark - and Glenn just didn't want to get back in the car and drive to a place to eat so I looked online and found a couple of places that looked good within walking distance.  Well that walking distance turned into quite a walk!!  But we found a great place - very small inside though and we would have had to wait - so we opted to just do take out!  We both had grilled chicken sandwiches with all the trimmings, including avocado, and they were delicious as we enjoyed them back in our cabin!

Yes, the election was on in the back ground! 

 We still had breakfast supplies in the ice chest so we cooked our breakfast early and headed out!  It only took about 4 1/2 hours to get home and as I always say - there's no place like home!

Capital Reef National Park

 We slept so good - no noise whatsoever from outside!  And after a great breakfast at the Pioneer Restaurant which was just a short walk away, we headed to the park - it was only about a 5 minute drive.

This park was totally different than the other 2 - the road through the park is actually a main highway - not a busy one of course since it's desolate out this way and the only place you actually pay is for a scenic drive down one of the canyons.

Lots of red rocks as we started into the park.

Our first stop was Goosenecks Overlook where we climbed through the rocks to a deep canyon - so massive  I didn't even try to take a picture!

The view from the lookout point.

Right in the middle of the park is a section called "Fruita" where there are numerous orchards -hard to believe this oasis is in the middle of all this rock!    It was lovely in this valley and the trees still had gold leaves on!!  I was excited to stop at the Gifford Farmhouse where they have a gift shop AND serve pie and coffee - and then quite disappointed when we got there and it was closed - probably due to the virus.....

We enjoyed seeing the orchards and in one spot you could park and walk along a boardwalk - the rocks were so pretty!

If you look at the bottom of the red slab you'll see petroglyphs - that was cool to see!

We took the 8 mile scenic drive - it was a gravel road and pretty bumpy but beautiful - went to a spot called Grand Wash where you could take a 3 1/2 mile trek UP to see the Cassidy Arch - I did forget to mention that my leg was super sore when I got up so I knew I wouldn't be doing any heavy hiking today which was pretty darn disappointing - but I knew that trek up the mountain to get beside the arch wouldn't have been anything we would have done anyway.  But we climbed up a short trail to see it in a distance and it took me FOREVER to finally catch it with my eye!  Too far away to get a picture though!

We enjoyed the scenery we did see - and had to bypass the Hickman Bridge trail too as it was 2 miles and I knew my leg just couldn't handle it!  What a disappointment!!

All in all, Capital Reef was my least favorite of the 3 parks we saw - don't get me wrong - it was gorgeous and if I could have hiked some, that would have made it a lot better!  But I still prefer the other two!

We were actually done seeing the park by early afternoon - Glenn wanted to do some gem hunting so he took me back to the suite where I relaxed and walked around the place.  Glenn found some "treasures" and had a fun time too.

That night we drove across the highway for pizza - it was good and we enjoyed visiting with the crazy waitress!  Afterwards I had Glenn stop at the restaurant at the resort so I could get another piece of the peach crisp to take back to our place!  And it was JUST as good the second night!

And I can't forget to mention that since Tuesday was election day, we spent our evenings watching the news and the election results!

Moab Museum of Film

 There is a beautiful western resort about 15 miles out of town called the Red Cliffs Lodge - they have rooms and cabins and a restaurant - kind of like a dude ranch only on an upscale basis!  I had researched it in the hopes of staying there but decided it was just too pricey!  HOWEVER - they did have something that I wanted to see - their Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage!

So Wed. morning we packed up and checked out of our hotel - we actually ate the hotel's hot breakfast and they really had it set up nice.  There was a long table in front of the entrance to the breakfast items and you just gave your order to the lady standing there and she filled your order!  

We headed to the lodge and it was as expected - VERY nice!  The museum is inside the lodge and we headed to it as soon as we arrived.

Over 120 movies and hundreds more TV series, specials and commercials have been filmed in the Moab-Monument Valley Area - I had NO idea that much had been filmed in the Moab area!  The museum was set up very well with lots of movie posters, info on the actors and actresses (and extras in the area) and detailed information on the movies!  It was all set in a western setting which was nice!

There is a continuous movie playing with chairs you can sit on (social distanced of course but we were the only ones there while we watched the movie) and it was SO interesting to see clips of movies that we have seen, showing parts of the parks!  I had no idea some of the movies had been filmed in that area!

