Category: Family

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Goodbye, our sweet Lady

Our sweet old girl passed away on Wednesday, September 24th.  It was a tough one.   I wasn’t ready.  I should have been, but I wasn’t.  Even now, over two months later, I’m getting emotional writing this.

I found Lady literally in the middle of the street 13.5 years ago.  I was walking Charley (see my other post about our beautiful Springer girl) near my home.  It’s an odd street, split by a bus lane so one side is eastbound and the other is westbound, essentially two one-way streets.  I was walking against traffic when I noticed that the cars coming towards me were moving very slowly led by a decent-sized pickup truck.  I looked down and this small brown dog was trotting down the middle of the street.  She looked lost and scared, so I knelt down and called to her.  She came right over and jumped into my arms.  She had a collar, but no tag.

I carried her home, put Charley inside, and used Charley’s leash to walk her around the neighborhood looking for her owner.  A kid on a bike told me that he thought she might have followed him from another neighborhood, so we went there as well.  No one claimed her or even recognized her.  After about an hour, I took her to our vet.  No chip and the vet thought she was a little malnourished, so she had probably been out for a few days.  He estimated she was a year or two old.  I went to the two animal shelters near me and put her details and picture, and my contact info, in binders where lost dogs could be registered.  Nobody ever reached out, so I kept her and named her Lady because of her dainty and elegant bearing.

She was a sweetheart from day one.  Snuggled up with Charley, who was so gentle and kind to this strange dog who invaded her home.  I came home from work the first day after I found her and discovered giant holes dug all along my backyard fence.  They were so big, I immediately thought Charley had dug them, even though she had never done anything like that before, but it was Lady.  Turns out, she was a digger, escape artist, and runner, explaining what had happened with her previous owner.  We never had her genetically tested, but it was clear there was a lot of Dachshund in her, as well as Pomeranian.

Good thing I both tagged and chipped her, because numerous times over the next few years I had to leave work to pick her up after receiving a call from some kind soul when she found a new spot to dig out of the yard or someone left the gate open or just unlatched.

One time, I came home and she was nowhere to be found.  I eventually discovered a small hole she had dug to our neighbor’s yard, went over there and when he opened the door, there she was, acting like she lived there.

She was terrified of fireworks.  We had to crank up the volume on some action movie to try to mask the sounds, but even then, when some @$$hole set off an M80 nearby, she would turn into a quivering mess for hours.  One time, when we were out on the 4th of July before we realized the extent of her reaction, my daughter came home and she shot out the front door and was gone before Isabelle could do anything.  We searched the neighborhood but couldn’t find her until a nice couple snagged her and gave us a call.  She had managed to get across a very busy street unscathed.  We started to think she had some cat in her.

After a few years, I had fortified the perimeter of the yard and she never dug out again, but there were a few times she got out through the gate when it was left unsecured.

She was the sweetest dog I’ve ever met. She never barked, growled, or nipped at a human.  Any visitor to our home got a warm greeting with a huge smile and wagging tail.  If they sat on our couch, she’d immediately claim a leg to snuggle against.  She was not a fan of small critters, though, and there were multiple times she would casually trot by with a rat or bird in her mouth and I’d have to chase her to get it.  The last time, she was 13 years old.

She had a habit of being underfoot when we cooked which led to the occasional yelp.  We would chase her out of the kitchen, but she would quietly sidle back.  She loved kale and Teri would ‘accidentally’ drop a piece every now and then.  She would snatch it and run off to the family room rug to chomp away.  Her favorite food, though, was avocado.  We have a tree, and our neighbor has two, and when ripe avocados started falling, she was in heaven and would usually put on a few pounds.  She also loved peaches when they fell from our tree, but would swallow the pits, so we had to be careful.

We tried to get her to sleep in her dog bed, but she kept jumping up into ours, one time blowing out her knee, so we gave up.  When she got older, though she could still make the jump, I started lifting her up on the bed as a precaution.  She’d wait for me to lift her up, jumping up into my arms as I’d scoop her up, then I’d get in and she would often curl up next to me.  I’d give her final pet before drifting off.  Every morning when it was time to get up, she’d thrash around on the bed, snorting, until I gave her a belly rub.  If I stopped, she would immediately start up again, until I got out of bed.  I miss our routines terribly.

