Signs

Cedar City, UT – Monday and Tuesday, October 17 and 18, 2011

It’s Monday and I’ve been reading a book titled “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo. It’s about the power of having a dream and listening to your heart.  To accomplish those two things you have to see and act on signs that are provided to you in your life.

So EJ and I discussed this and decided it would be fun to play with this concept.  We’ve had a number of signs in the last few days and now we need to figure out what they mean and how to act on them.  Signs, unfortunately, aren’t clear cut and understandable.  It’s up to you to interpret them, and that’s the interesting part.

We’ve been wanting to explore more of southern Utah, but things that could be interpreted as negative signs keep popping up.  Although maybe negative is too strong a term when your traveling down the road enjoying the sights such as this community by Panguitch Lake.

First the road into Cedar Breaks NM that we wanted to take was closed because of a landside.  Then we discovered that the Cedar Breaks Visitor Center and campground were closed due to an early winter storm. Next BG had a breakdown on our way to Capital Reef NP and we had to backtrack to Cedar City. 

We originally thought this meant it was time to give up our dream of exploring the southern part of Utah.  Then we thought, well, maybe we’re supposed to go to Las Vegas and met up with some old friends and maybe even augment the old retirement fund with a little luck at the tables and slots.  Or, maybe we needed to alter our path and not go over the Rocky Mountains and have to deal with tire chains and possibly snow or ice.

I managed to coble together a fix to get us to Cedar City, a 70 mile trip from Panquitch where  BG’s alternator had decided to give up. The only way we could keep the engine batteries charged up was to drive with the generator running and connect the house batteries to the engine batteries with jumper cables.

We arrived at Color Country Diesel in time for them to verify the problem and order a new alternator before they closed for the day.  The replacement alternator should arrive early in the morning.

We’ll dry  camp in the back of their parking lot tonight.

Bear in mind that we have had little access to news over the last 4 plus months. Oh, we hear enough to know that the stock market is still depressed and that the world hasn’t collapsed, yet.  So it was a real surprise to hear that the republicans were having a presidential debate in Las Vegas.

That little tidbit led us to interpret events a whole different way. Hiway 14 being closed meant we took a more interesting route into Cedar Breaks.  The early closures in the park meant that we pretty much had everything to ourselves.  The breakdown occurred in the only city around where we could get an internet signal and a cell phone signal so we could figure out what to do about BG’s problem.  Plus it was close enough that we could limp into the repair shop under our own  power.

All the craziness and the security that will take over Vegas for the debates made us realize that all the Las Vegas signs we had been seeing weren’t saying “Come to me, come to me” they were saying “Stay away, stay away”.   We decide to stick with the original plan and add a return visit to Zion National Park to the itinerary since it is near Cedar City.

We pick up a couple of videos from the Red Box kiosk and retire for the evening.

On Tuesday, morning comes early at 6:30AM.  We move BG into the shop at 8:30 to receive his new alternator.  We take off for breakfast, going to the Market Grill recommended by our mechanic.  We also go by the Visitor Center to get some info and see what we thought was a chuck wagon.  It turns out to be a homemade camper, complete with bed, table, and wood burning stove.

Around noon we get a phone call that BG is all back together and ready to be picked up.

By the time we get all the paperwork taken care of it’s after 1PM and we talk some more about the plan and decide to have a down day for the rest of the afternoon.  Besides we have the rest of the “The Walking Dead” and “Henry’s Crime to watch”.  Some days, you just have to goof off.

We spend another night behind the repair shop and will head out tomorrow. We decided the bottom line is you go with your gut and live with your decisions, and have a great time along the way. Or as Bill Engvall says “Here’s your sign”!!

BG Miles Today	101	BG Total Miles	10797
Eat Out total $	1544.88	BG Total Fuel $	6158.58
Entertainment total $	1401.63	Total Camping $	1177.03
E Miles Today	34.5	E Total Miles	3047.81
E Total Fuel $	626.44	Day # of Trip	139 - 140