One of the most famous was Thelma and Louise - and if you've seen the movie, you'll recall that one of the last scenes is the car flying off the cliff!  In the picture below, you'll see the dummy that was used when the car went off the cliff - now I need to watch the movie again!

We thoroughly enjoyed the museum and actually you could have spent hours reading everything and looking at all of the photos - but this was travel day to Torrey, Utah where Capital Reef National Park is so after a couple of hours, we were on our way!

It was a nice drive but very desolate and not much around!  As we got closer to Torrey, the red cliffs came into view!

I guess I thought the town of Torrey would be fairly good size like Moab - NOT!  It's a very small town with limited places to eat and not a lot there!  I had booked us into a lodge on the outskirts of town called Capital Reef Lodge and it certainly was all I expected!  There was a restaurant on site so we didn't have to leave the lodge for nightly dinners AND the king preferred suite I had booked was just lovely - a separate bedroom and a living room with a patio that looked out on views like this!!  It was gorgeous!

There were mini cabins you could stay in, regular hotel like rooms, along with teepes and covered wagons in the summer!

When the sun was setting on the red rocks, this was the result!

I really wanted to see inside of the covered wagons and luckily there was one open that you could climb up into - cute as ever - double bunk beds on each side as you walked in and then straight ahead was a queen or king bed!  In a building next to the wagons, you had your own private bathroom!  How fun for a young family to do this!

These fire pits were all over the grounds and at about 5:00 they all turned on!!  (they were propane)  You could purchase ingredients to make s'mores if you wanted to - such a great idea!  Several people brought their wine over to drink!

We ate at the lodge that evening - no masks required as their virus count is next to nothing but a lot of people still wore them of course.  The meal was great and I took their "peach cobbler" back to the room as I was too full to eat it!  OMG - it was the best cobbler I've ever had - and no, I didn't share with Glenn either - he could have gotten his own if he'd wanted it!!  Ha!

Dead Horse State Park

 To finish up Canyonlands, we continued to walk along that edge of the canyon for more wonderful views!

More "western movie" views!

We later found out that you can DRIVE down in this canyon - you must have a permit and it takes 2 to 3 days to get to the end of it so you have to camp along the way.  I think we'll leave that trip to the younger ones!

We stopped at a couple more overlooks and had plans to do one more hike but my leg was hurting so we opted to just drive through the rest of the park.  We stopped at Canyonlands Visitor Center but had the same results as Arches - only the gift shop was open!  But I did get a really cool Christmas ornament!

Since Dead Horse State Park was on the same road, we headed there next.  Our national park pass wouldn't work here of course but we gladly paid the fee to get in!  We had planned to just drive through this state park but since the road was blocked off, you had to go through the visitor parking lot to get back to the main road!  I saw a bunch of people walking a trail so told Glenn to park so we could walk it and I'm sure glad we did!  It was a gorgeous trail and the views were outstanding!

We were glad we had our jackets on for this outing as it was windy and cool!

And as you can see by the picture, the clouds were rolling in and we even had a few sprinkles!

That's the Colorado River that you see below, cutting its way through all of the canyons!  The park only receives about 10" of rain a year so it really is an arid desert environment!

And how did the park get its name?  According to one legend, the point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa.  Cowboys rounded up these horses and herded them across the narrow neck of land onto the point.  The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush to create a natural corral  surrounded by cliffs.  The cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and for reasons unknown, left the others there on the waterless point where they died of thirst.  That's an awful story!!!!!

We ate our lunch at a picnic area and then headed back to the hotel  - Glenn's nap time you know!

That evening we had decided to get to the Broken Oak Restaurant right when it opened at 5:00 because then it would be daylight!  We found the turn just fine and it was a beautiful log building inside and out.

We had an awesome waitress who even made Glenn blush!!  I had decided to order the sweet potato fries (even though I'm not a sweet potato fan) and I'm SO GLAD I did!  OMG - they were absolutely delicious!  Probably because they were drizzled with their signature sauce made of cinnamon, sugar, salt, caramel and lemon zest!  WOW - what a great meal!!  (and the shrimp was good too!!)  We sat right by a massive fireplace so I highly recommend this place if you are ever in Moab!

