Wednesday, November 8/2017

I was awake much of the night last night.   It was just one of those nights when "the powers" have decided that Marie does not need any sleep.   Perhaps I was worried about the water pump freezing in this cold weather or perhaps it was just "one of those nights".
I did get up several times during the night to run the water and twice it was very sluggish but I did manage to clear the ice crystals and get the hot water running through the pump.
John had left the tap dripping a bit but that didn't seem to help!!  Running the hot water through the system did and that was a good thing.
As we got closer to the morning, John put the furnace on and that too helped warm up the water compartments and the pump.  This trailer does have a "glacier package" on it so we are not supposed to freeze up with that feature.   Unfortunately, running the furnace kicks the hell out of the batteries and is a very inefficient way to heat your trailer however......there are times like this one, when it is needed.
John installed a radiant propane heater in the trailer for heating the inside instead of using the furnace and it provides incredible heat and runs solely off the propane tank.   No power required.  It has been a lifesaver especially when we prefer to boondock instead of paying camping fees.
We have three solar panels on the truck and a battery bank that provides us all the power we have ever needed.   It works the TV for the evening, the curling iron and the low setting on my blow dryer!!  Now what more could a girl ask for.   It does not work the microwave as the inverter in not big enough but I really don't use the microwave so that is not really a problem.  Perhaps one day, we will get a bigger  inverter and the microwave will be usable.

Our spot last night Bryce Canyon City

Headed out

We packed up and headed out of the "cold" weather.   Hopefully as we get further South, the temperature will start to rise cause this cold just sucks!!
We headed out of Bryce Canyon City and soon found ourselves going through Red Canyon.  A unique canyon that is identical to Bryce Canyon but on a much smaller scale.  Despite its size, the color, splendor and "awe" factor is incredible!!  Wow, this truly is a beautiful state to discover.

We travelled in and out of this forest yesterday

Entering Red Canyon

Incredible color and the tunnels were pretty cool as well

Hoodoos in the canyon

Out of the canyon

a unique little house along the roadway

Lots of hills

Roadside gas station

Our day's travel took us through some pretty incredible scenery and we did stop in Kanab, Utah to do some much needed grocery shopping.   Once that was done and the gas tank was full, we headed out of the State of Utah and into the State of Arizona.   Finally...... we are almost home!!

vast nothingness along the Vermillion Cliffs

Wild turkeys

We travelled through the valley that sits at the base of the Vermillion Cliffs.  The valley itself was very flat and the highway wound its way through the valley bottom and along the cliffs before we started climbing up and traveled through the forest.  It is here that we are planning on staying for the night.
As we continued our journey, we noted that the forest service had done a lot of work along side the highway gathering dead fall and stacking it into piles.  A bit further down the highway we encountered smoke and soon realized that we were into a controlled burn situation.  This is probably a very good thing for the forest but it did make us wonder if we would be able to actually stay in this part of the forest.   Hmmmm.......time will tell.
As it turned out, we did drive out of the burn area and managed to find nice spot on Burma Road, just off Highway 89A just south of Jacob Lake.   It was a bit chilly again but we were still pretty high on our elevation.
Oh well, at least it was warmer that the previous night and that was a very good thing.
All in all, it was a good day of travel and once again, we saw some beautiful country.   We are sooo very blessed and......Life is Good!!

Fire management - controlled burn

Lots of smoke along the roadway from the controlled burn