Sunday 5/19 – Wednesday 5/21
Kaibab, AZ
As they say, climate change is a bitch. With the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, and three other stupendous national parks in our vicinity, temperatures dropped, rain fell, hail formed, and snow-coated. We weighed the value of our days vs the misery of being outside in the snow and decided to wait it out a day or two.
Lucky for us, we found the cutest little campsite. Essentially a large parking lot (very RV heavy), but with free shower and a cute lil living room with a kitchen (our stove broke, RIP maximo) and free wifi.
I don’t know if we look approachable or what but, everyone over 40 loves to tell us their life stories and philosophies so, in this “campground” “lounge”, we listened a lot.
My fear is that these travelers have lost ears. Their travel buddies don’t want to hear their thoughts because they already have. They don’t want to hear about their travels because they were there. Or, they travel alone and rarely meet anyone willing to listen. Maybe they just like talking and meeting people but…I worry. The road can be a lonely place.
Anyway, a sampling of things we’ve heard is in order: oxalates are killing you, rabbits have a lot of personality and make great pets, traveling with a tent+car can make you appear homeless (maybe you are legally?), most of the woodstock performers are dead, we are designed to consume mostly fat like the cows, six dogs can fit in an RV if you share the bed, canvas tents are the best (p debatable), you can sustain yourself on poker but backgammon may be better, etc
With time to kill, one of these motley characters gave us a way to fill it. She had abandoned her previous life and sold her home to live in an RV and work at Best Friends Humane Society. This is a huge huge animal sanctuary in Kanab Utah currently housing ~400 dogs, ~600 cats, wild life, horses, pigs, goats, birds, and bunnies. The Sanctuaries mission is to end euthanization in shelters, so they take the “undesirables” that other shelters view as a burden, who are unlikely to be adopted.
We were convinced to go on a tour of the facility (easy to convince us to look at dogs and cats at no cost). When the tour ended, I asked if they had room for volunteers tomorrow, they did. Notably, they have a huge amount of volunteers, people travel a distance. They even have lodging and you can do programs that last weeks.
We were assigned to cats and spent four hours with the some of the sweetest sweeties there are. Somehow we managed to leave without a cat. I regret it sometimes. The day was killed and died a happy death. We hiked the property and napped like felines immediately after.
Van-ish 