Canyonlands

 Another beautiful day was in the works!  We grabbed some cereal to eat and made coffee to go and hit the road!  Canyonlands was about a 45 minute drive from our hotel and after the arches from the day before, we were ready to see the canyons!

Canyonlands is divided up into 3 sections:  Island in the Sky, The Maze and Needles.  We did Island in the Sky area as the other two sections are quite rugged.  The Maze is the one of the nations' most remote area with The Needles only available to see with 4WD vehicles or hiking.

The red cliffs and statues were beautiful in the morning sunlight!  

Now this picture looks like it just came out of a western movie!  I've always loved seeing pictures like this and now I have one of my own!

Our first stop was Mesa Arch with just a short hike to get to it.  I knew as soon as I saw it that it was going to be one of my favorites!

Take a look at the scenery through the arch - it was simply amazing!  And of course a complete drop-off on the other side!  

The sun was kind of in the wrong spot for this picture but oh well - I wanted one anyway!

This picture was taken from one of the overlooks - just magnificent!

Our long hike of the day was 2 miles at Grand View Point Overlook - once you got down the steps, you walked along the edge of the canyon until you could go no further!  Below you were deep canyons!

We walked on stone most of the way and it was a great hike with panoramic views!

Then the clouds came in - which kind of made for some cool pictures!!  It wasn't very colorful to begin with but the clouds gave it such a desolate appearance! It's just amazing how these canyons and crevices could be formed from the river and the wind!

To Be Cont'd...

Part Two - Arches National Park

 I love this photo - it almost looks like I took it in black and white but I didn't!  Perhaps this is what Mars looks like!

This was called Panorama Point!

It was fun to just sit and stare at these creations and try to figure out what they looked like in YOUR mind!

Delicate Arch is the arch that is on the Utah license plates, probably the most famous arch of all!  To get to this arch, you take a difficult trail on a 3 mile roundtrip hike, which I knew we wouldn't be doing due to the 480 foot climb AND the steep slickrock slope you have to climb!  NOPE - I chose to just do the viewpoint - but then I saw a trail you could climb that would get you closer so we did that - it was steep and rocky but well worth it once we got closer and could get a better picture!

This next arch was my all time favorite - the Sand Dune Arch - you can't see it from the road and you hike in deep sand to go into this narrow canyon - I loved it!!

And after you go through these narrow places, there it is!  Oh my gosh - it was awesome!!

You could only go so far in this canyon before you would run into this!

This arch is called the Skyline arch - just a short journey to get to it!  By this time the park was even busier - and I was very surprised at all the people that wore masks outside doing these short hikes!  We never got very close to people so were very comfortable NOT wearing masks outside!

The final arch is called Landscape Arch and it's in an area called Devils Garden - this hike was 1.6 miles but on an easy trail - the only problem was the sun!  There was no way to get to the other side of it so most of my pictures were quite dark and needed some editing just so you could see it!  But it was sure a cool arch to see and I'm glad we made that journey!

This is the canyon at the beginning of the hike - on our way back there were people taking pics and they offered to take one of the two of us!  THANK YOU!  One of my favorites!!

We stopped at the Visitor Center on our way out and were very disappointed that the ONLY thing open was the gift shop!  Everything else was roped off which was really disappointing as that's one place we  enjoy browsing and reading all the info.  I did find my ornament so I was pleased about that!

I had wanted to eat at the Broken Oar Restaurant that night - we had seen it as we drove in the maze in  Moab as it's off the main road a little bit.  When we got back to our room, Glenn took a LONG nap so by the time he was ready to get up and eat, it was dark out!

Neither of us like to drive at night anymore - but Glenn said let's go!!  So we got out on the main drag and of course immediately we're in the construction where we couldn't see a darn thing where to turn off - the construction cones were a nightmare!!  Anyway, we missed the turn - and the traffic was so bad that we couldn't even see a place to turn around so ended up going all the way through Moab and on the outskirts of town before we finally found a spot we could turn around at!!  OMG - I was SURE we would find it on the way back in but nope - we drove right past it!!

By this time I was DONE - so told Glenn I had seen a brewery restaurant a couple blocks from our hotel so we ended up going there - it was a great place to eat and we were glad we went there!  Now to try for the Broken Oar the NEXT night!!