The Lazy Lizard

You know those times when you feel like you're in a movie and nothing happens like it's supposed to? Most people have experienced this. This is my story.

It all began when Stacey Johnson asked and asked and asked if I would do something exciting over Memorial Day Weekend. No school, no work, for three days! She convinced me to go camping in Moab and visit Arches National Park which I have not done in many, many years. 

Stacey Johnson

So as you can see, Stacey is crazy.
 
So crazy she bought a fancy pants elegant camping chair instead of a regular one. Who does that!?

Early Sunday afternoon we packed a tent, blankets, flashlights, a clock, snacks, brats, hobo dinner ingredients, firewood, camping chairs, antifreeze, and took off heading south. The drive down was great. Weather in the 60's and partly cloudy. After a few hours we had reached Arches entrance.


We decided to first find a campsite to stake out, set up, and cook up some grub. Being Memorial Day, the first couple dozen we saw were taken/reserved so we kept onward, eventually ending up approx. 20 miles from Moab, having just turned off the road and driven 100 feet. Stacey's car just completely shut off and after being startled for a second, we realized it was overheated. We popped the hood and let it cool for about 30 minutes while we wandered to avoid being asked if we needed help by fellow campers. Actually, we were attacking dead trees in order to collect kindling to start the giant logs we had.

We filled the radiator bowl with some antifreeze and gave it another go. I reversed out the 100 ft we had driven and then the temp. gauge started increasing so I shut it off again. We sat another 20 minutes and thought up some possibilities, agreeing we'd have to catch a ride to town if we couldn't get the car that far. We did the same thing, but this time with water. If it were to drain straight out, we wouldn't want to be completely out of antifreeze. This time we made it a solid 500 ft (part of this in neutral). After another waiting session (we were glad it wasn't 100 degrees outside), we had another car say they would follow us to ensure we made it to town. We added more water (this time while the car was running - we noticed there's a lot more pressure and less leakage) then drove on and on. 4 miles I'd say. We said thank you to the other car and they took off. We patiently took the trek 5 miles at a time until we made it to town.

We "pulled in" fingers crossed that the engine would hold out long enough for us to do something other than pour water into the sucker. First stop, glance at campgrounds. All 100% full. Oh yeah, Memorial Day. Second stop, Denny's to charge the phone, look up numbers, eat grub, and ask for advice. We got just that. We were told the best place in town for a good price was the "Lazy Lizard Hostile." Personally, I've never stayed in a hostile, but am aware they aren't known for their eloquence. We called all the campgrounds we could find and had zero success. Third stop, hotels. Let me remind you we were driving in a car on the brink of croaking. We checked the first; no vacancy. Second; no vacancy. From the third on, neon signs showed us "no vacancy." We came to one about 8 or 10 hotels down the road (almost the end of town) which read "vacancy." I was hesitant to even turn in because I figured the "no" in "no vacancy" on their sign had burned out and the manager would be tired of informing people of this. We turned around and pulled in. I took a look at the car while Stacey found out the info. A minute later she came out and told me the verdict: ONE room left (in possibly the last hotel in town) and would cost $115, but she would give us a $99 rate. I was under the impression Stacey didn't want to spend $$, so when she said "I think we she do it" after a minute, I said "absolutely!"

 I expected the worst. High prices, crappy quality. This being the last room in Moab during Memorial Day Weekend. We weren't ready for this! Decent price and a saweeeeet room! Wood everywhere. It had the cabin feel and smell. Two beds, huge mirrors, clean, and fridge and freezer. We lucked out =  )

We woke up early to call into the auto shops and see if any were open. The first we called told us to come over, so we walked straight out the door so we wouldn't be at the end of a long line. The hotel parking lot is where we met local Larry, born and raised in Moab. Larry told us which shop to go to for foreign cars since Stacey's was a VW. He followed us there and gave us a lift back.

We came to the conclusion that Stacey needed a new timing belt and water pump, both of which the did not have stocked in Moab. He said it would be about 2 1/2 weeks!!! Turns out he was going to SLC next weekend and offered to tow it there (3 hr tow) for $100. Stacey accepted and we took that ride back with local Larry.

A few hours of posting distress statuses on facebook in hopes of catching a ride back with someone down in that area, we decided to go outside for once since we're in Moab after all. We took some snacks and ate "lunch" as we walked up the street and then down the other side towards the end of town.

Propane Pools

First, we figured out that Moab has propane pools.
Then, we found THE LAZY LIZARD!!

So glad we had a super nice hotel!
After we got back to the hotel, we tried a few more options (enterprise - closed for the day, truck rental - local use only, no bus station, no flights to Provo or near anytime soon), then decided on a grand idea; take the Amtrak (train) from Green River straight to Provo, and it was a lot cheaper than we imagined! They were slowly kicking us out (after multiple additions of late checkouts), so we decided to take out heaping pile of stuff (weighed so much) and walk the 1.1 mile to the auto shop.

We made it around halfway and I said I was sick of our slow pace carrying all this stuff and no one giving us a ride. We stopped at a gas station and I asked people as they pulled out if we could have a ride for half a mile. Some people avoided eye contact. Quite a few told me they would but they didn't have room. Which they obviously did. Three of them were the only ones in their huge trucks or SUV's. We decided to start walking again, joking that someone would offer us a ride right before the auto shop. Sure enough, along came (local Larry!) and laughed, told us to get in, and drove us the rest of the way.
We dropped stuff off in Stacey's car so we weren't carrying our portable house with us anymore, and grabbed some essentials before the auto shop closed. At this point we had around two hours to make it to the train station. We stopped at a hotel and grabbed a sharpie to make a sign to aid us in hitch hiking. We thought this would make for a better adventure story.

We came to the edge of town and staked out in the ideal hitch hiking spot for pictures.

Thumbs up to Green River! Turns out Green River is a nothing town and no one was going there. We realized we should have put "BYU" on the side of one cooler, "North" on the side of the next, and finally "Green River" on the lid, separated them by 10 ft, and have us wearing BYU attire at the end of the chain. Instead we sat here telling the drivers passing by that they're doing a good job. Every single one of them looked, but not a single one stopped.... until I was calling the Amtrak to see if the train was still 30 minutes late. Up pulled none other than Larry! "Larry, why is it always you that does us these favors?" Larry drove us the 50 minutes (thought it was 30) and took his merry time giving us the tour of town while we sat in the back, nervous we would never make it back in time for class and work the next morning. We pulled into the "station" at 6:08 when the train was supposed to arrive at 5:57.

Let me tell you about the train! Only $54.00 combined tickets, when we were willing to spend $79+gas for a rental car and had to drive back. Instead, we lounged in very big first class chairs, chilled, ate, slept, read, for three hours. After a full 24 hours of running around not know what would happen in 5 minutes it was so incredibly relaxing! Somehow we made it home.

and thus marks the end of our adventure. Nothing went as planned, but fun and nice to get away from the monotony.

On another note, Johnny visited from NY. He is going to camp in SLC for the next week and we met up Saturday to catch up for a few hours and introduce him to people. We went to eat at sonic, where we got some great deals. Buy 1 get 1 burger, $.99 croissant sandwhiches (66% off), and milkshakes 50% off. Total bill should have been $23, but it was $10.50

Sonic

 

 

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http://www.theredheadriter.com/2011/02/things-to-do-while-sitting-at-stoplight/