Mostly Separate Activites This Week

Happy Birthday to Dallin today. We're happy he's in our family.

With season tickets to several theaters (Hale, CPT and Shakespeare), we sometimes find we have a lot of things going on in the same week. This week we had the Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 at the Hale Center Theater, and later in the week, A Christmas Story, at CPT. Due to a mix-up (I thought the one at CPT was Pride and Prejudice), I had invited Jennie, Caitlyn and Nick to see it with me (Roy was going on another ride and wouldn't be around). When I realized the mistake, I decided to just give Nick the tickets and take Jennie and Caitlyn to Pride and Prejudice when it comes around in few weeks. For the first play, we invited our side X siding friends the Davis'. Apparently they love theater. They were willing to drive all the way from Morgan to meet with us at our home for dinner; go to the play; then drive back to our house; and finally all the way back home, just to go to the play with us. It was a fun play, though not my favorite ever. The best thing about it was the special effect of making it seem like you were watching a black and white movie from the 1940's. Everything was grayscale, including the actors make-up. They also wore gloves. There was one character from the present that was dressed in full color and that made for a great contrast. It was funny because every once in a while you'd see color in the actor's mouths or eyes.

Brian and Amy Davis, Roy and Catharine
Roy calls Brian "our MacGyver". He has alot of stuff, parts, and tools on his machine and can figure out almost anything that is needed in a pinch.

Nick and his girls thoroughly enjoyed A Christmas Story and Effie, Avie, Ori even had crushes on some of the actors.

Roy went on a ride down in Hanksville with his club. It was a long weekend without him, but I had a lesson to prepare for institute (Thursday night) and gospel doctrine (D&C 129-132) on Sunday and had a lot of content to sift through. I worked on my gospel doctrine lesson for hours. I also needed an epidural for my back pain. My original appointment was Wednesday and Roy took me (it's in Ogden) so that I could take a valium to relax me before the procedure. We arrived and I took the 2 pills--about 30 minutes apart. I was nice and relaxed when we heard an explosion and saw sparks emitting from a nearby electrical pole. The power in the doctor's office went out and all appointments for the entire day had to be cancelled. I found out later that some of the patients had IV's and sedation awaiting their procedures when the power went out, and they also had to reschedule. That would have been much worse; I only had valium to sleep off. I ended up rescheduling for Friday and Nick willingly took me so that I could again take the valium. I could have done the procedure without, but it makes me so much more relaxed. 😀. Thanks Nick!

When we left the doctor's office on Wednesday we saw that down the rode about a mile someone had hit a power pole and busted it in half--thus the explosion on the pole near the doctors's office.

The weather was beautiful Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I was able to take my bike out for a ride all three days. Friday was warm enough to do it in the morning, which was great since I couldn't exercise for 24 hours following my procedure.

I'll let Roy write the rest of the letter and comment on his pictures. He loves his hobby!

These and other photos were taken in the Robber's Roost Canyon area which is about 30 miles SE of Hanksville, Utah. I never realized that there was such a beautiful canyon so close to Hanksville that really rivals Canyonlands, etc. The only way to get to this area is serious 4x4s, no way to take your mini-van there.

I am thinking of making a Shutterfly tabletop book of just petroglyphs. I am also working on a SxS book of all of the rides that I have been on since I started the hobby.

This is Andy, our guide for the Friday and Saturday rides. He is from Huntington and very knowledgable of the area. One of our club members (driving a Polaris, of course) blew a belt. Andy was able to change it in about 10 minutes at an overlook stop. This is a picture of Poison Springs. It is actually very good water but the Wild Bunch (Butch Cassady, the Sundance Kid, etc. named it such so that people would stay away from the area. [Roy is sold on the fact that Polaris' have a lot more problems than Hondas and he's been continually proven right].

This was very fun! We crossed the Dirty Devil river. It was actually about 3 feet deep. Someone took a movie of my crossing but I don't have it yet. I'll try to include it in the next blog.

This area has lots of plateaus, varying colors of rocks, petrified wood, etc. Super gorgeous.

The guys in the yellow vest is Ty Tyler (one of my SxS mentors). He is the one that convinced me to keep the Pioneer which is up at the Gorge. I am so glad that I did. It was a good choice.

This is the whole gang parked side-by-side. Each owner is next to their machine. I am there as well. I bought a little bluetooth clicker that I can press to take pictures on my tripod that is on the ground. This picture would have to be blown up very large to recognize anyone.

This huge rock is sitting on a gray structure. I can't understand why it doesn't just topple over. It probably will some day.

We ran into 3 donkeys, not wild. Someone must have just abandoned them. They were quite friendly.

This is an etching on a large stone. Our guide got it wet with his water bottle so that we could see it better. It is a woman (must have been one of the wild bunch's girlfriends). Not sure who S. J. is? I bought a book that talks about the Wild Bunch women but there isn't any mention of an S. J.

Here is an engraving by Butch Cassady himself. Pretty cool to think that he was standing where I was even though he was an outlaw.

Petroglyphs in a different area.

Some neighbors and friends of ours. The older couple is Shelly and Darrel Miles. The other couple is their daughter and son-in-law. Darrel is the one that got me into the NUATV Club to do side x siding.

Roy and Darrel

The two couples on the left are in their 80's. I hope that I can be that active when I'm 80.

Dave Schoss is our NUATV (Northern Utah ATV club president), I am the vice president. We just got re-elected this past Tuesday. Not so fantastic--it's just that no one wanted to run against us. We have done alot of good for the club and the community though.

I saw this on the first day by myself. I came a day early and scouted out an area. I normally don't like to ride alone but I didn't have anyone else to go with. I checked this site out and found it rivaled Goblin Valley. I also panned for Gold in a steam for about an hour; no Gold, but I didn't know what I was doing, just what I got out of a book. The stream was supposed to have gold in it and I am sure that it does but I'll have to find an expert to take me and teach me sometime.