I described the Internet woes we experienced over the weekend in my last post. With no chance to research, I didn’t want to book an RV park in Moab by looking at a campground guide. I thought we could drive up to Moab, have a look around, then decide where we wanted to stay. Neither of us had been here before.

View through the windshield Donna shot along the way

Things don’t always go as smoothly as envisioned. I’m usually optimistic about finding a suitable place to stay. But, it turned out that this was not a good week to show up unannounced in Moab. They have an off-road rally here, called Rally on the Rocks this week. Every place is booked up through Sunday.

We found a large pull-through site at Spanish Trails RV park for one night only. Once we were settled in, we fired up our laptops and started looking at options. I have to admit, I wasn’t in my best humor. Although today’s drive was only a little over 100 miles, it was a tiring drive up and down steep grades with a stiff wind. The cross winds are challenging in a big rig. You have to stay alert.

Before we found this site, we had pulled into the Moab Valley RV Resort to inquire. The entrance lane is restricted by steel posts, about four feet high at the end of the lane entering the park. After checking at the office and finding that we missed the last site large enough for our rig by 10 minutes, we needed to pull through and turn around. The posts at the end of the lane are spaced about 10 feet apart. This might sound like plenty of room, considering our rig is eight and a half feet wide. Eighteen inches of clearance equates to nine inches on each side. Steel poles four feet high cannot even be seen once I’ve started through.

I set my trajectory and made sure I pulled far enough through before starting to turn. If I turned too soon, the side of the coach on the inner part of the turn would scrape from cutting the corner or the side of the wall on the outside of the turn would scrape due to swing-out.

Once we were safely past the posts, I had to figure out how to get turned around in this tight RV park and exit the narrow lane leading out. How can they advertise this as a big-rig friendly park?

I looked at my options and thought the road encircling the park would be the best way around. When I came to the first 90 degree corner, I discovered it was really tight. I pulled forward and cut the wheel hard. No go. It was too narrow and I wouldn’t clear the fence on the perimeter. I backed up a few feet and cut it again. My right hand rear view mirror was barely clearing the chain link fence. My left rear wheel climbed the curb on the inside of the corner. I went very slowly, but climbing over the curb tilted the coach and my mirror struck the fence. I hate it when this stuff happens. I don’t think there was any other way through though. This park is very poorly laid out. You really should be able to drive a big rig around the perimeter of an RV park!

My demeanor wasn’t improving. We drove back through town to our present site. I was happy to find that the wifi here works and we have a solid Internet connection. After I went online to look at possible destinations that won’t take us too far away tomorrow, it was time to mix a cocktail.

I broke out my trusty martini shaker and glass. As I was putting ice into the shaker, I bumped my martini glass. I’ve had this set for more than 10 years. Crash! Martini glass is dust.

Sometimes it’s just one of those days. But I have to remind myself of all the great times, adventures and fun this lifestyle brings. Days like this are bound to come along every now and then. They are more than offset by some of the greatest days imaginable. It’s been 99% good, 1% of the time you have one of those days.

This can offset even the worst days

We’re heading to Colorado, to the Junction West RV Park. It’s located between Fruita and Grand Junction, Colorado. There’s supposed to be great biking and hiking in the area. We’ve booked a week there. Since it’s just off of I-70, I’m counting on good Internet connectivity.

We changed up our itinerary from there. We won’t go to Denver after all. The availability of suitable parks in the area we want is limited. Access to the airport would have been tough. We didn’t even have any good options for getting a rental car. So when we leave Grand Junction, we’ll go to Salt Lake City. We’ve booked at a park there that has light rail transport to the airport. Donna changed her ticket to Phoenix to fly out of Salt Lake City instead of Denver.