Like my post about Charley, here are few quick thoughts:

    • In our backyard, she peed normally, but when we went for walks, she peed like a male dog.  Lifted her leg, peed 12 times, the whole shebang.
    • Over the last two years or so, she was slowly losing her hearing which didn’t slow her down at all and was a blessing when it came to fireworks. After a point, she no longer reacted to them, even the loudest ones.
    • She wasn’t the brightest dog (though we’re not sure if she just faked it so she could get away with things, which would make her the smartest dog I ever had), but she learned a few hand gestures when she lost most of her hearing.
    • She was food crazy. A couple of years ago, due to some digestive issues our dog Darla was having, I switched to a food I had to rehydrate.  Lady could not stand waiting.  She would bounce around the room and even yap at me until she was finally fed.
    • It was impossible to force a pill down her throat. She had sharp little teeth she used to great effect.  Until I realized I could use avocado.  Worked like a dream.  I would take a little scoop of avocado, squish the pill in, and she swallowed it down in one gulp.
    • Our latest dog, Sammie, a goldendoodle, has separation anxiety and would tear up things in our house, including my beloved couch (which is a story for another day), when no one was home. I found that if I gave her a (fake) rawhide chew when we left, it would take the edge off and she was fine.  Of course, I couldn’t give only her a treat, so Lady and Darla got something, too.  I had to be careful with Lady, usually dropping the treat in front of her, because if I tried to hand it to her, she had no compunction about snapping a little of my finger as well.

About a year before she passed, she started having seizures. The vet thought she probably had a brain tumor and, if we could get the seizures under control, had at most a year to live, if we were lucky.  He put her on phenobarbital and it was like a miracle.  She didn’t have another seizure until her last.  She lived a normal life for a 14–15 year-old dog.  That’s why I wasn’t prepared when after a normal day and a normal night routine, I was woken up by her thrashing on the bed.  At first, I thought she was just begging for belly rubs, but when I reached to pet her, I knew it was a seizure.  At first, I wasn’t concerned.  I had always expected a breakthrough seizure, which would indicate we had to increase her dosage, and this one seemed like her past ones which would last about a minute or so.  The first one did, but then she had another one, then another, and after a few minutes, she had one that didn’t stop.  At that point, we scooped her up and took her to an emergency clinic.  They stopped the seizure, but felt she had had some kind of event, like a brain bleed.  Her temperature was so high that organ damage was inevitable.  Even if she survived, she would have a horrible quality of life.  We decided to put her to sleep.

It all happened so fast.  From the point of my waking up to her seizing to the end was less than a couple of hours.  The vet turned out to be prescient, it was about a year from the first seizure, but I had been lulled into a false since of complacency and hadn’t prepared myself.

She was, shall we say, not low maintenance.  I had to babyproof our bed with padding around the corners and an extra top sheet over the blankets or comforter.  The last year, I had to give her a pill twice a day with the scoop of avocado.  Now, I don’t have to do those chores and when it is time to do them, I miss her.

To know her was to lover her.  We’ll never forget the sweetest little girl whof fortuitously dropped into our lives.

A final thought:

I was reflecting on a question a lot of people ask me – will you keep having dogs?  I’ve always answered: “yes, because the love they give far outweighs the pain of losing them,” but I don’t think that’s quite the right answer, at least for me.  It’s the love they inspire in me for them that is most joyous about having dogs in my life.

I love loving my dogs.

So, yes, as long as I can ensure they are well cared for, I will continue to have dogs in my life.

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Women’s History Month on LinkedIn

I had such a great time last month writing about many of the amazing women who have touched my life in a series of posts on LinkedIn for #womenshistorymonth, I thought I would make them easily accessible here.

Katy Castagna

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I read a post recently that was liked by one of my connections celebrating several women in his organization for Women’s History Month. It made me think about the women in my life and career who influenced me so thought I would write about a few of them.

