Kanab, Utah

We decided to go to Kanab, Utah on Monday to buy new batteries for our truck. FabGrandpa wanted to have someone check the batteries and the altenator first before w spent the money. When we got to Little’s Diesel and Livestock, we found out we didn’t need a battery at all. The problem we had been having with cranking our truck turned out to be that the glow plugs and the glow plug controller were burnt out.

Since the mechanic couldn’t get to our truck until Tuesday morning, they arranged for us to spend the night in Kanab, rather than have to drive all the way back up to the North Rim and come back in the morning.

We stayed at Aiken’s Lodge, a little motel on the north side of town. The room was small but very clean, and the bed was sooooo comfortable. We checked in before going to Honey’s Jubilee Grocery store, because I wanted to see if they had a bathtub, which they did. I got some Calgon and had a nice soaking bubble bath. Ahhhhhh!

For dinner, we walked over to Houston’s Trails End Restaurant. The ad in the motel information book for Trail’s End said “Where our girls have a gun on their hips and a smile on their lips”. Sure enough, all the waitresses had a holster with a pistol hanging off their belt.

Houston’s is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For dinner on Monday night, FabGrandpa had a country fried streak, mashed potatoes and gravy. I had stir-fried garlic shrimp with vegetables over rice. The stir-fry had broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, snow peas, and zucchini. All very good and so much I couldn’t eat it all. We went back there for breakfast on Tuesday. The biscuits Jim had looked so good, but I didn’t even ask to smell them (ok, I sniff wheat bread. At least I don’t eat it.)

After breakfast, we took the truck over to Little’s. We expected to sit there while they worked on our truck, but they gave us a little Chevy truck to drive and told us to come back around lunch time, so we decided to ‘do Kanab” like tourists.

What, you ask, is there to do in Kanab, Utah? A lot. We went to Denny’s Wigwam, and bought some souvineers. We stopped in at Linda Lea’s Coffee Shop for an expresso and a cappacino. I went into a hair salon and got a hair cut. We went into another store where I bought a new backpack and FabGrandpa got some new boots.

There is a museum here where they have buildings from movie sets of movies that have been filmed here. There was one from “The Outlaw Josey Wales” . One from “Sergeants 3” which starred Frank Sinatra. One from a Kenny Loggins music video that was actually filmed at Lee’s Ferry. It was interesting to look at all the stuff they had there.

Moqui Cave is a natural cave in the side of a mountain north of Kanab. The tour guide there told us that his father bought the property in 1950 and in 1951 he opened a bar and a dance hall in the cave. The temperature inside the cave stays cool, so he had a cool place for a cold drink and socializing, and did a brisk business for such a sparsely populated area. There were exhibits of dinosaur tracks that were found in other places in Utah. And some really neat fluorescent minerals that glowed colorfully in black lights in the display cases.

Another interesting thing we learned is that the T-Shirt shop in Kanab printed the “Kanab Cowboys” T-shirt that was worn in the movie “Napolean Dynamite.” Sweet. They had some in the shop and also had some that said “Vote For Pedro”.

The folks at Little’s had our truck ready when we got back over there. The bill for the repair was $583.93, which was not too bad. All the people who work there are so nice, too. The customer service they provided was just as valuable as their repair work. They made us feel like we were at least one of their best friends, if not a part of their family. If you are ever in this area and need work on your diesel truck, this is the place to go. Before we left, they had given us each a T-shirt, a pen and a coupon good for 10 cents per gallon off diesel fuel at their gas station in town.

Before we went home, we stopped at the Food Town to get a few groceries. This was the first time I had shopped in that store. I was glad I went in there, because even though it is a tiny grocery store in a town with a population of under 5,000 people, they had a very good gluten free section. I got some Glutino bread stick, some Mrs. Leepers hamburger helper, and a gluten free pizza crust mix.

I told FabGrandpa that I could live in that town for sure.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore

We left Wichita on our way to the Grand Canyon this morning. We had planned on going about 330 miles, and stopping early to rest up. We were making good time, so we stopped in Liberal, Kansas to visit the museum there that is dedicated to the movie, The Wizard of Oz. After taking the tour there, and getting our picture taken on the Yellow Brick Road, we stopped at a restaurant west of town to get a late lunch.

The two stops took about two hours, but we were still making good time. A few miles out of Liberal, a man passed us in a pick up truck, and honked his horn and motioned for us to pull over. We had had a flat tire on the trailer, and didn’t even know it!

Our Good Samaritan, Dave Christopher, said he was an insurance adjuster, and just happened to have a telephone book in his truck! How many times will that ever happen? Here is a picture of Dave and Jim:

When my cellphone wouldn’t work because it had no signal, he let us use his phone to call Guymon Tire Service. They sent out a service truck to change the tire.

Raul arrived in about 20 minutes and got right to work. He got us back on the road really fast, and only charged $50.

We stopped in Guymon, Oklahoma at Guymon Tire and bought a new tire for the spare.The whole episode only set us back $167. Not so bad, it could have been worse.

We finally made it to our destination for tonight, Dalhart, Texas. We pulled into the Corral RV Park about 6:30 p.m. The park is level and quiet, and only cost us $19 for a pull through site big enough to park a semi truck and trailer, and it even has cable TV. We hope to be in Albequerque, New Mexico tomorrow night.

Dinner On The Road

Today was very uneventful as far as driving days go, just routine, thank you very much! We got up around 7:30 a.m., made some coffee, put away the coffee maker, rolled in the slide outs, and got on our way. The pic above is on US 58 between I-95 and I-85, leaving Emporia, Virginia. By the way, that Yogi Jellystone Campground there is only 375 yards from a VERY BUSY railroad. Trains all night long. Other than that, it was ok. They had many long pull-through sites with water, electric, and sewer connections.

We stopped for breakfast around 10:30 at Cracker Barrel. I used to love their gravy and biscuits, but could only sit and watch as Jim ate them today. But, let me tell you, their cornbread muffins are really good with bacon and eggs, and a little blackberry jam.


Here we are on I-85 near Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I am a little surprised that the leaves are still so colorful so late in the year. I don't remember them being this pretty last year when we left Urbana, Virginia on November 15 . Hmmm, maybe I am just getting old...NAAAHH!

We got to our destination for today, the fabulous Fleetwood RV Resort at Lowe's Motor Speedway at about 3:00 p.m. Yes, we stayed at this place last year, too, on our way south. It is nothing fancy. It is rather boring looking. But is is right next door to the Lowe's Motor Speedway. Nascar fans probably love this place. But for us, it is just a place to stop for the night.

For dinner tonight, I made a thrown together goulash with things I had hiding in the pantry.

1 large onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/3 lb ground meat
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large can pitted black olives
1 can Progresso Creamy Mushroom Soup
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups gluten free pasta, cooked

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, celery, and ground meat, cook until meat is browned. Add the olives, sliced if you like, the soup, and the tapioca flour. Stir together well. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over noodles. Have seconds.

I served this with pear salad. Put a dab of mayonaise in the middle of a pear half, top with grated colby cheese.

Tomorrow we are taking the truck to a Ford dealership for them to check it out before we get back on the road. Jim thinks maybe it needs a new alternator because the batteries are not charging up right. He wanted to wait til we get to our home town to do it, but I said, "What would happen if it went out, and the truck wouldn't start, and we were in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone signal?"