Day 35 South of Hatch

This morning was dark and cold. There was a forecast for rain, and though it looked threatening, I was still dry. About three miles into my day, Stella came up from Glendale to join me. She brought an umbrella. Her friend chided her and said she needed more faith and Stella had told her it was only for the sunshine. Nevertheless, as soon as Stella and I started walking the rain came. The timing was comical. We walked for another three miles, entering Kane County, while Stella told me stories of her growing up years and got me caught up on family news. My nephew, Simon, my brother Rick’s son, is getting married next week. I didn’t know.

We had to move the trailer again today. It is quite a production, but Kara and Elise have it down to an art. We moved down to Glendale at Bauer's Canyon Ranch RV Park, which coincidently, is right across the street from the Maxwells, the family Stella had spent most of her teen years with. There once was an apple orchard where the park now stands. Stella and her foster brother Kevin used to cross the road in front of their house, pass through the apple orchards, swiping a few apples on their way, to fish the Virgin River that runs just outside of town. A lot of things have changed, but it is still a great nostalgia trip for Stella.

When we went back to pick up the trailer, we stopped in at the Wildlife Museum on the way to Bryce. They have over 1600 butterflies and an amazingly varied collection of stuffed animals, mostly “collected” by the owner over a lifetime of hunting trips all over the world. The butterflies and the music were awesome, but all the stuffed dead animals were kind of sad.

We also picked up some of our most favorite pie on the planet, just the other side of Red Canyon. It is a blueberry-banana cream at the Bryce Canyon Pines. We haven’t figured out all of the ingredients, but it is simply divine. The best of these pies we have had was on our very first visit. Recently, the pies seem to be lacking in blueberries, but we can remedy that easily enough and the pie is still one of the best I have ever had. It is not cheap, but came to us free through the kindness of one of the restaurant employees.

I ended my walking day early because we had been invited to spend the evening with Stella and the Maxwells. Jack and Clara Maxwell go down to a retirement home in Kanab every Wednesday morning to sing and play music. They have a large book of oldies they draw on, and after dinner, we went through the entire book, picking out the songs I was familiar with. I played guitar, Jack played harmonica and the ladies sang. It reminded me of the days when I played with the Sentimental Journey Band in Texas. With me included, the average age of the band members was 72. We played a lot of the same songs that was in the Maxwell’s book and that brought back some great memories. I was amazed at how many songs Elise was familiar with.  It was an evening of great songs and even better company.