Today’s subject of my admiration is Katy Castagna, a remarkable woman who had a big impact on me. I met Katy in business school as we were working toward our MBAs. It’s impossible not to like Katy. She is warm, kind, smart, and dedicated to causes advocating for the betterment of people and the environment. You can get a sense of that just from her profile as she spent the last 17 years working her way up the ladder at United Way…

Sandra Lange

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In my second post for #womenshistorymonth, I’d like to highlight Sandra Lange, one of my dearest friends and who was key to the success of my business, Advanced Media Post.

I met Sandra when she was a runner for one of my clients. At AMP, we mainly made DVD masters for a variety of content owners and she worked for one of them, managing the vault and bringing over video tape masters and other assets for us to master into DVDs. We would chat when she would drop off the materials and I just grew to like her. She was (and is) friendly, direct, smart, funny, and just an all-around great person…

Stefanie Gamberg

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In my third post for #womenshistorymonth, let me tell you about Stefanie Gamberg, one of the smartest people I have ever met.

Stefanie and I interviewed for the same position at NBCUniversal. She got the job, but I ended up getting a different role. Frankly, she was a better fit for the original position so it was definitely a win-win…

Connie Mak

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In my fourth post for #womenshistorymonth, I’m going to extoll the virtues of Connie Mak, one of my favorite people, a great friend, and source of endless positivity.

I hired Connie at NBCUniversal to replace a great data analyst and friend, Rohit Vaswani. Rohit left some big shoes to fill and while Connie is a very different person than Rohit, she more than filled them – she made them her own…

Emily Case

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In my fifth post for #womenshistorymonth, I get to write about Emily Case, a delightful person who made coming to work an absolute pleasure.

When I think of Emily, the quality that stands out the most, other than her obvious intellect, is her unique sense of humor. Whether it is to break the ice, lighten the mood, or disarm others, she is keenly aware of how to use humor to the best effect. I credit her with keeping a working relationship with a 3rd party team from devolving into complete chaos with her light thoughtful touch. I was certainly no help in that situation. Anyone would be lucky to have her on their team…

Quick Shouts Out

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For my penultimate post for #womenshistorymonth, I wanted to give a few quick shouts out to a number of women with whom I have worked over the years. I didn’t know or keep in touch with them as well as the others about whom I’ve written, but all of them are smart, professional, and left a lasting impression on me…

Family – Mom, Teri, & Isabelle

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For my ultimate post on this last day of #womenshistorymonth, I’m going to the cliché of writing about my family.

Due to character count limitations, just a quick note about my mom. She was a kind generous soul who was beloved by almost everyone who met her and was, of course, the foundational influence on my life…

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An Empty Bed

We lost our beautiful English Springer Spaniel, Charlotte “Charley,” yesterday.  I know I am lucky to have had her in my life for the past 14 years, but right now it is difficult to get past how much I miss her.  Still, I don’t want to dwell on the end of her life, but rather remember what a sweet, loving, and smart companion she was.

Fair warning, this is going to be a long and somewhat rambling post as I write down some of my favorite memories of our Charley.

Charley was a good-natured dog, but she wasn’t a well-behaved dog.  She jumped for her food, counter-surfed, stole food off people’s plates, rooted through trash cans (spot a theme?), pulled on her leash, etc.

One time, she managed to steal a half-wheel of cornbread off the kitchen island and scarf it down before I even noticed.

Of course, that’s all on me.  I suck at training dogs and she was especially challenging because she was so smart.  Sometimes, she’d pretend to behave, only to turn around and do whatever she wanted when we weren’t looking.

My daughter Isabelle’s room was the only room in the house she was barred from consistently because Isabelle would often leave tasty, and accessible, scraps in her garbage can.  Even after she had become mostly deaf, Charley would somehow know when Isabelle would leave her door open and would very casually saunter over and start digging through the garbage.  We usually only knew she was in there when we would hear an outraged “Charley!” from Isabelle upon returning to her room.

Charley came into our lives after our 11-year-old rescue, Mimi, died of cancer.  I felt I had a limited window of opportunity to get a new dog because once my now ex-wife got used to not having a dog around, she might not want to get one again.  I was searching for dogs when she suggested a Springer Spaniel.  I’d had a Springer, Chaucer, during my teenage years, and spoken of him often, but hadn’t considered getting one due to their heavy shedding.  I immediately found an AKC breeder in Tombstone, Arizona, of all places, with a gorgeous black-white-tri-color female puppy available.  I couldn’t have designed a more adorable Springer.  Within hours I had put down my deposit and reserved her.  I only learned much later how lucky I was.  Most breeders, including this one, pre-sell their puppies and it can take many months to get one.  From some reason, the people who had reserved Charley had backed out and I just happened to hit the website at the perfect time.

