Tag Archives: Utah

Utah

Shopping & New Friends (Elks Lodge (Dixie) 1743 – Saint George, UT)

2015/10/20 davidhobden@mac.com

After a night of rainstorms, we finally got through a whole day (Monday) with no rain. Funny, how after all the nice weather we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy since we left Colorado; that after only a couple/few days of scattered rainstorms we’re already complaining for a change… It’s like we’ve been spoiled or something 🙂

I washed the Coach down a bit in the morning after all the rain and then we ran around the scenic town of Saint George and did a little shopping; Camping World, Home Depot, Michael’s, WalMart.

In the evening, we went into the lodge for chili-dogs & wings night and met up with a couple of the other RV’ers that had pulled into the park today. Once again, we got to enjoy meeting and talking to some new-found friends.

Here’s a few pics I snapped this early morning on Tuesday while taking little “Coach” for his walk:

Side-view of Elks Lodge 1743 (Elks Care – Elks Share)

Views of the golf course that is adjacent to the Elks Lodge.

The RV parking area:

The camp host (John) has his Alpine Coach next to the garage on the left (below). Washers and Dryers are located in the garage which Stilla already tested out for our larger loads, i.e., bedding, sheets.

Here’s Don and Fannie France’s Heavy-Duty Truck (HDT) and 5th Wheel combo (below). We met Don & Fannie inside the lodge at chili-dog/wings night. They just returned from 4 months in Alaska and are heading back to their home base in Mesa, AZ. It was nice to meet them. Safe travels Don & Fannie!

And here’s a Beaver Coach (below left) that belongs to a nice gentleman from California (sorry, didn’t catch his name) that we also spent time with inside the lodge. Once again I have to say – we get to meet the nicest folks in our travels 🙂

Tonight is Tuesday Steak Night at the lodge. We’ll stay here until the 22nd and then head on down to Las Vegas NV to meet up with family. Stay tuned…

Utah

Moving Day (Elks Lodge (Dixie) 1743 – Saint George, UT)

2015/10/19 davidhobden@mac.com

We left the Hitch-N-Post RV Park in Kanab, UT by 11 AM and headed south on 89. We dipped down into Arizona and turned west on AZ 389 which becomes 59 at the Utah border again. After the town of Hurricane we took 9 to Interstate15 and then motored south the last several miles to arrive in Saint George, UT.

At times we drove through the rain… other times, it was nice and dry. It was raining again when we pulled into the Saint George (Dixie) Elks Lodge #1743 after our 82 mile scenic trip for the day.

Here’s our spot for the next 4 days.

I went inside the lodge and paid $60 for four nights. It’s $15 per day here for 50 Amp power but I don’t think the sites have water. I couldn’t find a spigot at my site… I’ll have to ask the camp host tomorrow. And by-the-way, the camp host here has an Alpine Coach! John has been hosting here for a couple years. I talked to him briefly inside the lodge.

It rained off and on most of the night. At times – a really heavy downpour accompanied by lighting & thunder would come through, but we weathered it alright.

We’ll move on to Las Vegas, NV on the 22nd where we’ll meet our son William and his girlfriend Jasmine. They arrived from Germany Friday evening for a 3-week vacation and will drive to LV from Colorado Springs where they are now with our two daughters. Looking forward to that 🙂 I already reserved a spot at the Main Street Station RV Park for a week.

Stay tuned to see what we get into – here in Saint George.

Arizona, Utah

Grand Canyon North Rim (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

2015/10/17 davidhobden@mac.com

On Friday the weather outlook called for rain later today, and the forecast doesn’t look good for the next three days 🙁

So much to see and do in and around Kanab, check out this website (←click here) that highlights three pages of attractions.

Here’s a brochure we got from the campground office:

We decided to start off by driving the Silverado over to the Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitors Center which is within eyesight of our campground. This is the place that holds the lottery for a 6-mile hike to see “The Wave“.(← click here).

This is a picture of “The Wave” below: (photo courtesy of NationalParkTourz.com)

In order to hike “The Wave,’ you must have a permit. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) limits access to the North Coyote Buttes WIlderness Area to just twenty permits per day. Ten of the permits are available in advance by an on-line lottery that is conducted four months before the month for which the permit is sought. The remaining ten permits are made available by lottery the day before ones intended hike. Year round the lottery is held at the ranger station on the east end of Kanab. The lottery for the walk-in permits takes place at 9:00 in the morning. (ref: NationalParkTourz.com)

The lottery is held behind these doors (below), we were too late to try our luck. I don’t think my hip replacement would like a 6-mile hike anyway 😐

Here’s a few more photos inside the visitors center:

We decided, that since rain is imminent for the next few days, that we would try our luck at visiting the Grand Canyon North Rim while the sun was still shining (off and on). The other attractions that are nearer – or even in Kanab can wait until tomorrow or ?

