Day 119 - Sunday - Cedar City for the First Time this Year
Time to pack up and leave for a short and hopefully
uneventful 22 mile drive that will take us down 5,000 ft in altitude. We get everything in its place, pull in the
slideouts and reassure the cats. We've
used the leveling jacks this time and Vicky greases them before I retract
them. They all come up with no problem
but the control panel is telling me jacks are still down.
There will be no problem driving since we know the jacks are
up, but for the first 2 miles or so, and intermittently thereafter, we get loud
warning bells from the system. Even
though we know it's crying wolf, I do stop to check that the jacks are up -
they are.
We've decided not to hook up the car until we get out of the
boondocks and back to the place 2 miles down the road where we unhitched on the
way up, so Vicky drives the car to the parking area and Quill, Cosette and I
get to listen to the warning bells from the jack system. The noise stops just before I pull up near Vicky,
and we hook up the car and check that everything is working.
The forecast is for sun and clear skies, but winds of 20mph
or more after 12 noon, so we set out
soon after 11am for the short
trip. Nevertheless, by the time we start
the twisty downhill stretch on Utah Route 14, it's already noon. Fortunately
since we're traveling though mountain country, there are no nasty crosswinds or
even tail winds, so no problem there.
I pull over in the brake check area and let several cars
pass me, then set off downhill. I have 2
controls on the RV to help preserve the brakes on deep downhills. The first turns off the overdrive and the
second drops us yet another gear. I
engage both of these right away but still have to use the brake to keep us down
to 35mph which is all I feel comfortable with driving 22,000lbs of RV pulling a
car on this 7% or more slope. A line of
vehicles builds up behind me but there's nothing I can do about it. Most of them manage to pass me on one or
another of the few straight stretches of road and eventually, about 2 miles
short of the bottom of the hill, when both Vicky and I think we smell the
tires, we find a safe place to pull over.
I open up the engine compartment - it's not hot - and we
check the tires. The monitor says the pressures
are in the range we expect although the temperature of the tires is a little
high. We both walk around and feel the
tires - nothing particularly hot, although the hub of the driver side front
tire is very hot. The monitor says it's over
120 degrees which would be very worrying if it were the tire itself, and as we
stay parked it increases to about 138 degrees.
Vicky is concerned about this but I point out that we're not moving and
the car is in direct sunlight - and the air temperature at this lower altitude
is much higher, so I'm not overly worried.
While we're there 2 other RVs pull over. One had been following us down the hill and
he comes over when he sees I have the engine cover open. The other - a gentleman from Quebec,
had stopped to unhitch his tow car before attempting the uphill climb. He comes over and gives us some good advice
about changing down to second or even first gear on steep hills and we're able
to reciprocate by sharing good places to camp with him.
After a while we resume the downward journey and Vicky
announces that the tire temperatures are going down. The last 5 miles into Cedar
City are relatively flat and we
traverse them, and the mile down Main Street
with no problem and arrive at the KOA campground where we'll spend the next 3
nights. We get a nice pull though site
with full hookups. The first thing we do
is dump our wastewater tanks which are close to full after almost a week of
"dry" camping, and fill up our fresh water tank which is totally
empty. Since it's 80 degrees here we
both jump into the shower and feel much better after that.
Vicky, Quill and Cosette all lie down for a rest, which I
work on updating this blog and check the email.
We decide to have an early dinner at Milt's Stage Stop, a steakhouse 5
miles back up UT14. This is a place
where we splurge once every year. The
steaks are tender, juicy and cooked just how you like them, and are accompanied
by a bountiful salad bar and a choice of side.
Vicky opts for a baked potato while I savor the buffalo chips. These are slices of potato, deep fried and
coated with a mixture of spices. They're
just as unhealthy and as delicious as they sound.
But it's not the food, as flavorful as it is, that makes
Milt's special. Their restaurant backs
onto the forest and has large picture windows.
Outside each of these windows they hang hummingbird feeders. We get there early and ask for a window table
so we can enjoy these "little miracles" as Vicky calls them. If you know anything about hummingbirds you
know they're fiercely territorial - but not here. Each feeder has 5 slots and it's not unusual
to see all 5 slots occupied and 2 or 3 other birds waiting their turn. In fact, at one point we see two hummingbirds
politely alternating at the same feeding spot.
Vicky brought her hummingbird guide and we're able to
identify various species, including broad tailed, black chinned and the more
rare rufous hummingbirds. I have the
camera and am able to capture them (not literally!). A very special experience as always.
We return to Cedar
City and the RV park. By the way there are no cedar trees within
miles of here. Apparently the original
Mormon settlers mistook the local juniper trees for cedars and named the city. Later arrivals asked where the cedars were
and pointed out the error but the name stuck.
When the National Monument was declared in 1933 they elected to go with
the historic name even though it's not accurate.
We make friends with some of our overnight neighbors, a
couple from Texas who had trouble
with the high winds today but survived the trip. They are into horses so Vicky has a great
conversation with them about that. One
of the great things about the RV lifestyle is that you make lots of new
friends, although so far none have been long-lasting friendships.
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