Off to the Desert

We said our goodbyes to Angelica and Thomas in Eagle Mountain, UT and were all ready to go... except that the van wouldn't start! Eeek! And we thought that we had that dealt and over with! I mean we had already bought a new battery, replaced the ignition module and changed the solenoid... What else could be wrong? Don called AAA (man, are we ever glad that we're covered!) and we started hauling some of our essentials back in the house as we waited for the tow truck (in case we had to spend another night.) I must admit that I was feeling rattled by this latest development; we had an event scheduled in St George the next evening and I didn't like the thought of having to cancel it. 

I left Don to deal with the tow guy and went inside the house to meditate and recenter myself. He tried to get the van started and when it didn't, amazingly, instead of just securing chains to tow it away he took out his tool box and began to fiddle with different things in search of the booboo. After a half hour or so he gave his verdict: the carburetor was the culprit (which is something someone else had mentioned somewhere along the way). He was able to give it a temporary fix and boom, the motor started! Yippeeeeeee!

We quickly gathered our things and furries and jumped in, and by 2:00 we were finally on our way to St George. Phfew! What a day! The rest of the drive was uneventful but Don and I both felt stressed and a little on edge. We traveled quietly, taking in our snowy surroundings; the last we were likely to see for a while. (Yay!)

We had a brief stint through mountains just passed Cedar City and on the other side the ground was bare.

As we drove into St George the sun was setting and gave us a stunning spectacle.

Our friends Barbara and Duane were happy to see us pull into their driveway. (I later learned that Barbara had a talk with 'The Boss' about our van troubles as she really wanted us to make it in time for the event. All I know is that it seems to have worked! lol)

Most of the people we have stayed with on our travels we met via my blog or Raw Freedom Community. However we first connected with Barbara and Duane in 2007 when they were visiting at the retreat center where we lived in British Columbia, as they've known the caretakers, John & Livina, for years. At the time they had embraced a vegan whole food plant based diet a few months earlier and were reaping dramatically positive results. We hit it off right away and have kept in touch ever since. We were glad to finally have a chance to spend more time together and, naturally, to brush shoulders in the kitchen.

Red Cliff Desert Preserve is virtually in Barbara and Duane's backyard. We couldn't have dreamed of a more ideal location or better weather; it was bright and sunny and the temperatures had climbed a good 10 to 15 degrees compared to our last stop. Woo hoo!

Here's a glimpse of what we've seen on our daily escapades into the beautiful red desert...

I have come to love the different shades of greens contrasting with the red of the earth.

This is a rock formation known as Turtle Rock.

 

And among all this dried earth... grass!

 

Don sungazing.

I thought this looked like a man's face.

 

I'll leave you with yet more gorgeous sunset shots.

These next three I took 'panoramic' style. See if you can piece them together...

Coming up next... All the wonderful yummies we whipped up in Barbara's sunny kitchen!