The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The road trip to see the Utah National Parks was planned to arrive in Moab, Utah, on Saturday afternoon.  A SERVICE BRAKE SYSTEM light beeped on the Tahoe on the way to Moab.  The speedometer was not accurate, and the cruise control would not work. We continue to drive using GPS to gauge our speed.  

When we arrived in Moab, we soon discovered that it was the weekend of the Moab car show.  So, we dragged the gut with the other "old" cars and waved from my 20-year-old Tahoe.

We spent Saturday afternoon at Dead Horse Point State Park. The visitor's center was closed when we arrived. We drove to the spot where the cowboys ran some wild Mustangs into a natural canyon. They took some of the horses with them. According to the website, the horses left behind were trapped with no food or water and jumped to their deaths off the point.

We had our ticket to Arches National Park on Sunday at 7 a.m. I did not tell Allen until we arrived home, but we had "Buddy" in the Tahoe.

Buddy was very knowledgeable about the National Parks. He would let us know what was coming up and where to stop. He gave us the history of the area. So, on "Buddy's" advice, we stopped at the Courthouse Towers viewpoint and walked around the Balance Rock.  We saw the North and South Windows and the Turret Arch. The Delicate Arch and the Sand Dune Arch were must-sees. The trails we took were easy and had great views.

As there was no food or services in the park, we packed a cooler with items to make a sandwich and enjoyed our lunch at the table outside the visitor's center. It was a nice 80-degree day, and the scenery was breathtaking throughout the park.

Sunday afternoon, we spent at Islands in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park. Buddy insisted we stop at the visitor's center and the Shaffer Canyon Overlook. We saw the famous Mesa Arch and walked some trails.

Monday was spent looking for someone in Moab to check out the "service brake system" light. No one in Moab would take the time to help. So, we drove on!

We headed south to the Needles district in Canyonlands. We saw the Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs and walked the Roadside Ruin trail to see the native plants and Puebloan-era structures.  We stopped at the visitor's center and continued to the Natural Bridges National Monument, where we saw the four natural bridges.

On Tuesday, we were headed to a third national park, Capitol Reef. On a gravel road to the San Rafael Swell and the Temple Mountain Wash Pictograph, we noticed one of our tires was low on air. Since we were out of a National Park, he couldn't warn us to stay off that road.

Fortunately, a man at a campground offered to fill our tire with his air compressor. We continued five miles to the Globin Valley State Park, covered with sandstone formations called goblins or hoodoos. After walking the grounds, we arrived back at the Tahoe and found the tire was flat!

I asked a young man who was preparing for a hike if he could change our tire. He and his wife changed the tire. we paid the couple for their help and headed to Torrey, Utah, on the west side of Capitol Reef National Park.

On the way, we stopped in Hanksville to check the tire's air pressure and had dinner at a great place called Stan's Burger Shak. We drove through Capitol Reef, mostly in the dark, on the way to Torrey, where we had booked a hotel.

A few miles west of Torrey was a town called Bicknell. At Parts City Auto we got the tire repaired, and they checked to make sure the bearings were not bad due to the SERVICE BRAKE SYSTEM issue.  We drove back to Torrey to see Capitol Reef in the daylight. 

We drove through the park and ate our packed lunch on the grounds at Fruita Gifford House. We each bought a famous Gifford pie, as "Buddy" said it was a must, and enjoyed the afternoon.

After lunch, we drove south to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, where there was little to see. So, we left and headed to Kodachrome Basin State Park.  It was a little overcast and not what we expected.  

Very beautiful views and scenery were found at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  We walked the trails and then drove north to Panquish, Utah. 

The plan was to stay the night in Panquish and enter Bryce National Park on Thursday. But we received news from home that a family member had become ill. The plans were changed to go home as family is more important than a road trip. 

We ate dinner at the restaurant connected to the hotel on Wednesday night. As we were being seated, I joked, "Don't eat the special.  When the waiter came, he told us the special was chicken stew. He was from Paugh and explained how the chicken stew was made.  We all ordered the special.

The following day after a light breakfast, we headed for home. Thank goodness the GPS monitored our speed, as the speedometer still was not working. We had a twelve-hour drive ahead of us to get to Waitsburg.

The twelve-hour drive turned into fourteen hours as we all got a mild case of food poisoning from eating the special.  We did not stop for lunch or dinner, but restroom stops were a must every half hour!

We arrived home late Thursday night. Everyone was feeling better by Friday, and the Tahoe got fixed by Jay at Jay's Garage in Dayton.

When on a road trip, learn how to change a tire before you go and DON'T EAT THE SPECIAL!

And thanks to my sister, Sandra, take "Buddy" with you if you go to a National Park.  Buddy's real name is Dave, and he narrates your trip from an app. He is really good. 

The family member is feeling much better, thank goodness.