moments from Moab pt 1...

Maybe it wasn't the best sign when after crossing the Utah border. In the distance, what we thought looked like a road started bending and undulating just like a tornado... realizing it wasn't a road, but an ACTUAL tornado, we also weren't happy when we saw another tornado spinning right next to it.

The tornados dissolved as quickly as they appeared, but it set precedent.

Not that the morning had started out much better...

On the way home from work on Thursday night there were whiteout snow conditions... not unusual for this time of year in Colorado, but still enough to make me paranoid about driving through the western I-70 corridor. When we got up at 4am the next morning, the parking lot had frozen over. Once again, I'm paranoid about the trip.

Roads were completely crappy on the way up to Denver. One could drive, but they were wet, sloppy and in some parts icy. Knowing that I was about as low elevation wise as I would be for the next few hours, I continued my pessimism.

That pessimism continued as we climbed 70 to begin the process of crossing the Rockies. Somehow though, about 30 miles in, the roads cleared up and the sky broke open to reveal a sunny day.

But all good things must come to pass.

After the Utah tornados, we continued on towards Moab, dodging intermittent rain showers. Getting to our campground, the sun was back out. We got set up as quickly as we could and headed out for our first hike at Arches National Park.

If you ever get the chance to visit Moab for anything other than mountain biking, you MUST go to Arches. It was a little daunting to see the entrance roadway that immediately climbed up a mesa, but as soon as you reach the crest you turn a corner and see the weirdest valley you'll ever imagine. Petrified sand dunes dot the horizon along with the Lasalle mountains and the first of the rock formations, Park Avenue (see the panorama a few posts down) We parked and started our hike.

The hike down into the canyon was quiet and uneventful, but as soon as we reached our turnaround point, the clouds flew back in and within seemingly instantaneously the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. Just after this, we started getting pelted by what we first thought was snow, but was actually hail. I was proud of Ang for keeping up with us as we hiked as quickly as possible back up the mile of canyon trail.

If this were the end of the story, it would be fine, but the hail switched over into what could only be defined as a deluge. Did I mention we were camping? I needed a little bit of oil to sautee the vegetables we were having for dinner with our soft tacos and a stop at Central Market allowed us to postpone the slog back to our soggy and now dark campsite.

Ingenuity on our part discovered that we could move our cookstove underneath the neighboring campsite, and this helped, but we were wet and the temperature was hovering around 35 degrees... freezing our hands and making all of our cooking preparations an exercise in moving in slow motion. Somehow, with the aid of battery powered lanterns, our food was heated and tacos were assembled. Everything tasted fairly wonderful, but my misery was to be taken up a notch.

Crunch.

All day I had been carefully cutting my food with a fork and knife to avoid having to bit into anything that would disturb the two temporary crowns to the left and right of my two front teeth. I had, for the most part been successful in this, but to my dismay a mouthful of mushy soft taco had managed to dislodge one of the temps. I quietly turned away from my camping compatriots and dug my finger around in my mushy soft taco filled mouth until I found the temporary crown. At this point, I also realized that this tooth was going to be sensitive to air as I breathed in and felt a sharp pain in my tooth. I quickly put the crown back into place and finished eating dinner as carefully as I could.

After dinner, I went to the shower and bathroom facility of the campground to assess the damage.

Cold and wet. Check.
Stomach full. Check.
Feet soggy. Check.
Temp intact. check.
Fixadent in hand. check.

I carefully removed the crown and looked at the ghastly remnants of my tooth staring back at me like one of the heroin chic Calvin Klein parody ads of a few years back. Feeling the sensation of the air sensitivity again, I as quickly as I could squirted the geriatric denture adhesive (thank God for self-checkout at WalMart) and put the crown back into place. The temp stuck and for that I was thankful. Upon stepping out of the bathroom, I proceeded to step right into a big pool of cold muddy water and walked back to the tent ready for what I thought would be a cold, wet night.

Ang and I are car campers. I appreciate hiking, but I don't think I'd ever want to 'hike in' somewhere with all my camping equipment. I really appreciate bringing all the camping gadgets and crap because as a geek, camping is just one more thing that allows you to have TOYS! One of our more recent camping toys was an elevated air mattress from WalMart that we bought before Cornerstone last year. This, along with two layers of sleeping bags, a regular sheet set, a queen size blanket and a down throw for each of us kept us warmer than I ever thought possible... and while the air mattress itself was no Select Comfort, it was still nicer than the ground. If it hadn't been for the constant rain sound (which in moderation is great, but when it's cranked up to 11 on the guitar amp scale of life it's a bit much) I'd have slept the whole night.

The next morning would bring birds, diesel engines and cycling... but that's another story.