2021 Summer Trip Part 3 - Zollinger Sibling Reunion

 After d's family left for Riverside, CA, Liz and I continued to stay on the Zollinger farm for a few more days.  On July 28 we decided to take a scooter ride to the City of Rocks, an area with scenic rock formations that we had never been to.  Along the way we took a side trip up Howell Canyon which passes by Pomerelle (ski resort), goes by Lake Cleveland and ends up at the top of Mt Harrison.  At 9265 ft there are some pretty good views of the valley.

Lake Cleveland

We drove on to the City of Rocks, stopping first at a little museum at the entrance which has some good background information.  Liz grew up in this area so we bumped into several people she knew or that knew her family both at our lunch stop and at the museum.  The City of Rocks had many towering rock formations reminiscent of Lake Powell - they were beautiful.

Church along the way

Lunch stop

Road into City of Rocks

Liz in her scooter outfit

One of the rock formations

Beautiful rock wall

Most COR visitors take the well graded dirt road in from Almo, ID and turn around at the end to return the same way.  However, there is a dirt road that goes out the other side of COR and ends at Oakley, ID.  At the museum they warned us that the road to Oakley was in poor condition with lots of washboard sections and they recommended not to take it.  But we thought that on the scooter we would be able to navigate the road and we wanted to see Oakley and the towns on that side of the mountain....so that's the way we went.  It was every bit as bad as they said and when we got to Oakley we had been thoroughly bounced and vibrated so we stopped to rest.  When we were ready to go again, the scooter would not start...wouldn't even turn over.  Since there is no other way to start the scooter, we were stuck.  Several kind gentlemen stopped to offer help and we tried to jump start to no avail.  We were just getting ready to call Thales at the farm and have him bring out a trailer to take us home when I tried the starter one last time......and it started!  We quickly hopped on the scooter and drove all the way back to the farm without stopping.  When we got there, I turned off the scooter and it wouldn't start again.  Over the next two weeks we tried a number of fixes including checking the fuses and replacing the battery but nothing worked.  However, every once in a great while, quite randomly, it would start when I turned the key.  It operated this way for the rest of our summer trip so it became very unreliable transportation.  Whenever I got it started, we would jump on and ride around making sure not to turn it off until we were back at camp.  When we got home to Texas I took it into the dealer for service and it turned out that the fly wheel and stator needed to be replaced (a very expensive fix...the stator serves as both the alternator and the starter motor).  Fortunately, Honda stepped up and paid for most of the repairs because the scooter was less than 2 years old.  We really did miss having the scooter available for exploring on the rest of the trip.

On July 29 we packed up our things and got ready to leave the farm headed for Logan, UT.  Liz was ready to back the RV out of its parking spot in the back yard behind the farmhouse but it wouldn't budge.  She put it into gear and it would just jerk but not go.....transmission trouble.  I check the transmission fluid level and it was very low.  I happened to have a quart of fluid with me in the RV so I added it and that seemed to solve the problem.  Of course, there is always a deeper reason for a failure like this but we'll find out about that later.  In the meantime, we headed to Logan and stayed at the Walmart that night.  

The next day we drove back to Paris, ID for the Zollinger reunion.  We parked the RV in front of Grandma Price's house and got a ride with Barbara (Liz sister) to Jacob's (Liz brother) cabin where the reunion would be held.  We stayed in the cabin for 2 nights and the first night we went to a play at the Pickleville Playhouse Theater.  The next day after a healthy breakfast we went to Paris, ID in search of Grandpa Price's dry-goods store.  We found that it is now a museum for the city of Paris and is run by a cousin of the Zollingers.  We ate dinner at a restaurant in Garden City, UT and went back to the cabin that evening for a lively game night.

Grandpa Price

Grandpa Price's original dry-goods store
in Paris, ID

Grandpa Price's Store
now a Museum
(Jim, Anna Maria, Elizabeth, Lee, Thales,
Bonnie, Barbara, Kimberly, Jacob)

On August 1 we got a ride with Bryan Ellsworth (Dorothy's husband who joined us at the reunion) from the cabin back to the RV in Paris and we were ready to begin the next part of our summer adventure.  It was great to be with Liz brothers and sisters for a few days.  

2021 Summer Trip Part 2 - Travels with d & Zhouyi

 On July 18th we left Lake Powell and drove to Green River Campground in Dinosaur NP near Vernal, UT where we had reservations for 2 nights.  We traveled together with d's family and the McLaughlins.  We all stayed in the RV the first night. The next day we drove to the Dinosaur visitor center where archeologists have partially excavated a wall of dinosaur bones so the exposed bones stick out of the wall.  Our grandson Euan loves dinosaurs so he had a great time.  That afternoon the McLaughlins left for Salt Lake City to catch their airplane for home.  d's family continued with us and we stayed one more night in Green River Campground and traveled the next day to Paris Springs Campground near Paris, ID where we had booked 2 nights.  On July 21 we hiked up to Paris Springs which is near the campground and explored the Bear Lake area.  That night we ate at Zipz in Garden City, UT.  We love eating at Zipz, the food is great and it is decorated with old water skis and outboard motors.

