Lutherwood Campground, Utah - Worth the Drive

Here is the road next to our boondock near Parowan Gap.  A shepherd was based there to look over a large flock of sheep.  He saw us and didn't bother us.

We're still stuck in Utah due to a botched oil change that destroyed the engine of the SUV.  The SUV isn't done yet.  We stayed at that nice little side boondock near Parowan Gap for one dump cycle, and then moved on.

This morning our water tank was empty and our grey and black tanks were full.  I thought there was a TA Center near the boondock to use as a dump station, but it had closed.  Just like the Staples and numerous other businesses I see around Cedar City.  Not sure what that's about...

That's probably for the best anyway, because while I know you can shower at the TA, I don't know if they provide water for me to fill my tank.

I digress from what I wanted to talk about though.  Right now is a heat wave.  I'm not in the danger zone, per se, but I am in the 97-101 degree zone.  Our max boondocking temp is 94 (Fahrenheit of course, I'm a Celsius-impaired American) and even that is pushing it.  I decided we probably want to wait this out at a campground.

Technically the garage should be paying for this, since we were supposed to be well on the way to Carson City by now.  On the other hand, they don't want to pay for it (I presume) and for me to get them to pay for it I'm going to have to make myself a pain in their asses.  And I would rather just pay for stuff myself and not have stress and conflict in my life.  If I can gamble $100 at a casino without blinking then I should also be able to put $100 towards the 'life with less confrontation' account.

I should be penny-pinching because my book sales plummeted.  I bombed with my foray into Paranormal Romance.  It's so sad...it was such a great book.   Anyway...I'll bounce back, and I have savings for lean times.  I just hope they don't extend more than a month.

The campgrounds around Cedar City are outrageously expensive.  The Koa was $65 a night!  However there are two Passport America parks in range.  The Red Ledge RV park was the first choice because it was less than $15/day with the discount.  I called them twice now and they're always booked.  This is even before I mention I'm using the 50% off program.  A campground as cheap as this is in high demand here.  I couldn't get a spot.

The other Passport America park is Camp Lutherwood, a Lutheran RV park in the mountains.  I considered this the less ideal choice because 1.  Driving the rig up and down mountains stink (see my prior post about brakes on fire).  and 2.  The Passport America discount is only for the first day.  However, they have no hook-up spots for $15 a day, which is the same as the Passport America rate.  At a 7,500 foot elevation (yeah, feet, I'm also metric-impaired) it should be cool enough not to need the A/C even in a heat wave.

Here's one of the gorgeous green mountains around Camp Lutherwood.  We are officially out of the desert.

 As for driving in the mountains I started downshifting gears as I went downhill.  I really hope I'm shifting correctly.  When I crested the mountain I shifted to 3 and then went back to D when I started back up hill.  For a steeper decline I shifted from D to 3 to 2.  And then we had a really steep decline with a sign that warned us of the steep grade ahead.  I shifted from D to 3 to 2 to 1.  I didn't have to use my brakes much to keep at a decent speed.  They didn't catch on fire.

I'm in a full-hook up spot right now at Camp Lutherwood to dump tanks and take on water.  Tomorrow I'll move to a no hook-up spot to save money.

Here we are.  The building is the showerhouse.

I'm glad we ended up here.  It's beautiful.  The camphost is a total sweetheart.  There's wifi and good satellite.  It's cool enough to be comfortable.  The shower room, right next to us, was really nice.  Better than most campgrounds I've been to.  I really just want to stay here until the SUV is done.

Another picture of the RV park.

Speaking of (and yeah, I know I'm meandering a lot with this post) we swung by Cedar City on the way to this campground to restock our groceries.  I stopped at the mechanic which I forgot would be closed on Sunday.  The SUV is safe inside one of their garage bays.  The old engine is out and lying on a wooden skid.  The front hood was removed and on top of the SUV's luggage rack.  Things seem to be well underway.  :)

We're seeing what life would be like without our follow car.  I do like having my mother safe beside me when we're driving.  I don't like having no ability to explore or run errands between moves.  Someone once suggested that I just put in my slides and drive the RV around.  It's just not a good option.

