Don’t know why
There’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather….

It’s not always sunshine and blue skies here in Moab. For the past 2 weeks it’s been very stormy weather. Rain, snow, winds that seemed like they were going to suck our Clam Shelter inside out and dust devils twirling all over the place. It truly is amazing to see how much the landscape changes with the clouds and lack of sunshine. Sometimes it’s so dark it’s actually that scarey end of the world feeling. And other times it’s so beautiful – the colors are deeper, brighter and ever changing. When we are out in the middle of nowhere watching the weather is like watching tv, only a lot more interesting and gorgeous.

If it’s not raining during the stormy weather we can hike and stay outside for a bit. We have to be careful as the winds tend to blow us across the open areas like tumbleweeds ! But if it’s raining you will find us inside the van or inside our clam shelter. We do a lot of reading, scrabble playing and listening to music when the weather is wet and uncooperative. I know that when the 80+ temperatures hit we are going to miss the cold blowing winds and stormy weather so we try and enjoy it as much as we can.

Our meals are dictated by the weather. Too cold to cook out-sounds like it’s time for a quick grilled cheese and tomato soup. Or if I really don’t want to spend more than 10 minutes outside cooking it’s time for Ramen soup-throw in a few veggies and a soft boiled egg and we are good to go.

If it’s not raining I’ve been experimenting with fettuccini Alfredo or a red pasta sauce over noodles. Since we have arrived here we usually have breakfast when we are done checking campgrounds-that’s about 11 am, so it’s really brunch we are enjoying. And then about 3 or 4 pm we have what could be considered a late lunch or early dinner. Until daylight savings time we were hitting the sack about 7pm, but now the sun doesn’t set until about 745pm we are staying up a little later.

What’s been so nice about camp hosting in the middle of nowhere is the lack of WiFi. I don’t miss reading the news, facebook or twitter. I do miss keeping in touch with all of you and hearing what’s going on in your lives. I try to at least catch up with that on our days off. Right now I’m sitting in Moab Laundry Express writing this. One laundromat for the entire town and it’s a small one. There used to be three but the other two went out of business due to Covid. Some enterprising person is getting ready to put in a laundromat-I hope it’s before we leave because waiting for washers and dryers is not how I want to spend my days off. We’ve already been to the BLM office in town to pick up mail, replenish our supplies for the campgrounds and take showers. When laundry is finished we will take a ride somewhere to hike and explore since the sun is out now .

We’ve met some wonderful people camping and only 1 knucklehead- I think that’s pretty good! We expect record crowds and that’s what the Chamber of Commerce is predicting, since international travel is restricted and domestic air travel is so challenging.

Moab folks seem to be pretty good about masking up-currently mandated indoors and if you can’t social distance outdoors masks are also mandated on Federal land.

One last thing to share with your. Jim and I don’t have children so watching families enjoy the outdoors in the campground makes us smile . We watched two families the other night playing some type of toss the ball game and they were having so much fun, laughing and clapping-it was contagious ! And talking to the young people here on spring break continues to strengthen our faith in them and their ability to lead this country in a positive direction as they become adults.

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My homemade sausage, mushroom and red pepper pasta heated up for a quick dinner on a stormy night. After dinner the skies started to clear and when I walked over to the restroom this little bluebird was sitting on the edge of the roof just chirping away. I took that as a sign of good things to come and I was right. When we woke up in the morning we were back to blue skies and sunshine. Time to work on perfecting my version of an egg mcmuffin-yummy-good protein to start the day.

It’s much nicer to do our campground checks when the sun is shining. When it’s raining I average about 5,000 steps a day but when the sun is out I’m meeting my 10,000 steps ! Bring on the sun. I met a woman from Port Angeles who is a 20 mile per day trail runner-OMG! And I thought getting in 10k steps was an achievement!!

This place can be so magical-it almost seems like we are living and working in a painting that is constantly changing. And while we are stationary most of the time, or at least within a 30 mile radius, every day is different thanks to Mother Nature. Until next time, Happy Trails, Safe Travels,Mask up and Social Distance as needed. Make the most of whatever your weather is-get outside and enjoy !