good-times-rollin

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Levi Wells Road and Club Run to Rainbow Terrace

Portal RV Resort
Moab, UT
September 7, 11, and 12, 2015

In an effort to catch up on posting, I have to go all the way back to September 7. With nothing to do, we (Dee, Joe and I) decided to go check out Levi Wells Road...remember the flash flood (click here) that left us stranded? It was pretty cool to see how deep the wash was. We didn't linger though...we both have open jeeps this time of year and the bugs were horrible!

Just imagine this wash full of running water.

A few days later, we went in search for an alternate route (in the same area that Dee was hoping would connect to Rainbow Terrace) called DS Road. Pearl had a new windshield installed that required a 12 hour wait before going on trail so Joe drove Dee's jeep, Roxanne. The lighting was beautiful. I do believe the late day into early evening runs are my favorite! We didn't find DS Road...a rutted trail used by Butch Cassidy back in the day when he traveled from Colorado to Utah, but it was fun exploring.

The very next morning, we had a club run. Dee had put Rainbow Terrace on the calendar. A great group of folks showed up...I think about 9 to 11 vehicles in all.

We all parked and hiked down a draw to explore.

Aside from the wonderful company, there were two highlights for me. The first was a hike in a draw to explore an outcropping of manganese.

The black/brown/purple color against the red sure had a pop.

Many of the tubes were hollow.

For my second highlight of the day, we enjoyed lunch at Secret Spire. We have ridden past the spire several times, but never stopped. It's a strange tower of Navajo Sandstone standing alone on a dome-like base.

Dee led the way.

There is a parking lot and a short trail leading up to the dome. The spire provided us shade for a lunch break.

In a way, this post signifies the beginning of our new "normal" without our dear companion Wrecks. With that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for all the kind and comforting comments we have received.

Until next time, let the good times roll...

HAPPY TRAILS!

Monday, September 21, 2015

Our Wrecks

Portal RV Resort
Moab, UT
September 14, 2015

We unexpectedly lost our sweet Wrecks in the early morning hours of September 14, 2015. He had just turned seven in August and we had every reason to hope he would grow old with us. The autopsy revealed that foxtail, likely ingested while playing ball in a Montrose, CO campground, had stuck in his intestines causing an abscessed ulcer and then exited into the abdominal cavity where the infection went septic killing him in a few short hours. We were not familiar with this insidious weed until the couple we were traveling with pointed it out to us. We had played ball with Wrecks in the campground's fenced in dog park we thought had been covered in hay. Little did we know it was foxtail. Yes, we did point it out to the owner/operator who quickly responded "you can't tell me anything I don't know about that". I asked him why he had not posted warnings on the gate of his bark park and he chose to ignore me and the question. Our friends puppy ended up with foxtail in his paw that worked itself from the pad of his paw through the top causing a nasty infection requiring a veterinarian's attention. I thought our puppies were all O.K. but obviously, we were fatally wrong. I have simply not had the heart to keep up with our blogging since. Joe asked me to put together a small assortment of pictures covering the brief seven years of life we shared with our beloved puppy.... the baby of our family.

Dover, Joe and I adopted Wrecks when he was 5 months old in January, 2009. He was the second of the Tan Clan to join our family.

July 4, 2010 almost 2 years old.

By October, 2010 we had three of the four. I am pretty sure the squirrels were tormenting Dover and Wrecks from the top of the puppies play set in our back yard.