A few weeks later I flew to Tucson and drove an hour to Tombstone to get her.  I was greeted by about eight friendly, beautiful, adult Springers and little nine-week-old Charley fearlessly running around with them.  I stuffed her into a pet carrier and headed back to Tucson.  She hated the carrier so I let her out and she promptly fell asleep on the passenger seat.  When we got home, after spending a few minutes checking out her new digs, she curled up on my son’s backpack and fell asleep again, foreshadowing a special relationship to come.  We couldn’t have asked for a more loving, affectionate dog. 

When she was a puppy, she slept in a crate and she would occasionally just go in there by herself (that didn’t last long).  One day, she came out of the crate trailing twenty-dollar bills.  Apparently, she had found a pack of them on a table we didn’t think she could reach.  We joked that we apparently had a dog made of money.

During my divorce, she was my great source of comfort.  I took her for long walks every morning, often before the sun rose.  When I moved out, she came with me.  With only 50% custody of my kids, and then my daughter and later my son going off to college, and Teri moving in just a few years ago, we were each other’s only true constants for 14 years.  It’s hard to contemplate the next 30 or 40 years without her right now.

About a year after she joined our family, we took a two-week volunteer trip to Costa Rica (one of the most meaningful experiences of my life), and we left Charley with my wife’s friend and colleague, Bev.  Up until then, Charley had slept in a dog bed in our bedroom, but Bev allowed her dogs to sleep in her bed and Charley quickly joined them.  Our first night back, she hopped up on our bed and that was that.  After the divorce, she slept in my bed tightly pressed against me.  If I shifted, she shifted with me.  I’d often wake up in the middle of the night in about 12 inches of space at the edge in my king bed, having unconsciously moved away from her looking for some breathing room but with her chasing me across the bed until there was nowhere to go.  I’d then shove her over and we’d start it all again, sometimes repeated several times a night.  A few years ago, she started sleeping in her dog bed again.

Although she was an active girl who loved her backyard, she was also a big couch potato and snuggler extraordinaire, with my son, DJ, as her favorite sleeping companion.  She loved her boy and missed him when he left for college.

Charley warmly welcomed Teri when she came into our lives.  She always greeted her enthusiastically when she came over and, after she moved in, met her at the door every night and sometimes even waited by the door when she was late.  After DJ left for college, Charley chose Teri as her new couch companion.  Her affection for Teri was very endearing.

Charley could be talkative.  She wasn’t a huge barker, but she had a howl that tapered off in a funny way if she wanted to get your attention.  Each summer for several years, we all went to one or two music festivals, and we had dog sitters come by a couple of times a day.  One night I received a frantic text in all caps:  SHE’S HOWLING AT ME!  I had to reassure the sitter that it just meant Charley liked her and wanted her attention (probably hungry).  I still chuckle about it.

A few quick thoughts:

  • She loved my father, who lives in New Jersey.  She was so excited to see him when he came to visit – jumping, twisting, pushing up against him, and furiously wagging her little stub of a tail.  It was always such a delight.  They had a game they played where she would “sneak” into the guest bedroom, snatch a sock and dive under the bed so he would have to get down and retrieve it from her.  Eventually, she grew too big to fit under the bed, so her head, with the sock, would be under, but her butt would stick up in the air, tail wagging.
  • She loved to drink water from the pool, but hated swimming.
  • She loved all the fruit from our backyard trees – mandarins, peaches, but especially avocados – and usually gained a few pounds during avocado season.
  • She was kind of an oaf. She would barge right in to drink at the water bowl and sometimes would jump onto the couch and actually sit on one of the other dogs.
  • At night, she always wanted to be the first to the bedroom, no idea why. When she guessed we were going to bed, she would trot down the hallway.  If one of us was ahead of her, she would speed up to slip by.  If she went too early, she would come back and peek around the corner to see where we were.

