The Cow

So Tucker only agreed to go on this trip if we rented ATVs. Last year we had a great time in Moab with ATVs and he wanted a repeat. Using Paddy he checked out rental places in Oregon, Idaho, California, Wyoming and Utah as we traveled down the road. How did I ever get around the country before iPads and 4g internet?

He found a place near Salt Lake City that sounded promising. A call to the owner assured us there was also a campground about 3 miles from their location. We would get there before 5:00 pm and they closed at 8:00 pm. Everything was looking good.

We see the place just as we pass it so I swerve into a church parking lot about 200 yards up the road, do a quick U turn and pass it again on my left thinking I would quickly do another U turn and stop in front of the building. But that did not happen. We drove... and drove and could not find a wide spot to pull another U turn. Then Laurie said "there is a cow... There Is A Cow... BOBBY, THERE IS A COW!!!" A stinking cow meandered in front of our truck. I think my brain was thinking it would behave like a dog and decide not to play chicken with a Dodge. Scenes from the movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" were going through my mind. Apparently cows do not think like dogs. I locked up the brakes while at the same time trying to figure out how to get a cow out from underneath our truck. And we still had not found a place to make a U turn. We would have to pass that cow in the road on the return trip and there was bound to be a crowd by then. It seemed like that kind of place as there was a car driving toward us slowly, watching us.

But I missed the cow by inches, left 4 skid marks in the road and eventually did U turn. We waved at the cow on the return trip and the old man in the slow moving car. We stopped before the church parking lot this time and talked to the guy at the rental place. We set up a rental for 9:00 am the next morning and headed a couple of miles up the road to the campground he recommended. We had tried to find the place on Paddy earlier with no luck. That was a sign of things to come. It was a members only campground. We were now stuck with an ATV rental paid for, but no campground. No problem. We used Miss Garmin to locate a campground that is 14 miles away and called for a reservation. But we had no cell phone service. We drive 10 miles back past the rental place (3rd time now) to get service. Tucker calls the campground and they are closed for the night. Arghh.

We find a place to pull over as Laurie calls the campground again and listens to the message. They state they have openings for after hours campers. So we tell Miss Garmin to take us there (we name our toys) and she takes us to the center of a busy intersection with no campground in sight. We head into town to ask the locals about campgrounds while Tucker takes Paddy to look for other campgrounds. It is now about 7:45 pm and the rental guy leaves at 8:00pm. We thought we would be camped by 6:00pm. If we can not find a campground we have to cancel our rentals in the next 5 minutes plus return the helmets and goggles he already gave us. And there is a steep 8% grade between us. But Paddy is locked up because Google thinks someone hacked my Gmail account so they locked my account. Paddy keeps asking for but will not accept my Google password. She will accept no other commands. Paddy is useless. Laurie talks to the locals at a gas station and no one knows of any campgrounds in the area. We call the rental guy and tell him we are returning with the helmets and goggles to cancel our rental. We head back to the middle of the intersection where the campground is not.

We start up the 8% grade for the second time today (3rd time on this road) when we see a sign for the campground on the left, 2 miles up the river, not in the middle of the intersection. We get to the campground and are looking for an after hours spot when the rental guy calls back. We tell him to hold on just a minute. We find a spot and tell the rental guy we will see him in the morning. We start to set up and the electric hookup is 50 amp only. Our 30 amp plug will not fit. Laurie says she will go check the office again. I think she got someone out of bed, but she calls and says she has an adapter but there is a problem. The spot we picked is not available for two nights. But the spot right beside us is available if we can convince the couple in a rented RV who speak French and little English, who just got set up and are obviously new to the camping experience, to switch sites with us. I had just unhooked the truck. I hooked up again, switched places and as Laurie returns from the office we ask each other why every thing is against us today. Maybe it is a sign that we should move on down the road?

But I got Paddy working again with a hard reset, we've had dinner and things are looking up again. We are looking forward to a fun day of ATVing.