I was doing the dishes from breakfast this morning when I noted a large cloud of smoke that was coming from the southbound lanes of I-15 which is clearly visible from our RV space in the St. George KOA. The St. George KOA is not anywhere close to St. George, actually being located closer to Hurricane. The cloud of smoke I could see initially started out as white smoke but soon turned into a black, angry funnel extending into the clear Utah sky. Peggy couldn’t resist getting a better view so she hopped in the pickup and drove to a better vantage point where she could plainly see a semi trailer ablaze in the slow lane. The operator was able to disconnect his tractor but the trailer tires caught fire and they melted the back of the trailer into the flimsy, gray, lacy material similar to a campfire-incinerated beer can.
Peggy came back to the KOA to pick me up and soon we decided to mosey over to Zion National Park about 30 miles from our RV park. We have been there a few times previously and knew that the truly magnificent portion of Zion required parking in the nearby town of Springdale and catching a shuttle bus into Zion Canyon. It was over 100 degrees today so we figured we would drive through those portions of the park where we could remain in our air conditioned truck and skip the Canyon.
Zion is a place with geological features that truly make the Park exceptional. The road through the Park offers stunning scenery around every bend and there are lots of bends. There are also two tunnels through the pastel stone, one of them better than a mile long. Once through the tunnels, the road breaks out into the high altitude terrain of the Park. There, the massive rock formations can plainly be identified as prehistoric sea or lake shore all jumbled up and rearranged by tectonic forces. It is a wonderland but today it was hotter than Hell so we stayed pretty close to the truck and its ample air conditioning system.
We reversed course and passed through the Park again on our way back to Hurricane. We must have gone at the proper time because, as we left the Park, we could see a double line of vehicles maybe 50 cars deep stacked up at the entry gate awaiting the opportunity to pay $35 per vehicle to access the furnace. When we had entered a couple hours earlier we got right in and we got in free because of our geezer access card. We passed again through the tourist impoverishing Springdale before heading into St. George to eat at a place called the Village Inn suggested by our RV park operator. She was right – the food was very good and the cost seemed quite reasonable. When I got to the cashier to pay at the end of our dinner, she quoted a price that was even lower than that shown on our bill. When I inquired about this, she indicated we got a reduced price for being “homies” but finally came clean and said it was a senior discount. Maybe having a lousy memory system and being broken and crippled and smelly ain’t so bad, after all.
We took a few pictures you can see if you click the asterisk *