While she had been in a slow decline the last few months, she deteriorated rapidly during her last week of life.  On Friday, she didn’t eat her food for the first time, though she did take a few pieces of sliced turkey.  She looked terrible.  Drawn, eyes bulging a bit, unsteady on her feet.  In the afternoon, she wanted to go outside so I let her out into the backyard, but she went straight to the gate leading out to the front of the house, which was unusual.  I followed her out the gate and she wandered down the driveway and started trudging down the street.  Again, unusual.  I let her do as she pleased and she drifted down the street on wobbly legs, looking around a bit, sniffing here and there, but mostly just walking.  Worried about her safety, I turned her around and guided her home.  The thought occurred to me that she just wanted to take a last look around the neighborhood where she had walked many times.  I’m grateful I listened to her, because a few hours later, as she rested in her favorite spot on her mat underneath our entry table, she had the first of several grand mal seizures.  We took her to the ER, but it was time.

She died on this Saturday, a beautiful Southern California Winter day, at home, looking out over her beloved backyard and pool, surrounded by those who loved her and she loved.

Joe and Jill Biden have spoken of “an empty chair at the dinner table” to refer to their son Beau and those we have lost, and continue to lose, during the COVID-19 pandemic.  There is an empty bed in our bedroom now.  A bittersweet reminder of our loss, but also of the wonderful dog who graced our lives with so much joy for 14 years.  We’ll miss her forever.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 8 – Saturday, 12/26 – The Adventure Ends & Lessons Learned

The Plan

Drive back to SLC, drop DJ at the airport since he was taking a side trip to Idaho to visit a friend, drop off the Behemoth and fly back to LA.

The Reality

The day went mostly according to the plan with one thankfully minor hitch (which could have been much worse) along the way.

The Good

Other than the below, everything went smoothly.  Dropped off the Behemoth, an Uber picked us up and we arrived at the airport in plenty of time.  I even managed to get us into the Delta Sky Club so we could relax and snack while we waited for the flight.

The Bad

As we left Zion, the winds were amazingly fierce which led to some white-knuckle driving for a couple of hours.  Once past that, it was smooth sailing to SLC, which led me to let down my guard.  I had been a little concerned about driving the Behemoth into SLC airport, but we spent a little too much time at a truck stop gassing up and cleaning out the RV.  As we were driving in, we saw that the clearance was 13’ (the sticker on the Behemoth claimed it was 13.5′ tall)!  Six lousy inches and we only had about 20 minutes to get DJ there.  I admit I lost my cool for a few minutes.  It was the last straw on a challenging trip.  However, we got it together and Teri called the airport.  She managed to talk to someone who sent us to an alternate entrance.  When we got there, the attendant judged that the RV was not that tall and we could make through the normal route.  Holding our collective breath, we dropped DJ off at the first opportunity (he made his flight) and then inched our way under two pedestrian bridges without a problem.  When I dropped off the Behemoth, I calmly gave my feedback to the owner of the El Monte partner that he should have instructed us about the anti-freeze and the proper clearance height.  He couldn’t have cared less.

Final thoughts

In spite of the challenges, it was a wonderful trip which I don’t regret for a minute.  The parks are awesome and even more so in the snow.  I might not recommend taking your first RV trip in Utah in the winter, but we all, including the Behemoth, survived and we have some amazing photographs of a unique trip to memorialize my 50th birthday.  More photographs will appear on the site eventually.

As always, DJ was a remarkable help.  More often than not, he was the one who managed the hook-ups and other RV maintenance chores.

Lessons Learned:

  •  – Make sure the RV totally checked out before picking it up, perhaps avoiding the issue we had right out of the gate.
  •  – Know the exact vehicle clearance and check route for any issues.
  •  – Make sure to pre-check the route for any RV-unfriendly roads and make necessary adjustments.
  •  – If winter, use RV anti-freeze in gray and black tanks or get a RV with heated tanks.
  •  – Skip the kits sold at RV rental places and buy at Target or the equivalent. The RV rental places sell kits with basic necessities (personal kits with towels and sheets and kitchen kits with pots, pans, utensils, etc.).  They are junk and we only used about half or less of what we bought.  We would have been much better off spending that money at Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond, getting better quality products and just what we needed.
  •  – At RV parks, a water hookup and a waste dumping site are more important than power as long as the RV uses propane for heat, which I assume most do.
  •  – Costco hiking socks (Men/Women) are awesome. I couldn’t find the links on Costco.com, but they were much less expensive than shown on Amazon.
  •  – A clothesline inside the RV would have been handy.
  •  – Pick up a pack of cheap shop rags somewhere. Very handy and disposable.
  •  – Bring/buy a variety of containers of various sizes. While RV’s have a number of cabinets and drawers, it helps to have something to organize with, especially for small items which tend to move around a lot within the cabinets or on counter tops when driving.
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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 7 – Friday, 12/25 – Bryce, Zion & Turning 50