So we put our little dog “Coach” into the Silverado and headed south to the North Rim (~80-90 miles one-way) to try and beat the rain.

Road sign (below) as we got closer to the North Rim.

We stopped at the North Rim Country Store to get some snacks because we heard the concessions at the North Rim were closed for the season and also, we forgot to pack lunch.

And finally we arrived at the park entrance. It was 80° when we left Kanab and is now in the mid-to-low 40’s.

I was able to use my disabled veteran access pass to get free entry.

Some of the leaves haven’t fallen off the trees yet.

One of the nice campground host(s) back at the Hitch-N-Post in Kanab told us that most people only go straight to the lodge and miss out on a lot of scenery. She recommended that once inside the park, we should take the road south to Cape Royal to see Angels Window. So we followed the tip and drove ~15 miles to the viewpoints.

Cape Royal is the southernmost viewpoint on the North Rim, and it has the widest panorama of any Grand Canyon overlook – the great gorge occupies about 270° of the horizon, from Marble Canyon in the north, south over Palisades of the Desert, and westwards for many miles towards the main South Rim visitor area around Garden Creek. (ref: AmericanSouthwest.net)

Our first view of the Grand Canyon from the North Rim:

We finally reached the parking lot and took the path(s) to the Cape Royal Pt. and Angels WIndow viewpoints:

Angels Window. Notice the people on top – we’ll be up there soon.

Stilla in front of Angels Window at the Grand Canyon North Rim.

We chose the path on the right first to see Cape Royal Pt. The sun was just starting to go behind some clouds…

Here you can see the clouds rolling in (below).

We walked back up the path after taking a lot of pictures and then went out on top of Angels Window for some more awesome views.

Stilla on top of Angels Window at the Grand Canyon North Rim.

Rare photograph of myself – on top of Angels Window at the Grand Canyon North Rim.

We drove back to the main road and went down to the main North Rim Visitor Center where the lodge is located. It started raining on us 🙁

We toured the visitors center quickly… it was 15 minutes before closing time at 5 PM (Arizona time).

Whiteboard on the wall (below) at the Visitors Center with the weather outlook.

A shot of some of the cabins situated around the visitors center.

We didn’t go down to the lodge or any of the viewpoints here because it started raining heavily by now. Here’s an information board in front of the visitors center regarding the lodge.

We plugged our campground into the GPS that I remembered to take out of the RV for our trip today and headed back to Kanab through the rain. We ended up putting about 200 miles on the Silverado by the time we returned.

And that was our Friday… it’s still raining off and on this morning (Saturday) but the sun is trying to peek out. Maybe we’ll try to visit the Animal Sanctuary and Little Hollywood today… stay tuned 🙂

Arizona, Utah

Pack-Up & Travel Day (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

2015/10/16 davidhobden@mac.com

We took our time on Thursday leaving Wahweap RV Park & Campground. We loaded the Harley and bicycles, dumped and flushed the tanks, and raised the jacks to hit the road sometime between noon and 1 PM. We drove an uneventful 70 miles on US-89 to Kanab, Utah.

A few pictures along the route:

We pulled into the Hitch-N-Post RV Park because our online campground searches indicated it was the most affordable of the several campgrounds in or near the town of Kanab.

The nice campground owner showed us a few spots that were still available for the next two nights. We chose one with the least amount of tree coverage so we might be able to get a satellite signal for the TV. We weren’t successful 🙁 Oh well, we have enough recorded shows on the DVR to keep us entertained anyway. We paid ~$65 for two nights with full hookups and 50 Amp power.

We drove the Silverado around town to familiarize ourselves with the area and saw another Alpine Coach towing a pickup in a grocery store parking lot. I pulled into the lot and introduced myself and Stilla. We met Van L. Dossey from Placerville, CA. He and his wife (who was inside shopping) have been touring the area. I told Van about our recent Lake Powell Rally and also about the upcoming Quartzsite and Lake Havasu rallies next year. He mentioned that they had recently met Mike & Michelle Collins who were just at the Alpine SoCal Rally. We exchanged cards. Hopefully they’ll be able to join us in the future.

We found a chinese restaurant nearby for dinner and then walked around the campground and adjoining streets before turning in for the night.

This campground happens to be home to Utah’s rare white bees:

Cute, eh? 🙂

The town of Kanab is situated in the “Grand Circle” area, centrally located among Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Grand Canyon (North Rim), Zion National Park, and Lake Powell. Other nearby attractions include Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the privately owned Moqui Cave, and the largest animal sanctuary in the United States, Best Friends Animal Society. (Ref. Wikipedia®)

Locals refer to Kanab as “Little Hollywood” due to its history as a filming location for mostly western movies and television series such as Stagecoach, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Daniel Boone, El Dorado, Planet of the Apes, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Sergeants 3 and WindRunner: A Spirited Journey.