First of all, we're not just putting in the slides to get ready to move.  We have to batten down the hatches.  Everything that can fall, like this computer I'm typing on right now, has to be put somewhere secure.  All the stuff blocking the slides, like the carpet in the kitchen, has to get moved out of the way.  Kitchen stuff.  Bathroom stuff.  It all has to be put where it's not going to fall.  All the windows and skylights have to be closed.  Cat food and water has to be put where it can't spill.  All the stuff on the sofa has to go under the dinette.  The stuff on the dinette has to go into velcroed containers.  The TV has to get latched.  The step to my bed has to be stowed.  Etc. etc.  It's a 20 minute ordeal getting ready for a move--and that's when we're not even hooked up.  (My mom usually does everything the morning of a move while I sleep in.  I write late into the night).

Then using the RV as a car comes with it's own challenges.  Driving to supermarkets or big box stores is usually fine, but what about doctor's appointments?  Or when we're in a town that only has a small market?  Or restaurants?  Or...just about anywhere else that isn't a big box store or supermarket.  I can't take a 31 foot RV into tight spaces.  I will hit someone's car.

But we were able to get into a Smith's Supermarket for groceries and to top off our gas.  I'm on a diet of 1,800 calories per day and have stuck with it by getting off one of my antidepressants that had been spiking my appetite.  I don't know how much I should really talk about my depression on this blog.  I'm not trying to be a bummer, but my brain just doesn't fire on all cylinders like it should.  I'm back on the dosage and antidepressant I was on before my crisis last year.  (When I drove to Mexico to get new medication).  Yeah.  It only helps my symptoms by 50%, but I'd rather be half depressed and under 200 pounds (once again...screw the metric system) than totally chill and too fat to function.  It's give and take in this life.  :(  Hopefully I can keep things under control.

Here's another beautiful green view at the camp.  My craptastic camera does not do the views justice.

Little RV on the Prairie

So.  We're still in Utah.

We're most definitely here against our will.  :sigh:  I've had a day to get over the shock and terror of recent events so I'm just going to summarize here and be done with it:

While at the mechanic in Cedar City we got oil changes on the RV and SUV.  As we were driving out back towards Pioche the SUV's engine seized.  They did not put any oil in it.  I guess the mechanic got distracted and forgot that last part.  :sighs again:

So yes.  The engine in our SUV was destroyed.

They are replacing the engine (without any fight from us, to their credit).  So we are stuck in Utah for another two weeks without our follow car.

Last night they paid for us to stay in a nearby KOA.  I saw that the cost was $68/night and I felt bad, so we moved out of there to boondock.  Yes, I know they screwed up, but they were good with us through mostly the whole repair situation.  Mistakes happen.  They're already paying upwards of $3,000 for a replacement Nissan Armada engine + labor.  I wasn't going to twist the knife by making them pay another $1,000 for us to stay two weeks at that expensive KOA.  Especially when we normally boondock anyway.

I hunted out a boondock that would not require us to travel upwards at a right angle the way it felt like when we were navigating the Dixie National Forest.  We're at Parowan Gap near a petrogylph site.  I guess petrogylphs are pictures carved in the rock by ancient people.  We didn't take pictures of that so let me describe it:  it's a rock with pictures on it carved by ancient people.

Here we are, sans SUV.

We planned on boondocking in the petroglyph site's parking lot.  It was full with a bunch of white vans from Texas for some reason.  There really wasn't any place there to park a 31' RV.  So we drove down a dirt road and found a level area in some grass by a fire pit.  Much more private and remote than the petroglyph parking lot.  It's BLM (Bureau of Land Management) so we can camp free here for up to 14 days.  Rumor has it there's a TA Center nearby where we can do our dumps and take showers (hopefully get water also).

Loneliness and desolation surrounds us.  Here's a tree symbolic of my state of mind.

This is 14 miles from the repair shop so we'll probably just hang out here until we get the car back.  The mechanic asked if we could continue our RV travels for two weeks while they work on the car.  I said no.  We need our follow car.  We're in the boonies and big RVs are not a suitable vehicle for buying groceries and the like.

My mom and I both agree.  We have a great set-up.  We put the RV where we plan to live for a while, and we go exploring with our nimble little SUV.  Since we're two drivers I never have to tow, and the SUV is great.  It's easy for us to drive and...and...

OH GOD MY POOR LITTLE SUV!  HOW COULD THE FORGET TO PUT OIL IN IT!  I LOVE THAT CAR SO MUCH!  THEY DESTROYED MY BABY!!!

Ahem.  Okay.  We're fine.  Everything's fine.

Also...sheep?  Why are there sheep here?  One was shorn so they ain't feral. Free range sheep?

Craziness...and Dixie National Forest

We stayed 8 days at the free campground in Pioche and then planned to go to the Dixie National Forest near Cedar City.

