Arches Visit and Pictures

August 17, 2016

When we decided to pass through Moab on our way to Las Vegas I was hoping we would be able to to visit Arches, Dead Horse State Park, and Canyonlands.  Since we are still trying to figure out how to settle into our new RV life, we weren't able to find time to go to all 3.  We are still struggling to get organized and trying to figure out where everything is going to go what we can get rid of because there is just way too much stuff in our little tiny house on wheels.  I hate to admit it, but I have actually resorted to throwing perfectly good stuff away.  I was trying to hang on to stuff in the hopes that we could drop it off at Goodwill or some sort of donation center but it has started to become a burden to carry stuff around that I am willing to get rid of so I have resorted to putting stuff straight into the dumpster.  It has come down to my mental health versus feeling charitable and the guilt I am dealing with for throwing away perfectly good stuff is unfortunately quite a bit smaller right now than the potential for me freaking out over how chaotic our little house feels since we can't seem to figure out where everything goes.

Anyways, enough about that... on to our Arches adventure!

Double Arch, from a distance

I was hoping we could head out first thing in the morning, but, as usual, it was after lunch before we finally managed to make it out the door.  We have a National Parks Pass (which we actually bought at Arches on our visit there over Spring Break in March) so we flashed our card at the entrance and headed to the Visitor Center.

Double Arch, getting closer

While we were in the visitor's center, we watched the movie about Arches and I decided to buy one of the  National Park Passport books.  These books have a list of all the National Parks and you can collect stamps and stickers at each site you visit.  Ideally, having this book will get Lorelei interested in the various places we can go on our RV Adventure, but so far she hasn't touched it since we left Arches.
I convinced Lorelei to check out the Junior Ranger Program so we talked to a Ranger while we were at the Visitor Center but she really wasn't into it.  We were there in the middle of the day so it was too hot to do anything other than drive around and do a short hike.  Lorelei and I decided Double Arch would be a good one to check out and I don't think we did that one when we were there in March so it ended up being a great choice!

Lorelei was quite the monkey and scrambled all over and up into the Double Arch.  She was actually making me a bit nervous with her confidence, mainly because her shoes didn't have good traction and she would have seriously injured herself (or worse) if she slipped.  I had my camera bag and my cowboy hat so I was having a hard time keeping up with her.  Thank goodness we made it without any incidents.  Now we just need to find some comfortable hiking shoes for our monkey.

I'm not exactly sure what this formation is but we could see it from Double Arch.
I thought it kind of looked like 2 rock people kissing.

Lorelei, perched inside of one of the Double Arches

We both enjoyed the hike and Lorelei had a blast scrambling around under the Arch. Now I need to figure out how I can get her to do the Junior Ranger Program without twisting her arm.  I am planning on incorporating that into our road-school curriculum so at some point she's going to be forced to do it and I'm really not looking forward to that battle!

I think this is Turret Arch.
We could see it from across the way when we were hiking back to the parking lot.

This was after our hike.  A smile on Lorelei's face means it was a success!

Moab KOA Review

Moab KOA (August 17-21)

We stopped in Moab, UT for a short visit on our way to Las Vegas.  We stayed at the KOA on the south side of Moab and I have to admit I was a little disappointed.  I knew it was located on the far side of Moab but I guess I just didn't realize just how far from Arches it was.
We are still figuring out the best way to find RV parks and I definitely have a lot to learn.  There are quite a few websites available that list RV parks and none of them seem to be inclusive of everything in an area.  I am used to using Google Maps for picking out hotels when we travel, with a little help from Trip Advisor.  Unfortuately, Google Maps seems to be one of the most unreliable ways to find RV parks so I am going to have to change my ways.  It is a bit overwhelming to sort through multiple sites to check and cross check what RV parks are available and decent.  Right now, I am using Passport America, AllStays, Good Sam, Google Maps, RV Park Reviews and the Full-time Families Directory.   When I was researching Moab, I looked at a few places and ended up just settling on the KOA because it seems like a reliable brand and I was feeling overwhelmed with all the options that seemed to be just about the same.
The Moab KOA was just "meh" and as we were driving through Moab, I kept thinking, "Wow, that looks like a nice place, why didn't we look into that one?"  It is certainly a shame that the KOA wasn't nicer.  It definitely has potential but it was kind of like someone just gave up caring about it about 10 years ago.  There is a mini golf course that Lorelei enjoyed but it is in need of some major attention.  There is also a little game room with ping pong and we spent some time playing there but for some reason it just felt depressing in there to me.  We tried to go swimming but the pool was absolutely frigid.  I'm not sure if some of the other RV parks in Moab have heated pools but that is definitly something we will look for if we pass through there again.  Hopefully, I can figure out a better way to sort through all the options available and I have learned my lesson that not all KOAs are equal.
I didn't think to take any pictures of the KOA in Moab but that's probably for the best; you would get depressed looking at them!

We did it!

Wow, what a blur the last few weeks have been. Everything has been so crazy busy I wasn't sure I was ever going to catch my breath! But now I can finally breathe and take a few minutes to update everyone on the beginning of our adventure! Today is the first full day of our new story. We left Colorado yesterday and made it to Moab... should have taken about 6 hours but we took 10! I guess that will be the new norm for us. Hopefully we will get a little faster as time passes but I'm not counting on it.
Here's what has happened over the last month (in a nutshell):
- We drove to Des Moines, Iowa and picked up the RV. We had a brief visit with some extended family, tested out the RV, and then drove to Missouri.
- Lorelei finally returned from a super long visit to Georgia. We met up with my parents at Johnson's Shut-Ins just outside of St. Louis which is an awesome swimming hole and also checked out the Magic House Children's Museum in St. Louis before we returned to Castle Pines.
- David turned in his notice at Xcel and we worked our butts off packing up our storage unit and getting rid of stuff from the house.
- We said goodbye to Colorado!
And now, the adventure begins!