Hopefully, we can check out some of these attractions while we’re in the area… stay tuned to find out.

Nevada, Utah

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

2014/09/29 davidhobden@mac.com

It’s been a busy few days since my last post. I’ll try to get caught up here.

We found a (somewhat) quiet corner of the truck stop in Barstow for Thursday evening as I mentioned in my last blog post. Here’s a picture I took Friday morning before we headed on up I-15 to Las Vegas.

About 150 miles later we passed the Welcome to Nevada sign:

We found a RV park by using the “Points of Interest” option on the Rand McNally GPS. Of course, I researched it quickly on the internet to validate it’s authenticity. It was a very reasonable $20 per night.

We ended up at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery, Hotel & RV Park near the famous (or infamous) Fremont Street. That’s on the North side of Las Vegas. I called ahead to confirm a spot and they assigned me to site 200… and what are the odds – we were parked right next to another Alpine Coach! With only ~1,400 Coaches ever built between the years 1999 and 2009, that’s a somewhat rare occurrence. Unfortunately, we never got to meet the owners in the two days we were there. They were always seemed to be out and about at the times we were in the park.

It wasn’t long after we arrived that we were met by my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl along with my Mom and Stepdad in their chauffeured Escalade. They have a time-share of sorts with Wyndham Resorts which is where they were staying. The limousine service is courtesy of the resort.

They took us to Caesars Palace to enjoy the Bacchanal Buffet.

The food was excellent albeit rather expensive. All the dishes are prepared by Chef’s. Here’s a link to learn more if interested: http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html#.VCorPUtGGQc

And then we supported the local economy by playing the slots.

Here’s an indication of how our evening went… notice that the “7’s” aren’t on the payline 🙁

Here’s my beautiful Ma and wonderful stepdad! Love ya mom & Jimmy.

Obligatory picture of one of the Las Vegas signs.

We spent the rest of the evening touring the Fremont Street Experience. For those of you that have never been, here’s a link: http://vegasexperience.com

The light show is pretty cool.

And there were lots of characters walking the street… many of whom I couldn’t post to this blog in order to maintain something less than an “R” rating.

This is the zip-line that runs above the street. You can see some people getting ready to go in the second picture below.

These folks got stuck and had to be rescued.

We ended up at the Heart Attack Grill, http://www.heartattackgrill.com for a late night “light” snack 🙂

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to my Mom, Stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after a hearty breakfast at the Plaza Hotel’s Hash-a-go-go http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/dining/hash_house_a_go_go They have to get back home to Las Cruces to go on diets 🙂

After breakfast and goodbye hugs… Stilla and I then spent the rest of our Saturday checking out a few local tourist attractions… the first was one of my favorite’s, the site of American Restoration.

The free guided tour through the shop was really neat, but they don’t allow photos inside because customers haven’t seen their finished restoration projects yet.

I pulled the truck up front for a photo-op. Rick didn’t come out to offer to restore the Harley for me 🙁

I did get the T-Shirt at the gift shop though.

Next, we went by the site of Pawn Stars. I honestly have only seen a few episodes… not one of my favorites, but it was cool to see.

This Elvis painting was for sale at some outrageous price.

We must have arrived at just the right time… there was quite a long line forming as we exited. Must be a popular site, or a tour bus might have shown up.

Then I tracked down where Counting Cars is filmed at Counts Kustoms http://www.countskustoms.com was located and we headed over there. I bought the T-Shirt.

Stilla and I visited Fremont Street again to close out the evening and took in some of the street band music that plays in a few different spots along the covered street.

On Sunday, we hit the road again for Saint George Utah.

We continued on I-15 and went through the corner of Arizona after leaving Nevada.

It had clearly rained the day prior as evidenced by the very soggy desert.

Interstate 15 passes through a pretty cool canyon at one point.

And here’s the Saint George, UT Elk’s Lodge 1473. Now this has to be the most scenic Lodge we’ve stayed at to date. Travel distance for the day was around 120 miles.

We pretty much had the RV Park portion of the parking lot to ourselves. Only two or three other rigs there. We heard that we just missed a busy weekend, the lot was full this morning.

Here’s a couple pics of the lodge.

The view from their deck.

And this was our spot below the cliffs. It’s only $15. Electric hook-up only. Wish we could stay here longer, but son William is due in from Germany on the 5th of October, so we have to be back in Colorado Springs. Also, we have a small problem with the rent – we haven’t gotten any for the last month or so…

Til next time… stay tuned.

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: Utah

Shopping & New Friends (Elks Lodge (Dixie) 1743 – Saint George, UT)

Moving Day (Elks Lodge (Dixie) 1743 – Saint George, UT)

Grand Canyon North Rim (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

Pack-Up & Travel Day (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

Follow along on our adventures…

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Follow along on our adventures…