Liz with d's family at Paris Springs

The next day we drove up Hwy 89 toward Tetons NP and stayed the night at Wolf Creek Campground near Alpine, WY.  On July 23 we drove to Colter Bay Campground in Tetons NP where we had reservations for 2 nights.  The day we arrived we walked down to Jackson Lake from the campground and admired the view of the Tetons while the kids played.  The next day we drove north and did the loop around Yellowstone Park....always a treat.  Liz & I did the trip on the scooter because there wasn't enough room for all of us in d's car.  We stopped at the Lower Falls overlook and ate lunch at Canyon cafeteria.  Then we drove around to Old Faithful and caught an eruption. 

Euan & Meila on the beach at Jackson Lake

d's family at the Lewis Falls overlook in
Yellowstone NP

Grandpa & Euan at the 
Lower Falls Overlook

Lower falls of the Yellowstone River

On July 25 we left the Yellowstone and the Tetons and drove the RV to the Zollinger family farm in Spring Dale, ID.  There Meila and Euan got a flavor of farm life and got to see many animals like cows and chickens.  Their favorite animals however were the cats.  The next day d's family had to leave for home in Riverside, CA.  We were sorry that d had to get back to work but we were grateful for the time we had to spend traveling together.

2021 Summer Trip Part 1 - Lake Powell

 On July 5, 2021 we left for an extended summer trip west.  We planned to start with Lake Powell and then travel with the kids and grandkids for a few weeks after through the western national parks.  The first day we headed west on Hwy 380 and stopped for the night in Brownfield, TX where we got to participate in the town's July 4th celebration which included bands, booths and fireworks.  The next day we continued west through Roswell, NM and stayed at a campground in Datil, NM.  

Campsite at Datil Campground

Hiking trail at the campground

On July 7 we continued from Datil on Hwy 60 into Arizona where we picked up Hwy 77 north to Holbrook and on to Flagstaff AZ.  From there we went north on Hwy 89 to Page, AZ where we stayed the night at the Walmart.

The next day we continued on Hwy 89 into Utah and drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument where we had reservations for the night.  We love Cedar Breaks because it has the beauty of Bryce Canyon without the crowds and it has better camping.  Our first day at Cedar Breaks we took the scooter to the top of Brian Head Peak to get a view of the surrounding area.

Road to the top of Brian Head Peak

Scenic View from the top of Brian Head Peak

View from an Overlook hike we took

Cedar Breaks Overlook

We spent July 9 touring the park on the scooter and were hoping to stay another night at the Cedar Breaks campground but it was fully booked, so we headed out on Hwy 143 toward Panguitch Lake and found a nice place in the national forest for a night of "dispersed camping" (a park ranger told us that in national forests you can camp anywhere as long as you're within 150 of a roadway).

Our "Dispersed Camping Site"

In the morning as we were getting ready to leave, we found ourselves surrounded by about 20 pickup trucks towing trailers with ATVs.  It turned out that the camping spot we had chosen was also the regular starting point for a club of ATVers that were going on a day trip together.  They invited us to bring the scooter and join them but we thanked them for the invite and headed down to Panguitch Lake instead where we had a campground reservation for the night.  

That afternoon, d & Zhouyi and family arrived at our campsite and we spent the evening with them.  On July 11th we all got up early and caravanned to Lake Powell.  We took the scenic Hwy 12 route which is one of the most beautiful highways in the country.

Meila and Euan at an overlook on Hwy 12

Hwy 12 overlook view

Week at Lake Powell

This year we had a very large group at Lake Powell that included our entire family with all the kids, their spouses, and all the grandkids.  In addition we had our friend Robert Graves and his grandson Sawyer and My's mother and sister and niece (total of 25 people).  We had two speedboats (Keeton's and ours - Topher towed our boat out to LP - that's another story) and Topher had also rented a second houseboat.

We took the houseboats down river and camped in Long Canyon on a nice beach at the end of the canyon.  This year the water in the lake is historically low....down to the levels not seen since the lake was first filling in the 1960s.  The good news is that with low lake levels many sandy beaches and beautiful canyon features that are normally covered with water are now exposed.  We spent the week exploring beautiful canyons, boating, kayaking, hiking, cliff jumping, rock climbing, fishing, tubing, water skiing and wake boarding.  One evening we built a fire on the beach and roasted marshmallows. With Robert managing the fishing activities, everyone caught a fish.

Elynn, Reayen & Meila
with seashells from the beach

Exploring a canyon

My, Croix, Beau and Mema (My's mom)
Lake Powell is a workout

Reayen, Denae, Sawyer, & Akston
Getting ready to tube

Ryder & Kathryn

Grandma & Euan

Everyone on the houseboat

Robert conducting his fishing class

Speedboats at the end of Anasazi Canyon

The entire crew at Rainbow Bridge

Kevin watching Quentin
1st year at Lake Powell

Rachael with Quentin

Kayak adventure

Canyon hike

The Entire Dayton Clan at Lake Powell

On Sunday, July 18th we cleaned up the houseboat and packed our belongings back into the RV.  Lake Powell is so unique that it's almost indescribable, so we'll leave it at that - we had all the moments of wonder and ecstasy mixed up with all the moments of worry and terror.