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Hiccups Say Head Home

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We've reset the transmission a few times since our trouble in Santa Fe, and it worked when we had any hiccups. Unfortunately, after Ogden, Reba (our 1995 VW Eurovan Rialta) wasn't interested in any gear after 3rd. Gorm looked at me stressed and said, "we're going home, we'll hit these parks again another time." We were under 700 miles from home, so I canceled all of our remaining camping reservations and we headed towards Seattle. We could rarely break 50 in 3rd so it took us several hours to reach Boise. We had a HarvestHost reservation there and camped peacefully overnight. Our plan was to hit another HarvestHost in Ellensburg Sunday at a brewery. Sadly after gassing up in Pendleton, we lost 3rd too. We managed to exit the highway and roll into a parking lot. There was a dead dear with only the legs recognizable desicating on the barbed wire fence...We called AAA and asked for a tow. After 3 hours of no help, we started Reba and drove in 2nd 7 miles to a ...
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Random Roadside Hike - Bountiful, UT

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I didn't have a Lehman cave tour reserved so we decided to skip Great Basin National Park for now and give Gorm 3 days to make the 9.5 hour drive to the Tetons. We grabbed a site at Yuba State Park on the way through. The next day, we stopped for a 3.5 mile hike in Bountiful to break up our drive. An Alltrails reviewer claimed there was lots of shade though the initial climb was steep. First mile, straight up hill, no shade. Second mile, switchbacks mainly downhill, occasional puddles of shade. Last 1.5 miles mainly downhill, creekside with bridge and boulder crossings. Maybe shady for Utah, Seattleites at elevation thought it was mainly a heat stroke risk, but the wildflowers in bloom were gorgeous 😍. Finally, the shade.... We headed from there to Ogden to catch some live 🎶 music. We had a nice dinner then headed to the Funk and Dive. Sadly, the band we came to see had a last minute issue and never made it, but the openers played extended sets. Our plan at this point wa...
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Zion - Beautiful but Bryce is Better

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We placed a 3 night reservation at Zion RV Resort about 15 minutes from the park entrance. Gorm's driven over 3000 miles so far so we paid for the RV park shuttle to the free Zion shuttle so he could have two full days with no driving. We were dropped before 9 a.m. and headed straight to the Emerald Pools hike. Typically a 2 mile loop it was a slightly longer out and back because the bridge was out. From there we headed to the Temple of Sinewava stop for an easy 2.5 mile hike along the river to the start of the Narrows trail. A beautiful area. Tomorrow, a day of laundry and lazing by the pool before heading North to the Grand Tetons. The ViKing's musical selection: Live at the Filmore, 1968, Santana
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Breathtaking Brrrrryce

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We had our brakes adjusted before pulling out of Capitol Reef. All the parts were in great condition but in mountain passes, you want to be sure. There was no snow in the forecast in our origin or destination, but we drove right through it...thankfully it wasn't sticking to the road. We arrived at Bryce before noon. It was extremely cold at the viewpoints with windchill, but wow... We hiked the Navajo Loop. Thankfully, as soon as we descended the windchill stopped and it was suddenly 20 degrees warmer. We hiked the Rim Trail to the next shuttle stop. The educational signs on the way shared that in Native American stories, the coyote punished naughty people by turning them into hoodoos. Bryce has more hoodoos than any other place on Earth. From there we drove on to Zion for three nights. We did not know the last several miles of our drive were through Zion. The ViKing's musical selection: Truth, Jeff Beck
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