The Original Plan

See Zion National Park, celebrate my birthday, and stay either in the Watchman Campground at Zion or nearby.

 

The Revised Plan

See Bryce Canyon National Park in the morning and Zion National Park in the afternoon.

The Reality

The day went mostly according to the revised plan with one significant hitch along the way.

The Good

In spite of freezing temperatures and steady snow, we hiked out to two viewpoints on the rim of the Amphitheater at Bryce, Sunset and Sunrise Points, and drove to two more, Bryce and Inspiration.  The famous hoodoos were in full evidence and the park is breathtaking in the snow.  Due to the weather, we only spent a couple of hours there and, after getting some advice from the manager at the lodge, headed off to Zion.  Breaking free of the snow around Bryce was a relief and we were making good time to Zion when hit our major hitch of the day.  More on that below.

Zion was as spectacular as I remembered!  We were able to maneuver the Behemoth through the 6-mile Zion Canyon Scenic Drive stopping every few minutes to take pictures.  Parking was often a challenge, but in spite of being reasonably busy, we had no real trouble.  Trails were mostly too icy to hike, but we packed a lot of sightseeing into the time we had there.  Again, being at the bottom of the massive Zion cliffs and rock structures was just awesome.

We celebrated my birthday dinner at Oscars Café, an excellent Mexican restaurant right outside of Zion in Springdale.  Everything was good, but try the carrot cake, you won’t be disappointed.

We stayed in the Zion River Resort, a terrific campground about 30 minutes outside of Zion.

The Bad

When we got to UT-9 to drive into Zion, we discovered that high profile vehicles needed special escort because the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel is too shallow on the sides for any vehicle over 11’ 4” tall (the Behemoth was supposedly 13.5’ tall).  They have to stop traffic from the opposite direction so you can drive down the center of the tunnel.  Unfortunately, due to weather (though we were first told it was due Christmas), they had suspended escorts when we arrived.  Fortunately, we figured that out before we drove about 10 miles to the mouth of the tunnel.  Unfortunately, the only other route was a 100 mile detour south on US-89 into Arizona, west on AZ-389, northwest on UT-59 and back to UT-9 on the other side of Zion.  That little hiccup cost us two precious hours and I was steamed that the manger in Bryce hadn’t mentioned the issue with the tunnel.  If she had, we could have taken an alternate route which might have saved us an hour.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 6 – Thursday, 12/24 – Frozen Tanks

The Plan

Drive to Bryce Canyon National Park then back to Escalante Petrified Forrest State Park for our second night in the campground.

The Reality

Spent the day thawing the gray and black water tanks which had frozen overnight and then drove to Bryce to spend the night (for some of us) at The Lodge at Bryce Canyon.

The Bad

Woke up in the morning to two problems – DJ was sick with terrible stomach and head aches and our gray (shower and sink drains) and black (toilet) water tanks had frozen which we knew because the drains in the shower and sinks started to back up.  This was the most frustrating aspect of the trip since I had realized this was a risk and had asked at El Monte how to deal with the problem.  His advice, and the instructions in the manual, simply said to never let the tanks get more than two-thirds full (the gauges for all the tanks are in thirds).  I realize now that the point of that was that if they did freeze, since water expands when it freezes, the tanks and pipes wouldn’t burst.  I kick myself for not doing more research on the subject since we quickly found out that that there is inexpensive RV anti-freeze which can be poured into the tanks to prevent this issue.

