Two dog night

We awoke just before sunrise to find our campsite surrounded by deer and turkeys, just in time for Thanksgiving.

We have seen a total of 4 Vanagons so far on this trip. One was parked near us in the campground so we stopped before heading out to chat with its owners, Angie and Peter from Salt Lake City. Lovely people.  They bought their 1985.5 Westy for only $1700 knowing it needed engine and transmission work. (Funny.  I paid ten times that knowing ours needed engine and transmission work).  Peter installed a Subaru engine himself and he had had no previous auto mechanical experience. Impressive.  I don't know what it is about the cult of Vanagons, but we meet the nicest people who own them (me being the exception to that rule).

Here are Angie and Peter:

We drove hwy 95 to Natural Bridges National Monument. The highway was the most remote and isolated stretch of road we have yet driven.  We saw at most 5 other cars while driving over 100 miles, and passed thru no towns in those miles.

 

We drove thru the Glen Canyon National Recreation area before crossing the Colorado River.  We had the road and scenery to ourselves.

That is Vanessa in the distance.

We stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument to see three arches.  Here's one:

And then on to our final destination, Canyonlands National Park.  We are deep in Mormon country; the one constant is a prominent LDS church in every community no matter how small. That and the grocery stores don't sell beer.  For now we are dry, which is a shame because our livers were just getting geared up.  I asked John his thoughts on polygamy, but he said one wife is enough for him.  Smartass.

Here are some pics from Canyonlands:

This is the view from our campsite tonight:

It is supposed to get well below freezing tonight. Good thing we have our mutts to keep us warm.  I knew we had them along for a reason.

12:30 a.m. Update. The dogs stink at warming the bed, but they are unsurpassed at hogging it.

p.s. These blog entries are posted a day late because our camp sites are too remote for cell service.  We upload the next day if we are lucky enough to find cell service in one of the small towns we pass thru.