Francis Peak etc.. Pioneer Weekend

It's a Monday and a long 'Pioneer Holiday' weekend in Utah.
On Saturday we went to a free Mormon Tabernacle concert.
Today Joe and I walked up a long dusty road to Francis Peak in Farmington.
His car didn't want to go closer to the top so we left it far down the road.

It was 92 degrees in the shade.

I found the only tiny strip of shade around.
The back wall of the Radar station.

Venturing a short distance on the Great Western trail from there.
Truth is, we had already walked pretty far up a steep road in the heat.

Walking back down:

This is us literally rolling down the mountain for 12 miles with the engine off, because Joe forgot to put gas in his car.
We weren't sure that we had enough to get out.
Turns out we did, but we didn't know that at the time.
We made it to a gas station just fine, but it was an adventure.
Adventure is code for "This could be bad".

Anyway, we will do this again when the weather is cooler.
We want to walk the length of the ridge line.

Lesa Birthday

Today was my birthday.
I was born July 2, 1953.
It's 2016. You figure it out.
It's not that I am into pictures of myself, I just wanted this day on record.


Millcreek Canyon:

See you next year!

Gun Range

Today, Saturday, Joe and I went to a Gun Range.
I've wanted to do this for a very long time.
I really just wanted to know how to do it!


These pics represent a good solid hour and a half (or more) of playing in the gun range.


Loading (not as easy as it looks at first, but I caught on):

Inserting and then slapping in the magazine:

Posing (My safety is still on here...don't worry):

Shoot:

My first 5 bullets only hit the paper.
After that all of my shots clustered near the bulls eye.
About 4-5 hit right on the X.

My reward, besides feeling accomplished and more confident, was the shop manager saying "Wow".
That made my day.

Christmas Weekend In Moab

On Christmas morning Joe, Sarah and I (the mom) drove to Moab. We stayed in a hotel for three nights. The hotel was nice except for cold showers once in awhile and a potty that flushed itself a hundred times a day. It had very good breakfast and It did have a great hot tub and pool which we used a lot. It also had a fitness room which we also used one morning.


I won't explain too much about these pics.
This first section is from Arches National Park:

Sarah is very pleasant company and will smile even when she's freezing:

We hiked to Delicate Arch in 20 degree weather. Many others were doing the same thing.
It was surprisingly tolerable as long as we kept moving.

                                          

Petroglyphs on a side trail:

Canyon lands:

Sarah made friends with a Raven.
Given more time she may have had it taking food from her hand:

We did a lot of hiking. Every trail ended on a high cliff with stunning views:

An area created by a meteor strike:

Our last big activity was an attempt to reach some Aztec ruins on a high hill.
I was too busy surviving to take any pics of this.
First we did some path finding through the snow.
Then we found our way up some slick rock. Mostly slick because of water and ice.
For safety we quit before we got in over our heads.
Sarah almost made it to the Aztec Grainery.
We hope to do it again when the weather is warm and things are dried out.
Yep, it was still 20 degrees, but I actually took my coat off, because I was hot from all of the exercise.

Finally we parked at this overlook and ate some sandwiches before going back to the hotel.
Joe and I always ended the day in the hot tub. Awww. So nice.

We came home to a house that needed a bit of airing, snow that needed shoveling, a dried out Christmas tree that needed to come down, unpacking, laundry etc... You know how it is after a trip (even a short one).
THE END