Regardless, knowing we were going to remain in sub-freezing weather for the foreseeable future, we realized we had to thaw them out before we could do anything else.  First, we went to a local hardware store, Do It Best Escalante Home Center, on Christmas Eve Day and bought a drain snake, but that couldn’t break through the ice in the pipes.  Second, we tried dumping hot water down the drains and over the pipes under the Behemoth – fail.  For each attempt we had to drive back and forth to the campground because we had to be positioned at the dump site before we tried anything in case it worked and the tanks cut loose.  Third, after consulting El Monte and some online research, we decided to buy a space heater and position it under the Behemoth and see if it would thaw the tanks.  I was concerned because it was still below freezing as well as windy with the occasional snow flurry, so I had no idea if it would work.

The Good

Fortunately, back at the hardware store, minutes before they closed for the holiday, we met Reed Munson, a gentleman in every sense of the word.  He loaned us a couple of concrete blankets, which are like large fiberglass comforters, used to facilitate drying concrete, which we wrapped around the bottom of the Behemoth while the heater was running.  After about an hour-and-a-half, we tried again and the tanks drained.  The black tank was never the same after that, always reading at least one-third full, but we simply dumped every chance we had and it worked out.

DJ was a total trooper, helping out occasionally even though he didn’t feel well.

Since we had lost most of the day, we decided to get a room at The Lodge at Bryce Canyon where the kids, both of whom were not feeling well, would sleep while Teri and I stayed in the Behemoth.  It was another treacherous drive through snow and ice to Bryce, but we got there without incident.  We all took advantage of the shower in the room and planned to get an early start on the next day since we would be covering both Bryce and Zion.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 5 – Wednesday, 12/23 – Natural Bridges & Capitol Reef

The Original Plan

Drive from Bluff to Natural Bridges National Monument, hit Capitol Reef National Park and then on to Escalante Petrified Forrest State Park Campground.

The Revised Plan

Drive north to Natural Bridges National Monument, hit Capitol Reef National Park and then on to Escalante Petrified Forrest State Park Campground.

The Reality

Here’s where I made my second rookie RV mistake.  I didn’t check our revised route (163N to 261N to UT-95) for any sections closed to large vehicles.  Turns out there is just such a section on the 261, so we had to turn around and drive back through Bluff to pick up UT-95.  The detour cost us about 45 minutes, which would have been avoided had we just stayed in Bluff.  No regrets.  Goulding’s Campground in Monument Valley will likely turn out to be our favorite RV park of the trip due to the spectacular view from our slip.

The Good

The entire ride from Monument Valley to Natural Bridges was beautiful though we did run into a snow storm about half way there.  Natural Bridges is gorgeous.  You can watch a brief video at the Visitors Center about how the bridges are formed.  Not sure if it was due to the snow and ice on the ground, but I actually had trouble seeing two of the bridges at first, but after a few seconds of staring, was able to clearly make them out, kind of like looking at those old 3D prints.  Natural Bridges is a gorgeous park and well worth the visit.

We arrived at Capitol Reef late in the day and only got a glimpse.  As we drove up to the Visitor Center, we saw the petroglyphs carved by the Fremont people roughly 1,000 years ago.  A unique and very cool element of the trip!

The main road through the park is not RV friendly (there are shuttle during normal business hours), but what we were able to see of the massive cliffs and canyons was amazing.  It reminded me a bit of Zion (which I visited when I was a teenager).  Up until now, we were either overlooking canyons or seeing mesas and plateaus from a distance.  This is the first time we were up close and personal at the bottom of massive cliffs like these and it was awesome.

The ride from Natural Bridges to Capitol Reef was challenging. While driving through our second snowstorm of the day, I also had to deal with snow and ice on the road from a recent snowstorm or two.  It was one of the longer legs of our trip and I had to drive very slowly.  Fortunately, we saw very few other vehicles on the journey so my slow driving didn’t get in anyone else’s way.

We wanted to grab dinner at a restaurant before driving on the Escalante, but we found the majority of restaurants in that area were closed for the season.  We did find a place that was serviceable.

