June 17, 2018 – At Capitol Reef

Woke at daylight again (5 am) but stayed in bed till 7. Felt awfully tired and unrefreshed and not looking forward to a day of touristing! Got a little chilly during the night but not bad. Used light comforter. Dogs took up the whole bed, and Baby was snarling at Tiny frequently. Put on long pants and flannel shirt to walk the dogs but didn’t need it. Still windy. Took 2 Motrin and worked on trying to get the hotspots to work. Nothing for Verizon. Bob’s FreedomPop phone works and gets 3 or 4 bars. Was able to surf, and to log into my account. Still have some data left. Called Jen and left her a voice mail. Still cannot get a signal on the FreedomPop hotspot, though. I wonder if it only works on 3G? Maybe I’ll try calling them on Monday about it.

We left for the park at 10 or 11. The visitor’s center was packed – no place to park anywhere. I had to drop Bob off to get the park brochures while I drove around the block a couple of times. We drove through a loop at the campground and found that we could dump and get water for a fee. Probably worth it. The park museums and places to visit were very busy – guess because it’s a Sunday and because it’s Father’s Day. Hopefully it won’t be so crowded tomorrow. We drove the 10 mile scenic route (which was pretty busy) and at the end of it, we drove the 2 mile unpaved road through Capitol Gorge. It reminded me very much of the Virgin River gorge, just not as deep. But driving the scenic drive really gives you a feel of what the Reef is – a huge wall of cliff face that extends for 100 miles! All very spectacular scenery of red sandstone layers and other colors of layers. 

Met a couple at our camp from the Bay area who started full timing in February. They’re in a class A. They’ve been to some of the Passport America parks and also belong to Thousand Trails. 

We fired up the generator, and wonder of wonders, it ran the AC ok! Ran it for about an hour and a half to recharge the house batteries and all the device batteries. No problems with it (and the altitude here is 6500).