Okay...this area is gorgeous.  Breathtaking.  The mountains were textured walls of rock around us with cedar and pine growing precariously on any smidgen of dirt the roots could find on sheer precipices.  Some mountains were red.  Some were grey with pockholes.  Some were piles of boulders that looked like the Rock Biter from Never Ending Story.  Some were bluish.  Around that were seas of glorious green...

I should have took pictures, because they would have been amazing.  I'm sorry I let you down, but I have a good excuse.

We're going up the mountain road into the forest and climbing...and climbing...and climbing.  I'm not kidding.  It's 20+ miles of a 6% grade upwards.  My mom does not do well with heights.  On one side of us is hugegantic mountain rock wall.  On the other side is a steep (and I mean STEEP) drop into a verdant valley that dives for what has to be MILES downward.  We climbed to the fricking clouds for God's sake!

After huffing and puffing upwards for 20 miles, with nothing but incline ahead of us, I started to fear we would get altitude sickness.  I'm not being overly dramatic, either.  When I pulled over my mother looked green.  At first I thought it was because she'd looked to her right and seen the drop.  Fortunately that's her blind eye and she'd been oblivious to the bottomless pit.  She said she was having trouble breathing.

Well, right as we started the climb was the first camp site.  Small.  Close to the road.  Not very level.  But it seemed a better option than pushing higher.  I said let's go down ten miles and just camp there.  Where we were was too high, and we still have 4 miles to go.

On the way down my mom could see the drop and slowed down to drive extra careful.  I had to slow down too, but the camper wanted to fly down the hill.  So I had to ride on the break to make sure I didn't lose her.

After a while I'm smelling smoke.  Is there a forest fire?

I ask my mom if she smells smoke on the walkie-talkie but the mountains are messing us up.  If we're around a curve from each other she can't hear me.

I passed the campground and pull into a recreation area to turn around.  A white car pulls next to me.

"Your brakes are on fire."

...

...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

My mom pulls next to me wondering why we stopped.  I go to the back of the RV and I smell it. 

Oh my God...what have I done?

My mom says to call a tow truck.  I say we go up the mountain a little and pull into the camp site.  This place we're at is private property (some resort business) and there are signs all around saying no overnight parking.

She says no.  She says her brakes caught fire once and they incinerated away.  In her mind I had no brakes left.

But I knew I had *something* because I'd managed to stop to make the turn. 

We agreed that we would go up to the camp site, get online, and see about what to do.  We just couldn't stay where we were.

So we get there and I open my computer to see if there's mobile RV service that can come up and fix my brakes.

Hey...guess what?  You'll never guess. 

We had no Internet. 

There was no bars on the hotspot.  My mom's phone couldn't get a bar either.  We had no satellite for the TV either.

UGH. 

Well, there was one thing that got a signal...GARMIN!  Yes, my annoying little GPS was able to fight through the mountains.  She told us that there was an RV service center we could go to in Cedar City.

So we spent the night in the campground with the plan to drive into town tomorrow to be able to use Internet again.  (I had work to do). 

The place we were at was beautiful.  If beauty was our priority we would have loved it.  But I need to work.

This morning we went to A-Kicking Tire Truck & Automotive in Cedar City, formerly Desert Automotive and RV Service.  I can't recommend this place enough.  They really took care of.  One of the owners told us to bring in the RV and they'd service it within the hour.

So we drove back up the mountain and I got the RV and brought it there.  I told him to check the SUV's brakes first, because it smelled smokey too.

We needed new rooters.  Our brake pads were fine for another three months, maybe.  I told him him to go ahead and replace them.  As they're doing this they find that a calper melted and cracked.  Okay, so we only had one brake working on one side.  Argh.  We had him change the oil, too, since it was due.  So we're up to $400+ on the SUV and they haven't even looked at the RV yet.

They changed the oil on the RV.  The manual says every 7,500 miles, but it was filthy and needed a change at under 4,000 miles.  I'm guessing we need to change it every time we do the SUV's oil.

Then they looked at the brakes.

They were fine.

@_@  WHAT?

"Your brakes look good.  You can tell they got hot, but they're still in great condition."

WHOOHOO!!!  So it was just the SUV that needed repairs.  We're glad we got that taken care of.  We want our vehicles to last, and for them to run well. 

The shop didn't have the calper we needed replaced.  We're camping in their parking lot until Monday when they get the part in.  It's concrete, noisy, exhaust smelling, with non-stop traffic going by...AND WE LOVE IT!

Because we have Internet again.  ;o;