The trip from Capitol Reef to Escalante Petrified Forrest was even more hazardous than the trip’s previous leg.  Dark, rain, snow, ice, narrow roads, and herds of deer dashing out into the road made for a frightening drive.  When we finally reached Escalante, Google took us off course into a residential area until we corrected and found the campground.  Teri joked that she wondered if when some of the residents see headlights flash by their windows late at night they get a good laugh at the Google-misled tourists.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 4 – Tuesday, 12/22 – Bluff Fort & Monument Valley

The Plan

Drive south to Bluff, Utah, check in at the RV park, visit Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and return to Bluff for the night.

The Reality

Headed down to Bluff and checked in at the RV park I had reserved.  We then visited the Bluff Fort Historic Site which was mostly a re-creation of the original settlement.  After that, we continued on to Monument Valley and ultimately decided to stay near Monument Valley instead of returning to Bluff.

The Good

Bluff Fort was surprisingly interesting.  We watched a fascinating documentary which told the tale of the Mormon pioneers tasked with settling this area in the east part of Utah.  The trip from Parowan in southwest Utah to Bluff through the famous Hole in the Rock  and across, as they put it, some of the most “broken” geography in the world, was originally estimated to take 6 weeks, but took 6 months.  I highly recommended checking this out if you ever find yourself passing through Bluff.

Monument Valley is stunning.  We braved high winds just walking to and taking pictures from the Visitors Center.  Hiking was simply impossible.  After reviewing possible alternative routes to Natural Bridges National Monument (our next destination planned for tomorrow), instead of trekking back to Bluff, we decided to stay at the Goulding’s RV Campground which offered a spectacular view of Monument Valley with clear skies and a nearly full moon.  Awesome!

The Bad

Frankly, was underwhelmed with the RV park in Bluff, which contributed to our staying in Monument Valley.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 3 – Monday, 12/21 – Canyonlands

The Plan

Visit Canyonlands National Park.

The Reality

Got the call from El Monte in the morning and dropped the Behemoth off at a local repair place.  While the RV was being fixed, had brunch at Sweet Cravings.  Fortunately, the Behemoth was repaired by noon.  We saw my father and Susan off and headed out to Canyonlands.  Just in case, we decided to stay at the Moab Valley RV Resort again instead of the more remote, and waterless, Dead Horse Campground.

The Good

Canyonlands is stark and beautiful and exceeded our expectations.  It is like a smaller Grand Canyon, but frankly more beautiful with a more varied topography.  We visited the Island in the Sky district which was the one most accessible from Moab.  It was cold and windy and we had to navigate some snow and ice covered paths and trails, but it was worth every moment.  Hiking the trail from the first to second viewpoints at Upheaval Dome with the snow, ice, cold and wind was a thrill!

We had a terrific dinner at the Sunset Grill in Moab.  The specialty is prime rib and it was excellent.

The Bad

Only the lost time due to the RV repair.  Otherwise, a great day.

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Utah Mighty 5 RV trip, Day 2 – Sunday, 12/20 – Family & Arches

The Plan

Visit Arches National Park with my father and Susan and have dinner together to celebrate my birthday.

The Reality

We drove to a private RV park, Moab Valley RV Resort, to fill our fresh water tank which they were kind enough to let us do for free.  After filling up, we drove to the Hampton Inn where my father and Susan were staying and we all piled into his car for a trip to Arches.

The Good

We took a ride up Highway 128 which is a gorgeous scenic byway and managed to get in some photography before having lunch at Sweet Cravings Bakery + Bistro.  After lunch, we drove through Arches, which was spectacular!  My father, as I mentioned elsewhere on my site, is a fantastic amateur photographer, so having him along (and his having pre-scouted the trip) allowed us to maximize our viewing and photographing the amazing Arches.  We had a great time hitting each of the major viewpoints and taking tons of pictures.

We had a lovely dinner at Jeffrey’s Steakhouse in Moab.

The Bad

At the Hampton Inn, we noticed that the fresh water was leaking out of the Behemoth.  I called El Monte’s roadside assistance and they told me that they would make an appointment for the next day to get it repaired.  We decided to move to the Moab Valley RV Resort so we could hook up to the continuous water supply (“city water” in RV parlance).  Unfortunately, the problem was located in a part of the water system which leaked regardless of whether the water came from the tank or city water, so we had to be careful and only turn on the water from the outside when we needed it.  It was a better situation than Dead Horse and, again, we made do.